Some quick thoughts:
- Much as some people say they loathe Willie Herenton, it's interesting to note that many people rave about the city optional schools he deserves credit for promoting as superintendent. Many people also tend to agree with his concept for a single-source funded county district broken into smaller districts. Herenton is starting to insert himself more gradually into this discussion, last night appearing on on Fox 13 News to debate Shelby County Schools commissioner Mike Wissman.
- What if ... Sen. Mark Norris, R-Collierville, were to amend his schools consolidation bill such that it required any newly created special school district or municipal school district to accept out-of-district transfers - a number that would not be insubstantial but also would not create too outsized a burden (let's say up to 25 percent of a district's enrollment). You could qualify the transfers as needing to come from schools, say, where median income is below a certain level or with terrible value-added scores. Might that alleviate the issue of a county's individual, more-resourced communities being allowed to separate and construct walls to keep out the least fortunate? Of course, it's possible that the lower-performing schools might reasonably object and say such a rule would mean the loss of their most motivated students and parents and leave them with a population of students from even less-stable environments.
Wow that's complicated. Here's a thought: abolish public schools. Parents pay the local schoolteacher and send their sprout wherever they want and can afford, as during the great days of America.