Why should we care?
SCS’s ability to provide a quality, equitable education is being undercut by high teacher turnover and year-long teaching vacancies, as well as significant maintenance deficiencies within the schools, all of which leads to higher financial, educational, and health costs. A lack of access to wraparound services provided by qualified social workers, psychologists, and nurses inhibits the successful treatment of trauma or Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE). Abuse, neglect, and trauma significantly increase the likelihood of suspensions, juvenile criminal behavior, and incarceration. With a median age four years below the national average, Memphis’s population can support economic development, but only if we provide children in our community access to opportunities and support.
What is a Public Meeting?
MICAH’s annual Public Meeting occurs each fall with the goal of engaging the broader community of Memphis and Shelby County into the work MICAH is doing in a distinct moment. The Public Meeting shows a “slice” of our current work.
The work of equity and justice is long-term. It took generations for us to get to where we are today, with systems of inequity that have been fine tuned for decades. We are not going to solve the issues of our time in an hour. To that end, MICAH is in it for the long haul.
There are immediate and critical issues in our community, such as the MLGW cutoffs and the unjust killings by police officers, to name a few. We are in the process of turning this acute anger and awareness into long term plans for system and community change. MICAH is creating these spaces while continuing the work we have been doing for almost four years.
The “slice” you will see of our Task Forces at the Public Meeting is where we believe our sustained work intersects with the direct needs of our time.
MICAH'S ASKS & PUBLIC OFFICIALS' RESPONSES
We show our POWER for JUSTICE through ACTION!
Race and Class Equity in the Justice System:
Both newly-elected public officials, District Attorney Steve Mulroy and Juvenile Court Judge, attended our public meeting in person and the task force made the exact same asks we made of former DA Amy Weirich and former Juvenile Court Judge Dan Michaels in 2020 and 2021. Both DA Mulroy and Judge Sugarmon answered with resounding “Yeses” and gave MICAH their commitments to finally move this work towards community justice and safety forward.
Since MICAH's 3rd public meeting in 2020, our task force has been asking our
elected DA and Juvenile Court Judge to work with us on reducing non-violent
youth transfer; at our 2021 Public meeting we also asked our DA to commit to
creating a Conviction Review Unit. Both in 2020 and 2021 we received answers of
“no” and neither elected official attended our meeting. This year, with a new DA
and a new Juvenile Court Judge, we will again ask the same questions on our
issues for a third year.
We have worked hard to educate the community on our issues and the importance of our county elections on these issues through our "Seeking Justice" Campaign in 2021 and our "Our Power. Our Vote. Our City." Campaign in 2022.
Education Equity
With the most recent superintendent resignation earlier this year, Memphis and Shelby County Schools is faced with the task of selecting a new superintendent for the 4th time in 10 years. Furthermore, the MSCS school board has not conducted a complete search as laid out by the Superintendent Selection and Appointment Procedure Policy 1002 since 2008. Each time the policy has been abandoned, the indicated points of community involvement are also abandoned. The lack of consistent leadership is impacting our students, teachers, administrators, and
school communities on a daily basis and the limited community input has left us feeling skeptical and left out.
During MICAH's Annual Public Meeting, the Education Equity Task Force presented a clear 3-part ask of the MSCS School Board Members:
Economic Equity
Since 2018, MICAH's Transit Equity team has fought for reliable, affordable, and
equitable public transit. Working closely with MATA as well as city and county
government leaders, the Transit Equity team has championed more funds to be
allocated to public transit--from both city and county resources. At MICAH's
Public Meeting, we will highlight the work of this team and its contribution to the
2022 city and county votes for an eventual $30+ million in dedicated, recurring
funds for public transit!
The work of the Housing & Banking Team continues to ensure that residents of
the former Foote Homes, now Foote Park, will have ample opportunity and
support to move back into the newly developed former public housing
community. We'll hear from a MICAH leader and former Foote Homes resident on
the work of her church's MICAH Core Team to keep that work moving forward.
A new subgroup of Economic Equity was born this year: Workers' Rights! We'll
share more about this growing collaboration between labor and faith
communities, as well as how workers' rights shows up on the November 8 ballot
in the question on Amendment 1.
