Chalkbeat reports:
Tennessee Republicans have passed an unprecedented intervention of the Memphis-Shelby County school system that gives political appointees sweeping authority over the locally elected school board and the state’s largest school district.
The appointed oversight board will have four years to address what Republicans argue is untenable academic underperformance and administrative instability in the district, which serves more than 100,000 students.
The new law gives the oversight board, which could be appointed at any time and must convene for the first time before July, broad latitude to set performance metrics for the district. It could also control everything from firing and hiring a superintendent to textbooks and classroom curriculum. The new body would have final say over the district’s $1.7 billion budget and major decisions like school closures and zoning.
