School Consolidation Debate 1731

School Consolidation Debate 1731

In recent years, municipal governments across America have found themselves searching for ways to trim costs by consolidating services with other municipal governments in the counties they're in. They have consolidated law enforcement agencies, sanitation, health departments, municipal courts, etc. But in many of those counties, school systems have been left out of the discussion. In 2010, the Memphis City School (MSC) system made a failed attempt to merge with the Shelby County School (SCS) system through a referendum vote. Later that year, the MCS school board voted to surrender their charter thus legally forcing a merger of the two systems. This paper will attempt to weigh the pros and cons of operating a school system of more than 100,000 students from funding, quality of education, to the effects charter schools will have on the system and community. Good start, add you major arguments here in summary form.

One of the first issues that may surface when two school systems consolidate will be funding. Many states use different formulas for calculating the disbursement of their educational funds SCS and MCS funding relied on funding from similar and separate sources. SCS received their funding from the state of Tennessee and Shelby County. After the surrender of the MCS charter by the MCS Board of Commissioners, MCS ceased to exist in a legal state. MCS relied on three sources which were the state of Tennessee, Shelby County, and the city of Memphis. Due to the fact that MCS has been absorbed by SCS, the city of Memphis is no longer obligated to be a source of financial support for the new unified school district under state law. That essentially removes roughly 80 million dollars a year from the school budget. Shelby county and the state of Tennessee are now responsible for 100% school funding in Shelby County. This seems a bit unfair.But on the other hand, MCS bring with it a host of urban education initiative grants that SCS lack. One in particular would be the 100 million dollar grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which provides money to hire more qualified teachers in the district. There are a lot of issues and challenges that each state has to deal with. In order to run schools and improve schools you must go about it using the proper resources. School budgets and the ways they are financed vary from state to state and school district to school district. When the economic downturn began in 2007, most states across the country made cuts, some drastic, on their education budgets which provides financing to the local districts. The cuts in funding caused many districts to eliminate some programs, sports, transportation and even teacher lay-offs. Many districts have been under increased scrutiny from citizens over questionable spending. Twenty percent of Americans say that decreased funding is the biggest problem that local school districts face and it must change. School systems across the nation face the daily task of making necessary cuts and being creative in fundraising in order to maintain an acceptable level of quality education to the communities they serve. References? Where is the voice of the county on this issue?

One significant debate taking place within public school districts all across the United States is the creation of new charter school programs. Charter schools are still in sense a part of the public school system due to the fact they are not allowed to charge tuition and most use facilities and land owned by the public school systems they're located in. Most charter schools offer students a chance to specialize and focus on certain areas of curriculum such as arts, sciences, and mathematics. The funding for charter schools varies in each state but most of the funding comes from the public and also from private donations by members, groups or organizations within the community. Teachers, parents of the students and different organizations within a community are in most cases the founders of charter schools. The main purpose of the organization and individuals that open charter schools is to have the freedom to choose non-conventional methods to educated students that they deem ineffective in conventional public school systems. Including hiring/firing incompetent teachers

According to an article by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Does Charter School Competition Improve Traditional Public Schools? (2009), Research was done to study the affects that charter schools may have on traditional public schools. Studies found that with the rising numbers of charter schools being created, public schools have not seen a huge change in the funding and operations that take place. This article states, "We found that charter competition has not induced large changes in district-wide operations, despite the fact that a significant number of students have left district schools for charter schools." (Para. 2) In regards to the aspect of funding to the public school districts the study found that public school districts are just as stable now with students leaving to attend charter schools as they were when children were attending these public schools. The article stated, "Districts also cushion individual schools from the financial impact of declining enrollments and shrinking market share. They tend to provide constant resources to shrinking schools, in some cases sending extra money to failing schools to "prop them up." (Para. 4)

A majority of the studies conducted show that charter schools on average do no better than public schools. The Obama administration has been pushing for an increase in charter school programs all across the country in hopes of providing children the opportunity to earn a better education. Reference This however shall vary by different states within the country. There is an obvious difference in the population among every state. For example states such as California, New York and Texas will have a much larger population than states such as, Rhode Island, North and South Dakota or Idaho. These larger states will have a much better chance in increasing the success rates for new charter schools created. Studies show that charter schools may have an advantage for