City Council Approves School Funding Method

January 27, 2010

The Memphis City Council approved a method of giving Memphis City Schools $50 million.

To come up with the $50 million the city council will take $28 million from the reserve fund, will ask mayor A C Wharton to cut $10 million from this year’s budget and the remaining $12 million will be a debt "pre-payment" from the school system.

The ci ty of Memphis says Memphis City Schools owes it $12 million from a debt the city forgave a few years ago. Councilman Reid Hedgepeth says that money should be factored into the $50 million the courts said the city had to pay the school system.

"I think there is a lot of money owed to us," says Hedgepeth. "Its differences of opinion on both sides."

MCS Attorney Dorsey Hopson says he’s not sure if the board of education will approve $12 million of the $50 million owed coming from a past debt to the city.

"In order to meet maintenance of effort they’d have to give us $50 million," says Hopson. "But what would happen is we’d have to pay the $12 million back to them, so in essence we’d have to take $12 million out of the budget that’s already passed."

Hopson says the Board of Education is likely to hold a special meeting next week to talk about the funding method.

In the meantime, mayor A C Wharton says he will start looking at ways to cut $10 million out of this year’s budget.

"It’s a quality of life issue and its far below what the citizens have come to expect at a basic level," says Wharton.

Wharton says city jobs could be lost.

Councilwoman Barbara Swearengen ware proposed a funding method that did not include cuts, and instead raised taxes. Councilman Kemp Conrad’s method did have cuts, but took the rest of the money out of reserves, instead of asking the board to pay back an old debt.

"I think we’re going to be back here in two weeks trying to find $50 million," says Conrad.

The schools systems attorney and the board are likely to meet this week to discuss options. The board could meet next week to vote on the funding method.

The city still needs to come up with another $50 million for funding the schools next year.