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Tennessee Republicans are pushing forward their plans to take over Memphis-Shelby County Schools, and they’re using the recent overhaul of Houston’s public school district as a model.
In 2023, Texas’ top education leader removed the Houston Independent School District superintendent and elected board members and replaced them with his own picks. Now, some Tennessee lawmakers want a similar intervention in Memphis. They’re inching closer to establishing a state-appointed board of managers that would have control over the district’s budget and leadership hires.
While takeover advocates applaud higher school ratings in Houston as a sign of the takeover’s success, those ratings don’t measure achievement in the way that Tennessee Republicans say they want to see Memphis schools improve.
Bill sponsors point to Memphis’ low proficiency rate as the main problem they’re hoping to solve with a takeover. Last year, over 75% of Memphis students failed to achieve proficiency in reading and math. But the district earned the highest possible score in academic growth, or student improvement on state tests, for the fourth year in a row.
That academic growth isn’t enough according to Republican lawmakers pushing for a takeover, such as House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Memphis Republican Rep. Mark White, the sponsor of the legislation. White and Sen. Brent Taylor, sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, say Memphis students should be testing on par with the state average, where around 40% of students test as proficient.
“You can have a little bit of growth because the children are so far behind in the classroom, but if you don’t get them up to proficiency, we’re still not there,” White said in a Jan. 20 interview with Chalkbeat.
What counts as student and school improvement?
Research shows that most state takeovers happening in the past three decades haven’t successfully improved student achievement, especially for Black students. Houston is touted by supporters as a notable exception.
Over the past two years, HISD students have improved their reading and math scores. On average, just over half of HISD students in grades 3-8 achieved reading proficiency in 2025, and over 42% did the same in math. That’s around a seven percentage point increase from 2023 for both metrics. And most grades — third, fifth, sixth, and seventh — outperformed the state average.
Overall school rating scores also improved, with Houston leaders announcing that no schools received an F rating on the state report card last year. But some researchers and the Houston teachers union have raised concerns about the validity of the A-F rating system, which was overhauled the same year that the state takeover began.
In 2023, the Texas Education Agency altered its accountability system to place more value on growth, or how much students improve, than on raw test scores.
Cardell Orrin, director of the nonprofit Stand for Children Tennessee, said Memphis students are also seeing significant growth in reading and math proficiency. But they aren’t being rewarded under Tennessee’s achievement-focused grading system.
“We all know there are ways to game accountability systems,” Orrin said. “If your goal is to get schools to perform better … then we should be really clear about the how and what of it.”
It’s not clear what changes the state-appointed board would make for Memphis-Shelby County Schools. The takeover legislation could change significantly before lawmakers pass it.
White said the board would first conduct a 90-day in-depth analysis of the district and have the power to enact any changes it deems necessary. A newly installed board would have final say over the district’s budget, the superintendent’s contract, and charter schools, essentially seizing all major decisions from the elected school board.
Though GOP lawmakers say they are primarily dissatisfied with the district’s academic achievement, the MSCS takeover has also been spurred by years of school board dysfunction. The board’s firing of then-Superintendent Marie Feagins just months into her tenure led to White and Taylor filing takeover legislation last year.
“It’s not just the failing schools that need to be fixed,” Taylor said. “It’s the systems and the central office that needs to be corrected. They spend more time on personnel and real estate than they do on policies to better educate and improve educational outcomes for our kids.”
Would Memphis scrap district leadership and overhaul classroom curriculum?
In Houston, the new state-appointed superintendent, Mike Miles, implemented a controversial teacher pay model based on test score performance. He also cut 1,500 central office positions and reduced the number of support staff helping students experiencing homelessness and hunger.
Miles requires over 130 Houston schools to use a standardized curriculum he created under a program called the New Education System. He says the move is designed to help teachers, but some opponents — including students — say the lessons feel restrictive and militaristic. Libraries now serve as disciplinary centers or are gone from schools entirely.
Texas’ takeover also spurred a massive student and teacher exodus in Houston, which are already critical issues plaguing MSCS schools.
Domingo Morel, a professor at New York University who studies state takeovers of local schools, said most local residents wind up unhappy with the methods used by state interventionists and the results.
“Because what state takeovers ultimately do is they force the community to absorb certain policies that they just don’t want,” Morel said. “People don’t want to lose arts programs. They don’t want the libraries to close. They don’t want their teachers to be fired.”
Houston’s takeover largely centered on the underperformance of one school. After years of lawsuits and protests, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath appointed a new district superintendent on June 1, 2023. He also selected a nine-member school board made up of Houston residents, most from the same wealthy neighborhood in the city.
Tennessee Republicans are promising to put local residents on their state-appointed board as well. But Morel says including local residents doesn’t necessarily better represent local concerns.
“It ultimately creates tensions when the community has a particular vision for what they want to see, but the state has a conflicting vision,” he said. “Those appointed board members, who are they going to listen to? They have to be accountable to the state.”
White didn’t rule out any of the changes enacted in Houston for the Memphis takeover, including whether the new board would immediately fire the district superintendent.
“The main thing I’m interested in is making sure we address the challenges and the weaknesses in the Memphis-Shelby County school system,” he said. Houston is a model, he said, “but that doesn’t mean our model will be exactly the same.”
Morath announced in June that Houston’s takeover will continue through 2027. The current language in White’s takeover bill, which Taylor has thrown his support behind, would include a three-year limit for the takeover board with an option to extend.
Despite their agreement, there isn’t full support for the bill yet among legislative Republicans. The most notable holdout is Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, a Republican from Oak Ridge who is hesitant to install a handpicked board without input from local elected officials.
Next steps for the takeover effort are expected to become more clear in late January, after lawmakers are briefed on an ongoing audit into Memphis finances.
Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.
