Proposal would allow Tennessee cities form own school systems

Friday, April 12, 2013, Vol. 37, No. 15

NASHVILLE (AP) — A measure that would allow cities to form their own school systems is scheduled to be heard on the Senate and House floors Monday evening.

The legislation would lift a 1998 ban that forbids municipalities from starting their own school systems.

The measure would benefit six Memphis suburbs seeking to bypass a merger of the Shelby County and Memphis school districts and run their own schools.

The suburbs voted in August to create their own districts after the Legislature passed a narrowly crafted bill that allowed it.

Shelby County officials argued in court that the law violated the Tennessee Constitution because it applied to only one county. A federal judge agreed and struck it down.