Category Archives: Shelby County Schools

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Taking Shape

Candidates are emerging for the 2026 Memphis-Shelby County School Board race.

Chalkbeat reports:

Five incumbent Memphis-Shelby County Schools board members — Michelle McKissack, Natalie McKinney, Tamarques Porter, Sable Otey and Towanna Murphy — confirmed with Chalkbeat that they’re running for reelection.

Sonia Partick-Warr filed campaign documents with the election commission but did not list a party affiliation.

Toshina Williams-Webb posted her intention to run on Facebook.

Jon Carroll confirmed to Chalkbeat that he will run as a Democrat.

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Federal School Vouchers are Dangerous

Wild West Vouchers Wreck Florida Education Budget

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Republicans Plot Takeover of Memphis Schools

Mark White and other legislative Republicans want to dictate how Memphis runs its schools.

Chalkbeat reports:

Tennessee House Republican leaders will push forward a plan in 2026 to install a Memphis-Shelby County schools oversight panel that would seize significant decision-making authority from the locally elected school board.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton and education committee Chairman Mark White confirmed this month they are committed to working with the Senate to pass a form of takeover legislation in the 2026 legislative session.

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Bill Lee and Summer Hunger

The Nonprofit Seeking to End Public Education in Tennessee

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A $10 Million Ride

Memphis school leaders are exploring a range of options to help boost student attendance.

One option: Expanding bus service.

Chalkbeat reports that approach carries a heavy price tag:

Memphis school leaders say expanding student bus services to help boost attendance will raise transportation costs by a minimum of almost $10 million next school year.

Board members advanced the idea in late October to increase busing after multiple teachers testified that students weren’t showing up for class in fear of increased law and immigration enforcement. Interim Superintendent Roderick Richmond was tasked with delivering a plan within 30 days.

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Arizona Attorney General Investigates Voucher Scheme

How Fast Can Privatizers Move Kids Out of Public Schools?

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$1.6 Billion in Repairs

That’s what’s needed in Memphis-Shelby County Schools, according to a story from Chalkbeat:

MSCS leaders are expected to present initial plans on Dec. 16 for what could be a decade-long process of school closures and renovations. This comes after an independent study found this spring that Memphis schools need over $1.6 billion in maintenance repairs over the next 10 years.

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Schools of Despair in Florida

Moving Half of TN Students to Private Schools

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Showing Up

Chalkbeat reports on improved absenteeism in Shelby County Schools:

Memphis school leaders say a door-knocking campaign and increased outreach has helped put the district on track to reduce chronic absenteeism for the first time since well before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stacey Davis, the district’s director of attendance and enrollment, said in an October board meeting that almost one-third of Memphis-Shelby County Schools students were chronically absent last year, meaning they missed more than 18 days of class. But she expects that figure to drop to around 26% of students this year.

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Florida’s Voucher Swamp

Making America Hungry Again

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Stepping Up to Fill the SNAP Gap

When the government shuts down, students step up.

Chalkbeat reports:

Every Wednesday, a group of fourth graders at Winchester Elementary put on black aprons and start packing up cardboard boxes with canned vegetables and mac and cheese.

The young volunteers spend their free periods prepping weekend meal boxes for around 30 Whitehaven families who line up outside the Memphis school building each Friday afternoon. It’s a routine that’s been in place since Winchester opened its food pantry in March.

Denise Wilson, a fourth grade math teacher who runs the pantry, said families typically show up once a month for help. She expects the number of families seeking food to increase in the coming weeks because of delayed and missing SNAP benefits, which are affecting one in 10 Tennesseans as the federal government shutdown drags on.

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Player Piano is Here

Wisconsin Rejects Trump Scheme

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Unfinished Business

Feagins attempts Memphis comeback by way of courts

Marie Feagins wants a judge to order the Memphis-Shelby County School Board to reinstall her as Director of Schools.

Chalkbeat reports:

Former Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Marie Feagins is now suing a board member for personal defamation in an ongoing lawsuit over her January firing after less than 10 months on the job.

Feagins testified on Tuesday in Shelby County Circuit Court, where Judge Robert Childers considered Feagins’ request for a preliminary injunction, which would overturn the board vote to terminate her contract and reinstate her as district leader as the lawsuit plays out.

“I came here to do a job, and we have unfinished business,” Feagins said on the stand. “I didn’t come to sue the school district.”

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Kentucky’s Teacher Pension Problem

How School Vouchers Destroy State Budgets

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Memphis Power Grab

While lawmakers did not approve a state takeover of Memphis schools this year, some haven’t stopped dreaming of how and when they might take over the state’s largest district.

Chalkbeat:

Rep. Mark White and Sen. Brent Taylor told WKNO/Channel 10’s “Behind the Headlines” Friday that their legislation to establish a state-appointed “board of managers” overseeing the district will be fast-tracked to pass this spring.

That’s because the lawmakers’ two versions of the legislation – which include some key differences – each passed one chamber by April, then stalled. Now, Taylor and White said they’re waiting for results from the $6 million independent audit of the district, which started this month, to best inform how they’ll combine the bills come January.

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Vouchers Eat Arizona’s Education Budget

Big, Beautiful Bill Included Voucher Scheme

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State Takeover of Memphis Schools: Not Yet

But district faces continued pressure, scrutiny from meddling lawmakers

Most of Tennessee’s legislators are not from Memphis/Shelby County, but that hasn’t stopped a cadre of them from attempting to tell the elected leaders of Memphis how to run their schools.

As the General Assembly ended its business this year, legislation that would have allowed the state to takeover Memphis-Shelby County Schools stalled:

Memphis-Shelby County Schools narrowly avoided legislation that would have expanded state control over its elected school board and budget. But lawmakers intend to bring that bill back — and other efforts to audit the district and potentially change the timing of its school board elections have advanced.

Though versions of state intervention bills passed in the House and Senate, the chambers could not reconcile them before the Tennessee General Assembly adjourned on Tuesday. Each bill called for a state-appointed oversight board whose members would be paid by the school district, but the two versions differed on what powers it gave that board, and the thresholds that would trigger state intervention.

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Lee’s Tennessee wins South’s Race to the Bottom

A Note on the End of the Department of Education

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What to do About Shelby County Schools?

The legislature seems determined to subvert democracy

Chalkbeat reports that a pair of possible “solutions” are floating around – plans that would allow the General Assembly to intervene in Shelby County Schools:

One proposal in the House would take power away from the elected school board for at least four years, giving oversight of the school district to a state-appointed board of local residents. A proposal in the Senate would give the Shelby County Commission greater control over the school district — at a time when commissioners have already proposed creating an advisory board to consult with the school board.

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Evidence from Ohio Suggests Vouchers Harm Kids

Money Matters for Schools

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Faith Leaders Stand Up for Trans Kids

Pot for Potholes?