Is it Racism, or is it the Grade?

I live in Cordova, TN which is a suburb of Memphis, TN.  Our school systems are at the point of merging and this has made many people upset; because the county schools do not want to merge with the city schools.  I don’t know if is a racial thing or a thing of county schools getting better grades than city schools; but it is serious.

The merger is a result of actions by the Memphis school board and City Council, a March referendum and a federal court order which is the largest school district consolidation in American history and poses huge logistical challenges. Memphis teachers are unionized, Shelby County’s are not; the county owns its yellow buses, the city relies on a contractor; and the two districts use different textbooks and different systems to evaluate teachers (Dillon, 2011).  

Toughest of all may be bridging the chasms of race and class. Median family income in Memphis is $32,000 a year, compared with the suburban average of $92,000; 85 percent of students in Memphis are black, compared with 38 percent in Shelby County.  Though race has become the elephant in the room, the process actually began last winter as a struggle over finances (Dillon, 2011).  

Shelby County includes Memphis and six incorporated suburbs to its north and east. Tax money from the entire county is distributed to the two districts based on student population. Memphis, with 103,000 students, compared with 47,000 in the county, gets more of the money, though the suburbs contribute more per capita (Dillon, 2011).

I would hope that race has nothing to do with the county not wanting to come together with the city to teach our children; but sadly enough, it does.  America has come a long way with racism, but we still have a long way to go; especially where our children are concerned.

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