This Moment Demands Our Best: A Call to Build What Our Students Deserve
With the passage of House Bill 662 / Senate Bill 714, the State of Tennessee has established a path for a nine-member educational oversight board that may assume significant authority over districts in the State that have significant academic and operational challenges.
In this update, we lay out our vision for moving forward.
MSCS Audit and Where We Go From Here
The much-anticipated preliminary findings of the state-funded audit of MSCS were released this week during a press conference headlined by Lt. Governor Randy McNally and Speaker Cameron Sexton. The audit covered FY2022 - FY2024 and found significant systemwide challenges in governance, internal controls, documentation, and procurement practices.
This critical moment calls for focus, collaboration, and a commitment from our entire community.
Shelby County’s New Year’s Resolutions
If you’re anything like us, you’re struggling to stick to your New Year’s resolutions, and it’s hardly been a week. That’s because it’s way easier to carry on the status quo than to make important, difficult changes to your life. Memphis is the same way—our local governments, education systems, nonprofits, and budgets can easily fall into the same playbook year-in and year-out.
Just like our personal resolutions, we won’t achieve our community resolutions without a plan. While we still face low educational outcomes, entrenched poverty, and a myriad of other challenges, a set of shared resolutions and commitments across our efforts can begin to change how we support our children and families in 2026.
Where are the Kids?
Recent reporting shows that an additional 3,400 students in the county received vouchers to attend private school this year, and a large portion of this year’s funds went to students from municipalities surrounding Memphis, like Germantown and Collierville.
Additionally, data from early October shows that chronic absenteeism is declining at Memphis-Shelby County Schools. Rates have dropped from 31.1% last year to 24.2%, which could potentially lead to better outcomes for students. However, at least one school board member has speculated that attendance may have fallen since the deployment of the Memphis Safe Task Force.
You can learn more about the effort to reduce chronic absenteeism in the full policy update.
All the Money in Shelby County
The Tennessee comptroller rejected Shelby County’s budget for the first time due to what he claimed were unmet requirements. This means Shelby County cannot access bonds or take on debt in fiscal year 2026, but major projects, like new schools and the Regional One rebuild, should stay on track.
In this update, we show you what public funding we have locally and where it comes from. We also highlight what Memphis and Shelby County officials can focus on in budgeting for the upcoming fiscal year to support children and families.