Six years ago, the bottom 5% of academically ranked schools in the state were taken over by the Achievement School District. Among them were Frayser and Corning Elementary School, Georgian Hills, and Whitney Elementary School.
Now, those schools are scheduled to be handed back over to the Shelby County School District. Karanja Ajanaku, with The New Tri-State Defender, says there are other options, aside from SCS control, that the schools could take – including petitioning to become charter schools or even closing their doors for good.
Ajanaku joins the Commercial Appeal’s Ryan Poe and the Daily Memphian's Bill Dries for a journalist roundtable on this week’s WKNO-TV Behind the Headlines. Guests discuss the future of the Achievement Schools, as well as the results of the 2019 Memphis municipal election.
Poe believes that the election results show that citizens "want people [in office] that believe in Memphis." Poe adds, "a lot of the campaign was about Memphis going in the wrong direction. I think Memphians gravitate to the message that Memphis has problems but we love Memphis and we can be better."
In addition, guests discuss economic development, as well as the attempt to limit gentrification in the process.