Shelby County Schools
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27
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17
EPISODES
11
PODCASTS
Search complete. 27 mentions across 17 episodes found for "Shelby County Schools".
Sep 24, 2026
Wendy BellHOST
Should I read them to you or do you care? Detroit, number one.
Wendy BellHOST
Oh, you mean the, the place where they can't do math and zero of the students, right, were able to read at grade level? Detroit, Baltimore, then Jackson, Mississippi, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Memphis, Shelby County Schools, Washington, D.C., Newark, Rochester, New Orleans, Birmingham, Atlanta, Richmond, Kansas City, St.
Wendy BellHOST
Louis, and East St. Louis.
Wendy BellHOST
That's the first 17.
Todd StarnesHOST
these problems.
Todd StarnesHOST
The Memphis Shelby County Schools, right now, the issue is being re-litigated in the courts with the state takeover.
Todd StarnesHOST
Do you think that was a good idea? Do you think the state should step in and take over a failing school district?
David HatleyGUEST
Yeah, I don't ever like when a state takes over anything.
JakeHOST
Bottom 50 school districts in the country.
JakeHOST
Where does Memphis Shelby County Schools punch in? We'll talk about that.
JakeHOST
We've also got some local headlines, including...
JakeHOST
How is the Shelby County Clerk's Office with new clerk Lasagna Hall doing on the backlog? We have an update.
1 HR 17 MINS LATER
JakeHOST
So we will talk about that coming up.
JakeHOST
Also, we got the list of 50 worst schools in the United States.
JakeHOST
Where does Memphis Shelby County Schools show up? And again, anything you got for me, 683-0989.
JakeHOST
683-0989.
Sarah RichieHOST
I just can't even imagine how everyone who needs to be assessed is assessed.
Ellee BreitGUEST
No. I've actually went through the process to try and get the free testing through the Shelby County school system just to see how that process would go.
Ellee BreitGUEST
I ended up getting private testing because it was taking so long.
Ellee BreitGUEST
I'm still going to go through with the process for my youngest son just to see...
Ellee BreitGUEST
So I started the process because my son, I had gone through, uh, a speech pathologist that I thought was great, but we weren't seeing, um, progress really.
Ellee BreitGUEST
And, um, I was like, oh, you know, I've heard such good things about the speech pathologist through the schools.
Ellee BreitGUEST
And I wanted to go through the process of trying to get a speech pathologist set up for him through like Shelby County School System.
Ellee BreitGUEST
And so I went down that route and I and I found out all the information about the, you know, the way to get resources to the public schools for private school students.
Todd StarnesHOST
We just had a story that dropped yesterday.
Todd StarnesHOST
Memphis Shelby County Schools dropping another year in enrollment down to 101,000 students, still the largest district in the state.
Todd StarnesHOST
What do we do to make sure kids are in school, and is that going to be a big part of your platforms?
Lauren PinkstonGUEST
It's a huge part of my platform.
Todd StarnesHOST
I've always believed that parents need to prepare their kids.
Todd StarnesHOST
For me personally, I think kids need to be able to read before they step foot into a school building.
Todd StarnesHOST
That being said, once we're getting them inside Memphis Shelby County schools, they're still not reading at grade level.
Todd StarnesHOST
And as a taxpayer, as an investor, it concerns me that we're failing the kids here.
Andrea WilliamsGUEST
That situation is tied up in the courts right now.
Andrea WilliamsGUEST
But as far as the state of Tennessee, the state has already determined that Okay, Metro, or I'm sorry, Memphis Shelby County Schools are doing so poorly at educating these students that we need to bring some outsiders in that will oversee their locally appointed school board to make sure that students get the education that they need and that their parents are believing that they're going to get when they send their kids to school every day.
Andrea WilliamsGUEST
So that is an extreme case.
Andrea WilliamsGUEST
That is You know, we've tried to improve situations, you know, over years, and we see that there's not enough ground being covered.
JakeHOST
Got it.
JakeHOST
Memphis Shelby County Schools continues to lose students year over year, with over 2,000 fewer enrolled in the district compared to last August.
JakeHOST
At an August 25th board meeting, Executive Director of Accountability Bill White said, said just over 101,000 students were registered in Memphis-Shelby County schools by the end of the first month of classes.
JakeHOST
That is a 2.2% decrease from last year's count at 103,280 students.
JakeHOST
The decrease is part of a decade-long enrollment drop in the district by around 9% from 2014 to spring 2025, but it's not as severe as district leaders estimated before the school year began.
JakeHOST
They expected an enrollment drop because of an increase in school options, including the vouchers, and also declining birth rates in Shelby County.
JakeHOST
That's scary to think about.
JakeHOST
All right, so you have fewer students getting enrolled in Memphis-Shelby County schools.
JakeHOST
All right, so we've got somebody who has worked in the government before.
JakeHOST
Mara Black Sullivan is Lowry's choice as chief administrative officer, a Memphis native with leadership experience at the City of Memphis and Shelby County Schools.
JakeHOST
Sullivan returns to Memphis after having served as the COO in Chattanooga.
JakeHOST
All right, so somebody who has worked in Memphis Shelby County Schools.
JakeHOST
Brian Collins, the chief financial officer, Let's see.
JakeHOST
He was the finance director under A.C. Wharton's tenure as Memphis mayor.
JakeHOST
All right, so we got another government guy who's been there before.
JakeHOST
David Bradford, former Shelby County Commissioner, will be the public works director.
Charles McLartyGUEST
Some are government supported.
Charles McLartyGUEST
As I say, She- Memphis Shelby County Schools operates WQX, so I don't think they do on-air fundraising per se, but many of the others do in one form or another.
Charles McLartyGUEST
And also community support from local businesses.
Charles McLartyGUEST
Uh, so very much that's really the local tie.
7 more episodes mention Shelby County Schools.
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