WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): Even after a recent special session on education and immigration, the Tennessee General Assembly continues to focus on these issues with new legislation that could have a big impact on Memphis and Shelby County. With us again to talk about that is political analyst Otis Sanford. Welcome back.
OTIS SANFORD: Thank you, Chris. Good to be back with you.
BLANK: First, Otis, next week we could finally see the first real proposal for a state takeover of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools District, a result of the school board's controversial firing of Superintendent Marie Feagins. Republican Rep. Mark White's proposal would likely give a nine-member state-appointed advisory board of experts -- in areas such as education finance, facilities, and curriculum -- authority over the current nine-member school board. So let's start with this. Could this be a positive thing for the district, and how so?
SANFORD: Honestly, Chris: I know you've heard that term, "too many cooks in the kitchen." That's what comes to mind when I hear this proposal. I'm a little dubious about it right now, primarily because they're calling it an advisory board, but really what it is is an oversight board. Or as you said, it'll have authority over the elected board. I'm just not sure that this is, at the end of the day, the right way to go.
BLANK: You and I talk quite a bit here about how state government likes to micro-manage Shelby County, and this is largely because we're seen as too liberal. But in this case, we have seen many parents and certainly some politicians saying out loud that running the largest and poorest school district in the state is a high-stakes business. Is it time for intervention, or maybe some course correction by, let's say, professional people who understand this?
SANFORD: Maybe? I mean, you can make an argument about it. I would certainly hope that once the details come out next week that there will be plenty of opportunity for public discussion, for public hearings, and have a full airing of this issue and not let it be driven on emotion like the firing of Superintendent Feagins was. It should be about what is really best for the for the district and for the students.
BLANK: Well, finally Otis, Tennessee lawmakers this year did want to make clear their support of Trump's immigration policies. But one new proposed law that has stirred a lot of controversy was a plan to deny the children of undocumented immigrants a free public education. Opponents say that, you know, kids don't really have a choice of where they live and it is cruel to keep them from being educated. But are these lawmakers right in theory? Create hardships for families and then those families will just voluntarily return to their native countries?
SANFORD: I don't see that happening at all. I mean, that's ridiculous.
BLANK: Ridiculous, really?
SANFORD: Yeah, I think it's ridiculous. I mean, they're not going to just get up and return to their countries because their kids can't go to school. And plus, we got a problem here, Chris, in that this flies in the face of a Supreme Court decision from four decades ago that said you could not deny a child an education, whether they were undocumented or not. And so this is going to be hashed out in the courts. I do agree with state Rep. Mark White, who is opposed to this. He and I agree on this piece of legislation. The Supreme Court has said you can't do this. So it's an unconstitutional move. And why are you creating just another opportunity to have to spend money to defend something in a court of law that is unnecessary at this point. I think that's what Mark White is saying here. I think that's what other Republicans are saying here. Despite what red meat Republicans and red meat conservatives say. It's a decision that is tailor-made to go to the courts and be shot down.
BLANK: Well, I don't know if it would be shot down necessarily because state lawmakers have been passing laws recently like the abortion ban in the state that was overturned by the Supreme Court. Is this another thing that they've decided maybe the current makeup of the Supreme Court would be willing to take another look at this 40-year-old law?
SANFORD: Well, you may have a point there. I guess when I'm saying "shot down," I think it'll be shot down by the lower courts. A federal district court, I believe. Anyone in Tennessee would likely do that. But you raise an interesting point with the US Supreme Court. There are no guarantees that they're going to uphold precedent. They haven't done it yet. They have overturned a whole lot of things including Roe vs. Wade. So yeah, I mean they may look at what this Supreme Court did back in 1981 and say, "No, we're going in a totally opposite direction because the person who put us here, Donald Trump, wants us to." And so yeah, if you're looking at it that way, it could hold muster.
BLANK: Well, it remains to be seen on on both of these issues and we will keep an eye on them as they come up next week or so.
SANFORD: No, absolutely. I mean this is an interesting time for Tennessee in the education area and a lot of other places.
