Memphis School Year Delayed Indefinitely Over Funding Dispute

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- The school board in Memphis says it will indefinitely delay the start of class because of a dispute over money with the city government.

The board for Memphis City Schools voted 8-1 Tuesday night to postpone school until the City Council hands over $55 million in tax revenue it has set aside for the system this coming year, according to The Commercial Appeal. The school board says the city owes significantly more than that after several years of shortfalls.

Board member Tomeka Hart says the school system has been patient and needs the money in its account to pay bills.

City Council president Myron Lowery says some funding issues are tied up in court. He also says the city council supplies only about one-tenth of the schools' budget.

Classes had been scheduled to start on Aug. 8 for the more than 100,000 students in the district.

Comments

[Angie Daniels]

12:48 AM on 07/21/2011

Good thing the rich keep their tax cuts.

[peacenlove777]

11:20 PM on 07/20/2011

This is exactly what the Republicans want. They want our children to grow up stupid and ignorant. We constantly cut the education budget over and over again. The real people who are being hurt are our children. If they are so fiscally responsible then why don't we cut the military budget. Why don't we bring our troops home from all over the world. We would save trillions of dollars.
We need to let the rest of the world take care of their own problems and we need to focus on ourselves. If we had the budget from all the money that we spent on the middle east wars, we would have enough money to give all Americans medical coverage, fix all our roads & bridges, and start mass transit projects for all our states.
There would be good paying jobs for all Americans. When are we going to stop helping people who don't give a damn about our soldiers lives, bring our troops and our money home.
We need to start taking our Government back from corporations and show them that the American people are not for sale.

[eceresa]

08:40 AM on 07/21/2011

You've got it wrong. When "we" cut education budgets, we don't hurt "our" children.

The people who make the cuts usually send their kids to private schools. The people that applaud the cuts usually have no kids, or kids who've already graduated, and an "I got mine; screw you" attitude.

[Yam716]

08:57 AM on 07/22/2011

RE: "The people who make the cuts usually send their kids to private schools. The people that applaud the cuts usually have no kids, or kids who've already graduated, and an "I got mine; screw you" attitude. "

Exactly! Such a shame. The people in charge do not even have to cope with the problems or consequences of their decisions!

[CommonSense411]

06:51 PM on 07/20/2011

READ THIS NOW BEFORE YOU JUDGE THIS MATTER:
This is the same school board that has lied to the parents in this community about where the money goes FOR YEARS, and the same school board that voted to surrender it's charter this past year. They voted to no longer exist. This MCS school board is stealing money from the city. Allow me to count the ways:
They are paying their buddies, OUT-OF-STATE individuals, nearly million dollar contracts to "brainstorm" ways to fix the system in Memphis. MCS FIRED all of their teachers aides in a single sweep last year to save money, but continue to pay *multiple* administrator level positions upwards of 800,000 and 900,000 dollars annually. The superintendent of this district rides around with an ENTOURAGE for christ's sake. The superintendent's "personal cabinet" of employees consists of 18 people paid HUGE SALARIES.

AND IN THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, THEY SPEND UNDER $6,000 PER PUPIL. Sure, Memphis City Schools is a big district, with about 100,000 pupils. (Their website claims they have more, but that, as most things with MCS, is a LIE.)

This school system is full of fraudsters and liars. The city council is full of them too, but they aren't nearly as crooked as the school system's administration.

They don't DESERVE 55 million dollars in tax revenues from the citizens whose children they spend so LITTLE to teach

[breakingpoint]

03:26 PM on 07/20/2011

secede

[powercosmic]

03:13 PM on 07/20/2011

Chr.istians in America want a Third-World collection of idiot children so they will be easy targets for indoctrination into a Theocratic mindset.

This way they'll have as rabid a bunch of followers as those muslim mullahs have.

[Jerseytime]

03:09 PM on 07/20/2011

Hmmm.... no public school system? When did you think the USA would be worse off than Brazil?

[Myoho Mod]

03:09 PM on 07/20/2011

I wonder how much of these budget slashing of schools is really at the hands of the for profits schools. While this is for high school and grad school education, budget cuts have dismantled some of the best public universities in the world.

[MemphisDweller]

12:30 AM on 07/21/2011

Totally unrelated. This is purely about urban corruption.

[TurnSeiki]

02:59 PM on 07/20/2011

Without even reading the story, I'll bet I can guess what type of school district this is. It is more than likely a school district that doesn't have a large enough tax base to support itself. It's probably a school district that is over-utilized because the bulk of the children are on public assistance in the first place (Thus, making a net negative return). When you raise taxes on people and they see no benefit, the people that can "afford" to move, DO indeed, move. And then you have school district A in this situation. While school district B has a surplus. Simple economics.

[kimbutgar]

02:47 PM on 07/20/2011

And the republicans cry about the debt and how it will affect their children and grandchildren. How about caring about the children of today and investing in them? These southern states want cheap slave labor that is why they are defunding public education. This shutdown is a smoke screen for the right wing agenda in Tennessee. I bet Ms. DeVos has her hand in this problem.

[CommonSense411]

07:07 PM on 07/20/2011

You are way off here. Yes, the Republicans in Nashville are doing everything in their power to make life difficult for the rest of us, but here in Democratically run Memphis, this has nothing to do with politics. This has everything to do with the school administration fraudsters swindling the city and paying themselves 800,000 salaries only to turn around and fire 100s of teachers aides.

[kimbutgar]

08:44 PM on 07/20/2011

Well then I stand corrected. Thank you for giving me a better insight in this situation. I have seen this in other school districts where I live Since you know better than I living there. Good luck and I hope they can find the best solution for the children to return to school and be our future.

[eceresa]

08:42 AM on 07/21/2011

$800K salaries?

If that's true, that's definitely a HUGE problem, but it sure sounds like an exaggeration.

[MemphisDweller]

12:32 AM on 07/21/2011

There only about 5 of us Republicans left in Memphis. It is practically 100% Dem. This is purely Dem on Dem corruption.

[BowlingForRevenge]

02:11 PM on 07/20/2011

This is my hometown and while I am still a property tax payer with a family business that generates tons of sales tax the political retardation that began in the 1970's and continues reelecting lowlifes and those who believe they are above the law is one reason I'll never be back as anything but a tourist.

[JSanders2000]

02:06 PM on 07/20/2011

Sooner or later, we will run out of other people's money.

[ReMarker]

01:59 PM on 07/20/2011

What is wrong with these Republican controlled states like Tenn.? Have they lost their minds? (Rhetorical question)

[bintn]

02:18 PM on 07/20/2011

WRONG!!! The state has fully funded the school system to the extent that is is obligated. The problem is that the Memphis school system is consistently heavy on funding, so much so that the city has been contributing to resolving the yearly bill. For God's sakes, even the Gates foundation has kicked in. The Democratic controlled school board and Democratic controlled City Hall can't meet without a full blown fight going on.

The real story is the amount of graft and corruption on the school board. Do your research and you will find $200,000 copy machines and illegal campaign contributions from developers.

[oneofbricesmoms]

02:22 PM on 07/20/2011

The whole system in Memphis is in shambles. The people that have been voted in couldn't govern their way out of a paper bag in my opinion. It is all about egos and politics. The city council cuts jobs, lays people off, but votes for themselves to have catered lunches. It's all just the biggest joke. Most of the people on the city board are too worried about their mayoral campaigns that will be coming up soon. And the school board couldn't find their you know what with both hands. I live in the county outside of Memphis, and it really has become the biggest joke. And they wonder why people are flocking to the suburbs.

[FreireTeacher]

06:15 PM on 07/20/2011

where can we find evidence of this rampant corruption you allege? I don't necessarily insist that no corruption is going on, but you act like its easily accessible to the public. I've read the budget from the school board for this year (in its entirety, as being a Memphis Teacher, the newest budget affected me, and actually cost me my job) and don't see any 200,000 dollar copy machines on there.

[bintn]

02:27 PM on 07/20/2011

This is just one of dozens of stories coming out of Memphis regarding corruption and graft. This is about three teacher's salaries. More like 7 or 8 when you count the legal fees it took to get them out of hot water.

http://webworks.typepad.com/lakecountyfiscalrangers/2008/02/memphis-school.html

[kcin]

01:59 PM on 07/20/2011

Is this the kind of country you want?

Maybe those Red states should consider voting Blue if they value education.

[jbarelli]

02:05 PM on 07/20/2011

Well, it's not like they need to learn the whole alphabet, after all. The folks running the red states are perfectly happy as long as folks can recognize the letter "R" on the ballot.

[CommonSense411]

06:55 PM on 07/20/2011

Memphis city council consists mostly of democrats. Actually.

[kcin]

11:36 PM on 07/20/2011

Education funding in Tennessee is not city-based.

[darquelourd]

01:59 PM on 07/20/2011

let me know when we start eating one another

[mikey09]

01:41 PM on 07/20/2011

Well, guess 1/10th counts big today..

[jbarelli]

02:03 PM on 07/20/2011

Considering that in any budget, some items are fixed expenses, yes.

Utilities, insurance, payments on bonds. Those items are fixed expenses. Also, some programs are mandated by law. They cannot be cut.

Because of the rather odd way we tend to fund schools, other costs, while not fixed, are difficult to reduce as they involve matching funding. Cut one dollar here, lose two dollars there, meaning for every dollar of savings, you lose three dollars worth of school lunches or special education teacher salary or whatever. Yes, you may be able to cut those, but you lose more value than the amount cut.

So, that 10% of the budget ends up being 20 or 30 (or more) percent of ordinary classroom expenditures.

So, consider a school with 500 students, averaging 25 students per classroom Cut 25% of ordinary classroom expenditures. How many classes will have to be cut, and how many students will be in each remaining class?

Folks with the correct answer get a gold star.