On Memphis City Schools (The Great Debate)

(Photo: CA)

Fourteen MCS schools will participate in the inaugural season of the Memphis Urban Debate League, which begins this fall.

That's great news.

Debate is a great activity, which should improve literacy skills, grades, conflict resolution and most importantly, give academic kids a sport of their own. (Fox13.)

So, in the spirit of debate, here's a hot-button topic: RESOLVED, WREG's story on mayoral control over school districts shows why Sweeps rating periods hurt public debate.

The CBS affiliate sent reporter Tom Powell to examine the success of mayoral control in Chicago, which is notable on a number of levels. For one thing, the report offered some insight into an issue that Mayor Willie Herenton has been pushing for some time but few seemed to take him seriously to consider the merits of it.

And to that end, Powell's story would have more timely and value-added to public debate if it aired weeks ago--before Dr. Kriner Cash was hired to be the superintendent. To air it now seems trivial, especially since mayoral control issue has abated with Cash's hire.

An excerpt:

Memphis City Schools Superintendent Dr. Kriner Cash says he's focused on working under the structure already in place in Memphis; a structure where the board is elected, and then board commissioners appoint the superintendent. "Mayoral control depends on the mayor. You have a strong mayor, good mayor, who is adept at that, then you possibly can see some improvements," Cash says.

Cash says mayoral control is not the only option for sustainable growth. "I don't see any research that says big county, small county, mayoral control, appointed boards versus elected boards, and all that that automatically makes a better school system," he says.

Memphis City School Board Commissioner Martavius Jones also feels Memphis doesn't need mayoral control to see improvement. "You have to have consistent leadership."

Mayoral control in Chicago has provided consistent leadership, but Jones says that same stability can be achieved in Memphis if the public is patient. "What it's going to require is patience from this community to realize the challenges we face didn't happen overnight."

"It's been my contention that if you look at any organization whether it's a school system, whether it's a corporation, if you have changes in leadership every two-and-a-half, three, four years, you're not going to have a successful organization," Jones says.

WREG could have posed the same question to Dan Ward, which would have been appropriate since he was an interim super and things were in flux. The story seems to further undermine Cash before he has even had an opportunity to prove himself.

Yet, that's one of the unintended effects of holding otherwise quality journalism for the benefit of advertising. I know, ads pay the bills.

*TSD: Cash on Cash.
*TSD: The New Douglass.

ON AN UNRELATED, BUT RELATED, NOTE: Does the Shelby County Commission have the right to tell the Shelby County School District how to spend the money that it requests?

An excerpt:

But Supt. Bobby Webb said commissioners don't have authority to tell the school district how to spend its money. Commissioners fund education but, according to state law, they do not have line-item veto authority.

Ritz said the goal isn't to punish the district or jeopardize its state funding. But the increases come at the tail end of a grueling budget process in which no county employees were given salary increases and some lost their jobs.

"It is frankly an attempt to bring the compensation of public employees into alignment," he said of the resolution, which has broad support among commissioners. "I would hope that the school board cooperates with us on this."

Yet, here's the deal: there are some parts of local government--that by law--are not designed to be treated like the rest of local government. That needs to be taken into consideration.

Also, there should be greater attention paid to the real impact of pay increases versus the perception of them. An excerpt:

The bulk of the other increases, ranging from 2 percent to 4percent, would occur among the ranks of the district's principals, assistant principals and vice principals.

Webb defended his district's request and said the increases were designed to bring his administrators' pay in line with others across the state "in hopes of maintaining and attracting the most qualified individuals," he wrote in an e-mail.

Also, the budget doesn't require any additional funds, Webb said. The district cut other areas to allow for the salary increases.

Those administrative increases above 2 percent will cost the district about $200,000 next year, or .056 percent of the proposed overall operating budget, said county schools spokesman Mike Tebbe.

That seems minuscule. Yet, what about the teachers?