Last week the Memphis City School Board in Memphis , Tennessee voted to delay the start of the school year until the city pays the $55 million dollars it owed the Memphis City School District
Since 2008, the city and the school board have been in legal dispute over money ($151million total). The board claims the money is owed to them from educational funding cuts that were found to be illegal by the State Appellate Court and upheld by the State Supreme court. Although the city lost and is under court order to pay, the city still has not paid the school board, which has led to the school board to take this extreme position[i].
Each side claims that “the children will not be caught in the middle” of the dispute[ii]. However, both sides fail to realize that the children are already in the middle and have been for the past four years. When the city cut its educational funding, the children suffered, and when the school board voted to delay the start of the school year, they are using the children as pawns to force the city to pay back the district. The families of the children are also caught in the middle of the dispute.
According to Wikipedia, Memphis is the seventh largest city with a high percentage of low income residents[iii]. If the district delays the start of the school year, families with elementary age children will be forced to find and pay for childcare with their limited income or they will be forced to take days off from work without pay. Having to pay for childcare or take off work without pay could decimate a fragile household budget and lead to the inability to pay major bills (including rent/mortgage), buy food, or pay for transportation to get to work via public transportation or by personal vehicle. For families that cannot afford to pay or childcare, parent(s) could lose their job for taking too much time off to watch their child.
Families with middle and high school age youth may have to worry about their children being unsupervised without the structure of the school day. Unsupervised youth could lead to an increase in teen pregnancy, crime and violence, and school apathy. These youth would also be missing vital instructional time that would prepare them for the SAT/ACT and other post-secondary planning.
The decision to delay the start of the school year due to a funding dispute is being quietly watched by districts and city officials across the country. The final outcome of this bold strategy, could be used by districts in the future who will place children in the middle of a funding dispute by holding their education hostage. There may some city officials who will give into districts demands and then take the lost funds from social service programs or increase property taxes which will hurt families.
In this educational hostage crisis, children and families will still lose. There is no way to avoid it. Hopefully reasonable minds will prevail and end this hostage standoff.
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