Shelby County's school district legislation failed again

By Richard Locker, Commercial Appeal
April 18, 2006

NASHVILLE - The legislation long sought by Shelby County's school system to allow it to become a special school district -- fixing its boundaries against annexation by Memphis -- failed again in the Tennessee legislature today.

The bill has been the focus of an annual lobbying battle between the city and county school systems for at least a decade. The bill was killed for the year in the House Education Committee's K-12 subcommittee on a 4-5 vote -- four votes for passage and five against.

Shelby County Schools Supt. Bobby Webb, who testified before the subcommittee, said afterward, "I'm very disappointed, especially in light of the fact that I thought we had an agreement (with the Memphis City Schools) and now it looks like they changed their minds. I don't know of anything that's changed since the agreement (signed last August)."

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Tre' Hargett, R-Bartlett, and Sen. Mark Norris, R-Collierville, was on the first step in a long process that would ultimately would have allowed the county school system to become a special school district outside the City of Memphis. The state legislature more than two decades ago banned the creation of new special school districts in the state and the bill would have removed that ban for Shelby, Montgomery, Gibson and Sullivan counties. The district would have had to return next year with a private act of the legislature actually creating the new special district.

In Tennessee, special school district boards may levy their own tax rate for schools -- subject to state legislative approval -- and their boundaries can only be changed by the legislature as well.