Friday, May 30, 2008

Mr. Mayor, this is really slick...

And I mean this in a GOOD way. Feel Good Friday will begin shortly, but first you need to hear me out.

The mayor of the City of Memphis has figured out a way to dump the funding for Memphis City Schools off on the whole of Shelby County, and the City Council has to do is NOTHING. That is, if Mayor Herenton is correct in his reading of a 2005 ruling by then-Tennessee Attorney General Paul Summers that if the city failed to provide funds to MCS, the state would dissolve the School Board and hand MCS over to Shelby County Schools. At that point, SCS could either A) run it themselves or B) hire an outside agency, but C) in EITHER event, SCS would be completely responsible for funding for ALL public schools in the County.

This way, in any event, the Mayor gets rid of the MCS Board, whom he apparently would like to see tossed in the Mississippi, and MIGHT even be hired by the outside agency that (presumably) would be hired to run MCS.

Given that the City Council is equally pissed at the MCS Board, they might well be inclined to go along with the Mayor. As my councilor, Jim Strickland, said today, "I'm trying to figure out the down side". They could dump the ADA formula that forces the County to spend $3 at MCS for every $1 they spend at SCS.

Well played, sir, well played and a tip of the cap to you. Let's break out the popcorn and see what happens!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yes, and this sort of change makes it imperative that the people demand an end to the attempt by a local federal judge to homogenize each and every school by racially deliberate districting and busing. Open housing and an END to racial districting will succeed where busing failed and will tend to end white and upper/middle-class black flight and allow concerned parents to return to the city. Note that the Sixth Circuit has stayed Bernice's order, a hopeful sign. The rise in the cost of commuting and the end of easy mortgage money should catalyze a new approach, and the law should adapt to and not frustrate this. In the meantime, have some respectable black neighbors over for some of your summer cookouts.