Last year, when the Memphis City Council was taken to court by the
Memphis City Schools over who should fund the district, the city’s
attorneys should have looked back to this week in 2005.
The Shelby County Commission had just voted unanimously to “fully
fund” the educational needs of both the city and county school
districts, with commissioners congratulating members of both school
systems for holding down costs from the previous year.
Senior editor Jackson Baker called it “a triumph of feel-good
politics, but it remains to be seen what the lasting effect of it will
be.”
“The outcome was wholly conditional, about as binding as my promise
to gift each of you with some nice change for your Christmas socks if I
happen to win the Tennessee lottery this week — as I fully intend
to do,” Baker wrote.
Since then, school funding has been nothing short of a mess. The
city school system came under fire for mismanaging its money,
especially at the district’s Central Nutrition Center. The city then
cut $66 million in funding to the district, arguing that education
funding is the county’s responsibility. In the resulting lawsuit,
Chancellor Kenny Armstrong eventually ruled that the city needed to pay
up.
But as the appeals continue, the City Council has postponed hearings
on its 2010 operating budget, saying the administration needs to find
$57 million for city school funding.
The City Council and MCS school board are expected to meet with
state education commissioner Timothy Webb this week to discuss a
compromise.
In other news, Baker still hasn’t hit it big with the lottery. He
did win $34 once, though.
