Lawmakers from Nashville and Knoxville vote against effort to expand high performing schools in Memphis

By every measurement, the three public schools the University of Memphis operates on its campus are producing academic results.The university has been operating a public school for more than 100 years as a training site for teaching candidates and today that effort serves 1000 students at Campus School, University Middle School, and University High School.The state recently named Campus School and University Middle School as Reward schools for demonstrating high levels of performance and/or growth and House Education Administration Chair Representative Mark White, R-Memphis, routinely refers to the three schools in glowing terms.“It’s been a very effective model,” said White. “The university schools had the highest pass rate in English, science, social studies, and were a close second in mathematics. All three schools earned an A in our letter grade this past fall and they are the highest performing schools in the state of Tennessee.”White is proposing legislation that would allow the University of Memphis to exit the current agreement to operate the schools with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and create its own independent innovative school district.  The proposal would allow the University of Memphis to expand and serve more students, potentially in other parts of Memphis.The legislation sailed through its first three committees in the House and Senate with just one lawmaker registering a vote against it. That changed Monday when three lawmakers from Nashville and Knoxville broke with two members of their own party on the House Government Operations Committee in a failed attempt to vote down the proposal.Representatives John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville; Justin Jones, D-Nashville; and Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, didn’t provide a reason why they voted against the bill, but the trio have a history of opposing efforts to provide economically disadvantaged families and those of color with school choice options beyond traditional public schools.

Questions about eligibility answered

Throughout the committee process, one question lawmakers have raised about the legislation is whether it should require the University of Memphis to accept any student who applies.Representative Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, raised that question during last week’s Education Administration Committee vote on the bill.“If we don’t put language in here that says you have to accept neighborhood kids, then what’s going to happen is the same thing that’s going to happen with vouchers. They are going to skim all of the best of the best from Shelby County Schools, and other schools maybe I don’t know, but Shelby County Schools more particularly and it’s going to be an incredible impact to Shelby County Schools,” said Parkinson.Representative White is opposed to adding the language Parkinson proposed because the state traditionally leaves school eligibility decisions up to school districts and the university itself argues those concerns about “skimming” are unfounded anyway.University of Memphis Associate Vice President for Educational Initiatives Sally Parish told lawmakers that the university has the option of having academic enrollment requirements like other magnet and optional schools in Memphis but chooses not.“We believe strongly that it’s not about cherry picking kids or ensuring that you have strong academic data walking in the door, it’s what we do with those kids when they’re in our schools. And so, I would commit to you that if we wanted to only serve the kids we’re serving now we wouldn’t be here entertaining a request to grow our model. The idea for us is to really open the doors and increase access to our schools, not to keep kids out,” said Parish. “We currently do not have an academic requirement for entry in any of our schools and when you look at the local data, we’re still outperforming schools that do have an academic requirement for entry and so it tells you that you don’t need an academic requirement for entry to be successful.”The legislation faces its next vote on the Senate floor this Thursday.