WHY OUR DEBT IN SHELBY COUNTY IS SO HIGH

For some time I have been trying to get comparative information on school costs in Memphis, Shelby County and Metro Davidson. In looking over the finances of Memphis and Shelby County, I have come to the conclusion that our schools are our biggest cost and particularly the Memphis City Schools our biggest failure.

In a recent article I showed that our County's huge debt grew in 9 years from $374 million to $1.1 billion for just those bonds due to school construction. Much of this money went to the Memphis School System under the stupid ADA formula giving the City Schools $3 for every $1 dollar spent on county school construction.

Now I am looking at the facts and figures of each system. I have attached a very complete and well done 2 page fact sheet about the Metro Nashville School System. I asked Shelby County Schools and Memphis Schools for similar open records information. I got a courteous reply from Shelby County and after a short period I received a well done document similar to the Nashville document. I still have not heard back from the Memphis School System which is not surprising given my past experience with them.

I have not done a complete analysis but here is some information. One thing is obvious. If we combine the two school systems into one huge system, by law we will have to bring the County cost per student up to the City cost and this will add $71 million dollars to an already bloated bureaucratic cost. ($7930-$6397= $1533X46584 students+$71.4 million dollars. Do you really want to take Mayor Herenton's advice on this?

	Number of Students	Annual Budget	Cost per Student
Memphis City Schools	114756	$910000000	$7930
Shelby County Schools	46584	$298006557	$6397
Metro Nashville	74155	$563230100	$7595

 

Click here to see a report on the Metro Davidson County school system

Click here to see a report on the Shelby County School system

Click here to see how our bonded debt increase in Shelby County is mainly due to schools construction and payments to the Memphis School System per the ADA formula