School Consolidation Debate
School Consolidation Debate 1731
In recent years, municipal governments across America have found themselves searching for ways to trim costs by consolidating services with other municipal governments in the counties they’re in. They have consolidated law enforcement agencies, sanitation, health departments, municipal courts, etc. But in many of those counties, school systems have been left out of the discussion. In 2010, the Memphis City School (MSC) system made a failed attempt to merge with the Shelby County School (SCS) system through a referendum vote. Later that year, the MCS school board voted to surrender their charter thus legally forcing a merger of the two systems. This paper will attempt to weigh the pros and cons of operating a school system of more than 100,000 students from funding, quality of education, to the effects charter schools will have on the system and community. Good start, add you major arguments here in summary form. One of the first issues that may surface when two school systems consolidate will be funding. Many states use different formulas for calculating the disbursement of their educational funds SCS and MCS funding relied on funding from similar and separate sources. SCS received their funding from the state of Tennessee and Shelby County. After the surrender of the MCS charter by the MCS Board of Commissioners, MCS ceased to exist in a legal state. MCS relied on three sources which were the state of Tennessee, Shelby County, and the city of Memphis. Due to the fact that MCS has been absorbed by SCS, the city of Memphis is no longer obligated to be a source of financial support for the new unified school district under state law. That essentially removes roughly 80 million dollars a year from the school budget. Shelby county and the state of Tennessee are now responsible for 100% school funding in Shelby County. This seems a bit unfair.But on the other hand, MCS bring with it a host of urban education initiative grants
In recent years, municipal governments across America have found themselves searching for ways to trim costs by consolidating services with other municipal governments in the counties they’re in. They have consolidated law enforcement agencies, sanitation, health departments, municipal courts, etc. But in many of those counties, school systems have been left out of the discussion. In 2010, the Memphis City School (MSC) system made a failed attempt to merge with the Shelby County School (SCS) system through a referendum vote. Later that year, the MCS school board voted to surrender their charter thus legally forcing a merger of the two systems. This paper will attempt to weigh the pros and cons of operating a school system of more than 100,000 students from funding, quality of education, to the effects charter schools will have on the system and community. Good start, add you major arguments here in summary form. One of the first issues that may surface when two school systems consolidate will be funding. Many states use different formulas for calculating the disbursement of their educational funds SCS and MCS funding relied on funding from similar and separate sources. SCS received their funding from the state of Tennessee and Shelby County. After the surrender of the MCS charter by the MCS Board of Commissioners, MCS ceased to exist in a legal state. MCS relied on three sources which were the state of Tennessee, Shelby County, and the city of Memphis. Due to the fact that MCS has been absorbed by SCS, the city of Memphis is no longer obligated to be a source of financial support for the new unified school district under state law. That essentially removes roughly 80 million dollars a year from the school budget. Shelby county and the state of Tennessee are now responsible for 100% school funding in Shelby County. This seems a bit unfair.But on the other hand, MCS bring with it a host of urban education initiative grants
References: Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. (2009). Does Charter School Competition Improve Traditional Public Schools? Retrieved from http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_10.htm