When Gaining 18 cents Costs $496,000,000.00
Last week, members of the Memphis City Council surprised Memphis City Schools last week with an ill-timed and ill-considered funding decision to cut school funding by $73 million. Council members hope to eliminate all city funding to the district in the 2009-10 budget. The city first provided money to city schools in 1937.
The county schools teacher who led the fight to cut city schools funding, Councilman Bill Morrison, stated he does not know how students will be affected and neither do those who supported the cut, which will shave a whopping $91 a year from the city property tax bill on a home valued at $200,000. The school board is being forced to consider a number of options beyond the immediate step of a management hiring freeze. Consideration has to be given to the risks of spending its budget reserves that would leave the district vulnerable to a potential catastrophic event. It will also be forced to look at the possibility of shutting down extracurricular activities or discontinuing valuable academic programs such as optional schools and advanced placement courses.
Now I have just read that if the City Council doesn't reinstate $73.3 million in funding to Memphis City Schools, the Tennessee Department of Education is going to withhold $423 million from the district. The state was expected to provide $423 million toward the district’s $931 million operating b
udget for 2008-09 and the schools are counting on that state funding, which would make up 45 percent of providing that $423 million toward the district’s $931 million operating budget for 2008-09.
In an emergency meeting Friday night, the Memphis Board of Education voted to file suit if the City Council won't reconsider its decision to cut more than $70 million from the district's budget. I didn't graduate with a business or accounting major but something here just doesn't seem right to me. The state is planning on withholding FOUR HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE MILLION DOLLARS just because the city won't fund $73 million? This decision would totally cripple the city school system. How can they justify this? And to think, this all started because last week, council members made cuts in order to reduce the property tax rate by 18 fvcking cents and now the city school system stands to lose $496 million!!!
The county schools teacher who led the fight to cut city schools funding, Councilman Bill Morrison, stated he does not know how students will be affected and neither do those who supported the cut, which will shave a whopping $91 a year from the city property tax bill on a home valued at $200,000. The school board is being forced to consider a number of options beyond the immediate step of a management hiring freeze. Consideration has to be given to the risks of spending its budget reserves that would leave the district vulnerable to a potential catastrophic event. It will also be forced to look at the possibility of shutting down extracurricular activities or discontinuing valuable academic programs such as optional schools and advanced placement courses.
Now I have just read that if the City Council doesn't reinstate $73.3 million in funding to Memphis City Schools, the Tennessee Department of Education is going to withhold $423 million from the district. The state was expected to provide $423 million toward the district’s $931 million operating b
udget for 2008-09 and the schools are counting on that state funding, which would make up 45 percent of providing that $423 million toward the district’s $931 million operating budget for 2008-09.In an emergency meeting Friday night, the Memphis Board of Education voted to file suit if the City Council won't reconsider its decision to cut more than $70 million from the district's budget. I didn't graduate with a business or accounting major but something here just doesn't seem right to me. The state is planning on withholding FOUR HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE MILLION DOLLARS just because the city won't fund $73 million? This decision would totally cripple the city school system. How can they justify this? And to think, this all started because last week, council members made cuts in order to reduce the property tax rate by 18 fvcking cents and now the city school system stands to lose $496 million!!!
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