Editorial 05/29: School pledge lifts spirits

The Commercial Appeal
May 29, 2005

The pledge was admirable and courageous. With an extraordinary effort, it might be kept. But it won't provide a long-term answer to a fundamental question. How DO you provide adequate funds for a vibrant public education system in Memphis and Shelby County on a reliable, long-term basis?

The Shelby County Commission put smiles on a lot of faces last week with its unanimous pledge to fully fund the budget requests of the city and county school systems for the first time in four years. It's not clear where that extra $17 million will come from -- $11.5 million for city schools, $5.5 million for county schools -- though.

One possible source would be another 12 cents on the county's property tax rate, which is already higher than it should be and could be bumped by another 14 cents to cover a $20 million debt service payment.

The money could come from further cuts in county services such as public health and law enforcement. It could come from privatization of the county's correction system. New revenue could be produced by stepping up collections of outstanding court-levied fines, fees and taxes, but with how large an investment in the collection process?

And it's not clear that anything the commission could do right now would make it any easier for the school districts to cope with rising costs and upgrade their efforts for more than a year or so.

Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton's new Community Task Force on Quality Public Education got off to a rocky start in March when city schools officials boycotted the first meeting, but still holds some promise as a catalyst for change that will help schools meet the challenges of the federal government's No Child Left Behind Act and the 21st Century economy's demand for a highly skilled workforce.

County government is severely limited in the revenue sources it can rely on. The failure of a legislative proposal to give county government the authority to levy a modest real estate transfer tax this year illustrated the problem. Commissioner John Willingham's push for the authority to levy a countywide payroll tax is unlikely to fare any better.

Fundamental change also has been difficult to achieve. Some of the school districts' long-term problems may have been eased by another legislative proposal that ultimately fell short this year: the proposal by state Sen. Mark Norris, R-Collierville, to freeze city and county school boundaries without regard to future annexations by the city of Memphis.

The bill also would have relieved county government from the burdens associated with the average daily attendance (ADA) school funding formula, which has been particularly troublesome on the capital improvements side of the budget, and given newly created special districts in Shelby County the power to levy taxes, with legislative approval.

A separate bill dealing directly with the ADA formula on capital spending also failed to advance in the legislature.

Nevertheless, the commission has raised hopes for Memphis and Shelby County schoolchildren for the kind of resources and attention they deserve. As Mayor A C Wharton pointed out, the devil is in the details.