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.
Early Voting Begins
A conference committee was appointed to hash out the differences between the House and Senate versions of a bill that would appoint a board of managers to oversee Memphis-Shelby County Schools.
Additionally, early voting has begun! For a list of polling locations and times, please see this link. You can vote at any early voting location on the list, even if it is not your regular polling location or in your part of town. You can find more information on the candidates or offices on the ballot on the Shelby County Election Commission’s website.
Who Has Signed the Cradle-to-Career Pledge?
You may recall an edition of this newsletter in February that introduced the “Cradle-to-Career Promise”—a pledge we hoped that candidates for Shelby County elected positions would take to show their support for expanding public Pre-K and Full-Service Community Schools, as well as bridging the workforce gap and improving governmental collaboration.
With early voting starting next Wednesday (April 15th), we wanted to update you with a list of candidates for County Commission and Shelby County Mayor who have signed the pledge.
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.
How Do We Solve Population Decline?
Last month, Mayor Paul Young broke with the tradition observed by recent mayors of Memphis by acknowledging the fact that the city’s population is in steady decline. Now, a new state law could change the way sales tax revenue is allocated to municipalities based on what proportion of Tennesseans live there.
Population loss affects more than sales tax revenue: it also means less revenue in property taxes and fewer patrons for local businesses. So what do we do about this?