City: Cordova, TN

Category: Health Care

Telephone: (901) 757-4646

Address: 8200 Old Dexter Road

Description: Shelby County, which operates 50 schools with almost 45,000 students, includes the lion’s share of middle- and upper-income areas, with virtually no poverty. Memphis City Schools is the largest school system in Tennessee and the 21st-largest school district in the nation, operating over 190 schools with an enrollment of nearly 120,000. In 2007–2008, the system functioned on an operating budget of over $900 million. Memphis City schools are a mixed bag, so each school must be considered on its own merits. For example, White Station High School in East Memphis is considered one of the best college-prep schools in the United States and routinely has the most National Merit semifinalists of any public school in Tennessee. In 2005 Newsweek listed White Station High School as one of the “Best High Schools in America.” Yet in 2001, after the Tennessee Department of Education toughened some of its criteria, some 64 city schools were identified by the department as low performers and in danger of being placed on probation. That spurred a statewide charter-school movement and in 2003 the development of a master plan for improvement. Many of these troubled schools face significant challenges, including locations in impoverished, crime-ridden sections of the metropolitan area and parents who in many cases don’t get involved with their children’s education or schools. The same schools usually have a high percentage of students qualifying for free or subsidized school lunches. The city school system also offers an optional program at 33 schools, with enrichment curriculums ranging from fine arts to engineering, and from international business to aviation technology. Academically qualified students can attend optional programs within a regular city school; in other words, while they attend a regular school, they take enrichment courses not offered to the rest of the school’s population. Optional programs are available at no extra charge to residents of the district, but students living outside the district clamor and compete for a limited number of slots. To attend an optional program in a city school, noncity residents pay $600 per year, Tennessee residents outside Shelby County pay $2,600, and out-of-state residents pay $5,300. For example, Overton High School offers the area’s only creative- and performing-arts optional high-school program. Students must have good grades, conduct, and attendance records, plus they must pass rigorous audition standards to be admitted to the program. About 600 of Overton High’s 1,400 students are enrolled in the creative- and performing-arts program at the school, which also offers honors, advanced placement, and standard courses in English, mathematics, and other subjects as well as business education and vocational courses. One of the city district’s most exciting programs is its charter schools, intended to improve the quality of education. Ten of them are now holding classes, including Soulsville, in cooperation with STAX, and the Memphis Academy of Science & Engineering, operated by the Memphis Biotechnology Foundation and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. There, the emphasis is on science, math, and engineering, with students spending part of each day with scientists and UT faculty. Entry to these schools is competitive, and parents are expected to take an active role. The Shelby County school system includes all areas of the county outside the Memphis city limits, including the incorporated towns of Arlington, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Lakeland, and Millington. It’s the fourth-largest school system in the state, and in 2007–2008 it had a budget of $325 million. The Shelby County government has spent at least $1.5 billion on public education since 1990: $1.1 billion in operations and $400 million in capital improvements. Because every property owner in the city of Memphis pays taxes to the city and the county, a major portion of tax collections from the county find their way back to city schools. In order to comply with laws requiring county government to equally fund students in both systems, 70 percent of county tax collections for education go to the city. That means that half of every dollar collected in property taxes and 100 percent of the local sales taxes support public education. For more information about Memphis City Schools, contact the student information office at (901) 416-6649. You can also check out the city schools’ Web site at www.mcsk12.net. For more information on Shelby County Schools, call (901) 321-2500 or check out the system’s Web site at www.scsk12.org.