Greater Memphis School Systems: Will Memphis City Schools become County Schools?

One night driving to Urban Revitalization Planning class, the Memphis City School board was having one of its regular meetings. I was listening from the middle of the broadcast and couldn't really understand what they were talking about: special school district?, property taxes?, relinquishing the school charter?! What no Memphis City Schools?

In a recent Memphis Flyer article, the Shelby County School system threatend to become a special school district after a raise of property taxes were suggested to repay the debt to MCS the city had incurred from refusing release education funds. For Memphis and Shelby County, it's the funding formula that ties the city and county schools together but places a heavier tax burden on Memphis than the suburbs.

White flight from the urban core during the 1960s and 1970s caused a shift in school enrollment. After affluent blacks followed them to the suburbs, enrollment in Memphis City Schools fell below 10 percent years ago and is currently nearing 5 percent. Thanks in part to the consolidation debate, which underlined the tax inequity between Memphis and the suburbs and the drain of the Memphis tax base, any increase in city property taxes and/or reduction in county property taxes risks pushing us over the tipping point. On one side are the Shelby County Schools (SCS) Board of Education, who wants to make Shelby County Schools a special school district. The Memphis City Schools Board of Education is divided. Some of the MCS board members say that consolidation of the city's system into the county should be considered and investigated as a possible solution to problems.