Judge rules Memphis city schools to merge with county

[alp227]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- Public schools in Memphis, Tennessee, will be consolidated with those of the surrounding county beginning in 2013-14, a federal judge ruled Monday. The decision ends for now a yearslong fight over funding that spilled into questions of race and politics.

The 146-page ruling from Judge Hardy Mays was prompted by a lawsuit and subsequent voter referendum in March that dissolved the Memphis City Schools charter.

"The Memphis City Schools has been abolished for all purposes except the winding down of its operations and the transfer of administration to the Shelby County Board of Education under the terms of Public Chapter 1 and Tennessee education law," wrote Mays. He said the surrender of the city charter did not affect the validity of the city board's actions up until now.

State law mandates school districts be under county jurisdiction, but an exception was carved out in 1869 for Memphis, in the western part of the state. The city itself remains under Shelby County control, but taxes have traditionally been divided and distributed based on the number of students who attended the city schools.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/08/tennessee.memphis.schools/index.html

[Uncle Joe]

1. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, alp.

[provis99]

2. good news.

Hopefully this will lead to fairer spending on the inner city schools.

[alp227]

3. The judge is a GW Bush nominee, and his proper name is Samuel Hardwicke Mays Jr

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_H._Mays,_Jr.
http://www.tnwd.uscourts.gov/JudgeMays/