Image Credit: Canva
***Note from The Tennessee Conservative – this article posted here for informational purposes only.***
The Center Square [By Kim Jarrett] –
While Democrats and Republicans differed on how to improve things for Tennessee students, they both emphasized a desire to help the state’s more than 900,000 students in the 147 public school districts during the General Assembly’s 2026 session.
On the final day, a bill that would affect just one school district dominated the debate.
House Bill 662/Senate Bill 714 allows the state to take over school districts that fail to meet four of six criteria. Using the metrics, the bill applies only to the Memphis-Shelby County Schools.
Once signed by Gov. Bill Lee, a nine-member oversight committee would be formed quickly, according to the bill. The committee will have the authority over the school district’s budget. It could also determine if any schools should close.
Some called the bill an “intervention.” Others called it a “takeover.”
Memphis Republican Mark White has served in the House of Representatives for 17 years and served as chairman of the House Education Committee for the past 12 years. He sponsored the bill in the House. Sen. Brent Taylor, also from Memphis, sponsored it in the Senate.
While the legislation would apply to any school district, White admits he focused on Memphis.
“Being from Memphis and loving this city, what I continually see is that we are not moving the needle in proficiency,” White said in an interview with The Center Square. “Only one of our four is graduating proficient in reading, and one out of five is proficient in math. It comes to point where you have to say why are we not turning things around? It’s year after year after year.”
Senate Minority Caucus Raumesh Akbari is also from Memphis. She and her Democratic colleagues did not deny that Memphis schools needed improvement. The minority conference report took a different approach, using Hamilton County Schools as an example, she said.
Local and state officials in that county did not want to become an achievement school district, an academic intervention program targeting low-performing schools that ends with the 2026-27 school year.
“They formed a special network within the school district, and they had a board of advisors made up of philanthropic community members, business community members and kind of provided advice and guidance, focusing on those five schools,” Akbari said in an interview with The Center Square. “So that really is the alternative that we wanted to present to the General Assembly.”
A district that did not meet three out of the four criteria would be placed under an advisory board under the Democrat plan. The district would fall under the Republican plan if it failed to improve in at least one of the four areas. The minority conference report did not pass.
Democrats also wanted the General Assembly to recognize the district’s progress. The 2025 Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System, which measures student growth, showed improvements in all end-of-course work in all subjects for the district’s high school students. The assessment still showed issues in other areas.
“When they say give us time to fix it, my question is when is it going to happen?” White said. “Since I’ve been education chair, we’ve had a whole generation of kids go through first through 12th grade. And I know because of the data I study day after day, too many of our young people are coming out of our city schools not proficient, where they can go into the workforce.”
The bill was not just about academic performance. Two of the criteria focus on administration turnover and finances. A forensic audit of Memphis-Shelby County Schools, which is only 25% complete, shows $1.1 million in disbursements have been categorized as waste or fraud, according to the comptroller of the treasury.
Akbair said other school districts are close to meeting the bill’s criteria.
“There are a lot of districts in this state that are dealing with pretty significant issues and findings, and that’s just from a regular audit, not a forensic audit,” Akbari said. “Also, at least seven of the school districts in the state meet three of the four academic metrics that are listed in the legislation.”
Unless Memphis officials can get the courts to intervene, the school district will operate under the oversight board for four years without a provision to exit early if the metrics are met.
Despite a law signed by Lee that bans a school district or public charter school from using state funds for legal actions challenging accountability measures, the Shelby County Board of Commissioners attempted to pass a resolution on Monday night that would have set aside $200,000 for a court challenge. The measure needed a two-thirds vote, eight of the 12 present commissioners to pass. It failed 7-5.
“Quite frankly, we should want school districts, regardless of if they’re a small district or large district, urban or rural, to be able to sue when they feel that they are being wronged or that there is some sort of grievance,” Akbari said.
3 Responses
Hmmmm….very interesting, and very sad that students in Shelby County Schools are not being served, challenged or educated. Does anyone wonder why crime is so high in Memphis? Of course, like all TC readers, I’ve been watching this play out, but I want to play ‘connect the dots’ here. As a strong conservative, I am absolutely FOR school choice, but as a member of the Republican Party all my life, I subscribe to the GOP Platform of LESS TAXES, LESS GOVERNMENT and LESS REGULATION. It seems to me that the current leadership from the Governor’s mansion to the last house seat, are really not much interested in that GOP Platform or even “ACCOUNTABILITY”! So, one has to wonder why the march for accountability in Shelby County. Maybe it is as they say, because they ‘love’ Shelby County, its schools and its people, which are being robbed, along with all Tennessee Taxpayers. But, I want to dig deeper. #1. ACCOUNTABILITY was the main push for the Governor’s Education Freedom Act, remember they ‘sold’ us on, “This bill will allow students in poorly performing schools a way out!” until it did not…it would be funny if it were not true! What the governor and legislators SOLD us, was a BILL OF GOODS for their very own political benefit! Instinctively tax payers know, that if the governor and legislature had gotten this bill right, EVERY LAST student in the FAILING SHELBY COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM would be currently attending another school (private or public)! And as a result, Shelby County Schools would be shuttered for lack of students to teach, thus saving tax payers HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS!! Now….that’s PARENTAL CHOICE and the market place acting on its best behalf under the principles of LESS GOVERNMENT. BUT #2, that is NOT what the Governor’s PET bill did….it “OVERWHELMINGLY” provided students (and their politically connected, money donating parents) the opportunity to attend their private school WITH tax payer subsidies. Again, there’s nothing ‘wrong’ with parental choice at any level but lying about its principles and results is destroying the credibility of our political leaders. IF you disagree PROVE IT by demanding that the state dept. of education be held accountable by OPENING all Dept. of Ed. STATS on this (and every other program) are 100% PUBLIC RECORD! (Nice thought but it is not going to happen, at least not until our leaders are pleased with its numbers). If the media were to report on the stats that say, an overwhelming majority of the students who were able to take advantage of the first round of this program were ALREADY attending private schools, it would not AGE well and would be the laughing stock of political movements. So pardon me for thinking ill of the governor and the legislature while they demand ‘accountability’ of SHELBY COUNTY (as they should be), while they are avoiding any ‘accountability’ for themselves, altogether! They risk standing as total HYPOCRITES, and they don’t even care. IF you need more proof that this last legislative session’a education freedom act ‘upgrade’ was anything other than a knee-jerk, save face reaction to the first, you are being naive. These actions simply stand to prove what an embarrassing disaster the first version was, requiring that they had to hide it, on top of creating the largest SUBSIDY program in state history. It may very well drive our state into fiscal shambles. Bottom line the governor and the legislature should work on their OWN accountability and work harder in support of the GOP platform that they campaigned on, not their political expediency! LESS GOVERNMENT, LESS REGULATION and LESS TAXES work every single time they are instituted.
Lucifer’s accursed dimmercraps are only able to run everything one way. Down.
“They formed a special network within the school district, and they had a board of advisors made up of philanthropic community members, business community members and kind of provided advice and guidance, focusing on those five schools,” Akbari said in an interview with The Center Square. “So that really is the alternative that we wanted to present to the General Assembly.”
And WHY does Memphis need to present this to the Assembly? Why did Memphis not form a network BEFORE NOW? This is a total failure of leadership and management in Memphis. There is absolutely NO EXCUSE for the terrible condition of the schools.