Introduction
One of the first bills passed during the 107th General Assembly was the greatly discussed House Bill 51(HB51)/Senate Bill 25 (SB25) by Representative Curry Todd of Collierville and Senator Mark Norris of Collierville respectfully. From the beginning, this bill encountered a plethora of backlash from the community to which the bill was aimed— Shelby County. This bill became known as the consolidation bill and was scrutinized to a great extent by Shelby County officials as well as Memphis City officials. The bill basically makes consolidation of any school system much more intricate especially with regards to special school systems. This includes Shelby County Schools and the impending consolidation with Memphis City Schools. There was one significant amendment added to the bill that completely re-wrote the bill. It was added to the bill with the intent of making it stronger and exceedingly difficult to defeat. Not only did the amendment, that initially made the bill, list out a transition plan, it also made an addition which called for the Speaker of the House, Speaker of the Senate, and the Governor to appoint qualified and competent citizens to serve as members of this newly created transition team.
Factors Leading the Creation of the Bill
Along with certain other caveats House Bill 51 created to lessen the chances of Memphis City Schools consolidating with Shelby County Schools, the amendment also made several assumptions in order to prepare for certain inevitable occurrences. It stated that not only should there be a fair and balanced team of people in order to ensure a well meted out transition, but it also called for the transition team, which is made up of elected and appointed officials, to for...
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...ined action and lasting change in 2011” (Frist, 2011). This seems to show promise for continuing achievement in the Tennessee public school system. House Bill 51 not only shows promise for progress within the Shelby County and Memphis City School System, it also seems to bring hope to other counties within Tennessee that if for some reason other counties find themselves in the same situation, a drawn out battle is not necessary because it has already been had.
Works Cited
Cash, K. (2010). Tennessee Department of Education. Tdoe report card. Nashville, TN. Retrieved from http://edu.reportcard.state.tn.us/pls/apex/f?p=200:30:2156531363416802::NO
Frist, B. (2010). State Collaborative on Reforming Education. The state of education in Tennessee. Nashville, TN. Retrieved from
http://www.tnscore.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Score-2010-Annual-Report-Full.pdf
In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Brown vs. The Board of Education that schools needed to integrate and provide equal education for all people and it was unconstitutional for the state to deny certain citizens this opportunity. Although this decision was a landmark case and meant the schools could no longer deny admission to a child based solely on the color of their skin. By 1957, most schools had began to slowly integrate their students, but those in the deep south were still trying to fight the decision. One of the most widely known instances of this happening was at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. It took the school district three years to work out an integration plan. The board members and faculty didn't like the fact that they were going to have to teach a group of students that were looked down upon and seen as "inferior" to white students. However, after much opposition, a plan was finally proposed. The plan called for the integration to happen in three phases. First, during the 1957-1958 school year, the senior high school would be integrated, then after completion at the senior high level, the junior high would be integrated, and the elementary levels would follow in due time. Seventeen students were chosen from hundreds of applicants to be the first black teenagers to begin the integration process. The town went into an uproar. Many acts of violence were committed toward the African-Americans in the city. Racism and segregation seemed to be on the rise. Most black students decid...
At the time, larger states like Virginia were creating an unfair amount of power for themselves that the small states didn’t have. In the new government, Congress was created to make laws, and was made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives would give states a number of Representatives they could have based on their population. This would give fair power deserved to the larger states. The Senate however would be two and only two Senators for each state, no matter how large or small, bringing some equality to Congress.
In 1954, The Brown vs. The Board of Education decision made segregation in schools illegal. New York City’s attempt to integrate the schools was unsuccessful, leaving them more segregated than before.(Podair 30) By 1966, New York City’s black communities were unhappy with the Board of Education’s control of their school districts because of its repeated unsuccessful attempts at integration. Many white groups, like the Parents and Taxpayers Organization, were also frustrated with the current system and called for “The Neighborhood School.” It was their discontent that motivated the community control of the Ocean Hill Brownsville school district. Because of the city’s civil rights movement and their support from many influential people and groups, the district was granted control .(Podair 82)
They ordered the state legislature to enact a constitutional property tax based financial plan to fund public schools. In response, the state legislature created a bill that transferred the states funding going to wealthy districts to be distributed to the lower income districts. However, once again (MALDEF) dissatisfied with the bill, filed another suit asking for a better plan. They won in arguing that the “Robin Hood” plan did not accomplish the funding problem. The state appealed the verdict to the Texas Supreme Court however, once again the justices sided with the (MALDEF) organization. Since the legislature did not successfully correct the unfair property tax system. In response, the state legislature redrew the districts into one hundred eighty-eight education districts, so money would be distributed equally. This time the new bill did resolved the property tax funding school issue for lower income districts however, only by unconstitutionally taking the money from the wealthy’s districts property tax. The Texas Supreme court agreed to hear their argument and agreed that the state legislature was violating the upper classes constitutional rights by unrightfully taxing the wealthy property districts to cover the lower income districts. Thus, led the Texas Supreme Court to order the state legislature to reestablish yet another tax plan for public
Mayor Loeb, the racist mayor of Memphis, refused to acknowledge the union that would help black workers (Honey, p. 6). Memphis black workers were forced to live and work squalor conditions. Underpaid black workers were systematically forced into bad jobs with the lowest of wages because the sanitation job was below the white man (At the River I Stand). The sanitation job was reserved for blacks and only hired black people. Black sanitation workers were discriminately forced to work in the field of sanitation because it was one of the few jobs that were open to black workers (At the River I Stand). The city of Memphis management did not want a union to form because it would better the pay and conditions for black workers. Leaving one of society’s worst jobs to black workers is a racial issue and must be tackled as such. But, racial equality and economic equality go hand-in-hand, which is why the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike was both an economic issue and a racial
Guthrie , J. W., Heyneman, S. P., & Braxton , J. M. (2002).Encyclopedia of education . (2nd ed., pp. 283-289). Farmington Hill, Michigan: Cengage Gale.
c. Main point - Radical members of Congress did not wish to conform with the plan set out by Lincoln, these members were led by Thaddeus Stevens. The members believed Lincoln’s plan to be too “mild” and instead wished to create their own plan. First the members of Congress had to get rid of Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan, to do this they decided that any of the votes from the state governments of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana that Lincoln’s plan had created would not be counted, this didn’t go over so well with Lincoln and they were forced ...
Fayetteville Public High School was the first Arkansas High School to publicly announce it would be integrated. On May 22, within a week following Brown vs Board of Education, Fayetteville announced its intention to desegregate, and, three months later, white and black students were attending the same local high school together.(Deaf) The decision to integrate saved the district five-thousand dollars a year, funds that were normally spent on bussing, board and tuition at distant high schools for its black students. Fayetteville and Charleston were both facing financial situations and made their decision based on these facts and not their moral desire to integrate.(Johnson124) Although many black students were subjected to cases of verbal harassment and dismissive treatment from their teachers, they were also able to form positive relationships with...
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Education week, 22(41) p.12. Retrieved September 28, 2003 from EBSCO database (Masterfile) on the World Wide Web: http://www.ebsco.com.
Up until 1968 there was little complaint on what the Texas Legislature and Texas Education Agency had to say about school finances. It was in 1968 that San Antonio’s Independent School District (SAISD) filed the first lawsuit against the state; this particular lawsuit was filed because SAISD felt the fundin...
Van de Walle, J.A., Karp, K. S., & Bay-Williams, J. M. (2013). Elementary and middle school
Van de Walle, J.A., Karp, K. S., & Bay-Williams, J. M. (2013). Elementary and middle school
Van de Walle, J. A., Karp, K. S., & Bay-Williams, J. M. (2013). Elementary and middle school
11. Tanner, B. M.; Bottoms, G.; Feagin, C.; Bearman, A, 2003, Southern Regional Education Board, Atlanta, GA. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ED479271.pdf.