Race, Economics, and the Politics of Educational Change

"This edited volume will examine the implications of the largest school consolidation in the history of the United States, the Memphis school system. In the wake of the 2010 mid-term elections, the Republican Party gained control of both houses of the Tennessee State Legislature and the governorship. In Memphis, the immediate aftermath was that leaders of the Shelby County Schools (SCS) school district began to work on legislation that would give the district special status that would make it permanently separated from the other school district in the city, Memphis City Schools (MCS). Long a goal of the predominately white, suburban SCS, this objective was thwarted when the MCS revoked its own charter, which, under Tennessee law, forced SCS to take over the running of MCS--in effect, consolidating all Memphis area schools. This work will examine the history of the Memphis school system, the economic factors that arise in consolidations, the socioeconomic inequalities borne of long-term racism that lie in the background of the system's recent history, and the political situation that promises to complicate the consolidation process"--