Shelby County Schools (Tennessee)

The Shelby County School District is a public school district that serves the city of Memphis, Tennessee as well as the unincorporated areas of the county.

Due to the city of Memphis dissolving its school charter in 2011, as of July 1, 2013 all Shelby County residents were served by SCS, including those in Memphis. Following passage of a state law lifting the ban on establishment of new school districts, the six incorporated suburbs in the county each voted in July 2013 to establish six independent municipal school districts. As a result, as of the start of the 2014 school year, the six incorporated cities in Shelby County (other than Memphis) are each served by separate school districts.

As of August 2014 there are six municipal school districts known as Collierville Schools, Germantown Municipal Schools, Bartlett City Schools, Arlington Community Schools, Lakeland School System, and Millington Municipal Schools. Shelby County Schools serve the city of Memphis, Tennessee and unincorporated areas.

The Shelby County School District was developed in the late 19th century, after public schools were established in the county. Until July 1, 2013, it served residents of Shelby County, Tennessee, exclusive of the City of Memphis, which established its own public school system in 1868.

Over decades of development and change, the city of Memphis and Shelby County differed in their ability to support their school systems. By the 1990s, the state ranked as 45th in funding of public schools. The legislature passed the Education Improvement Act (EIA) in 1992 to improve funding of schools as well as election of board members and school management. Until 1996, Shelby County school board members had been appointed by the Shelby County Commission.

This arrangement was changed due to Tennessee's interpretation of its constitutional requirement that county officials, including school boards, be elected by all residents of the county, as well as elements of the state's Education Improvement Act of 1992, which addressed election of school boards. The Shelby County Commission established seven single-member districts to elect representatives to the school board; the districts represented the entire population of the county, although the city of Memphis at the time had its own school system and its residents were not served by the county system. The population of Memphis comprised more than 75% of the county's population in 1990, and would have dominated the school board with six of seven positions. (In 2013, Memphis has 70% of the county's population.)

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