We could think of it as our own little selfish Brexit - the sudden rush of local municipalities to run as fast as possible from the Hamilton County schools system.
Some Signal Mountain folks started quietly talking many months ago about pulling out of the county system, then that talk was made official just over a week ago when the Town Council voted to consider forming a citizen committee to explore creating an independent Signal schools district. On Tuesday, Red Bank followed suit. Now East Ridge and Soddy-Daisy also are considering committees to investigate separate school districts.
If all four municipalities eventually form their own school districts, Hamilton County Department of Education would lose 17 of its 76 schools - and quite a chunk of change, too.
Signal Mountain Town Council members were told that initial research suggests the mountain schools would receive $19 million a year in county and state taxpayer money to educate students there, while currently the county receives that money and spends $13 million a year on Signal schools.
If that research is correct, it might sound promising to the Signal council on its surface. But the town would have additional expenses over and above the teachers and students now in its schools. Expenses such as hiring a superintendent, forming and electing a school board, staff benefits and insurance, maintaining and/or upgrading facilities, technology and student transportation, just to name a few.
Conversely, Hamilton County could lose three of its top performing schools and the $19 million - some of which apparently was being spent in other schools. The county could recoup some money by selling the Signal schools properties to the town, unless the Hamilton County Board of Education were to decide to follow through with a clearly defensive threat made by the board's attorney.
In an email to Signal Mountain, attorney Scott Bennett warned the town that if it starts its own district, its school buildings could be sold to developers or repurposed for the county's school system.
That kind of jockeying does nothing but create more ill will, and Hamilton County already is struggling with plenty of that in a year when it made headlines again and again over poor test scores, the Ooltewah High School hazing/rape case, the Woodmore bus accident, increased scrutiny from state education officials and lawmakers over poor student achievement in its lowest performing urban schools, in part, because of the system administration's failure to spend $13 million in federal aid wisely. Add to that discouraging list the uncertainty of Hamilton's central office leadership. We've had an interim superintendent since April, and the board just a few weeks ago finally voted to hire a search firm.
Yet with all that said, no one has articulated any compelling arguments for leaving - or for staying.
For all of the talk of seceding, neither Signal Mountain nor Red Bank leaders have made the case for why they should go independent. Some community members say they believe the move will grant residents greater control over student education and opportunities and provide increased autonomy to meet student needs.
How exactly? School standards are school standards. School principals everywhere have control over only about 3 percent of their school's budget. So how specifically will a new system name change translate to a better school day for Aiden and Emma at Nolan Elementary?
Likewise, neither Hamilton County school administrators nor school board members have stood up to say why these communities and Hamilton County are better together. More importantly, county leaders haven't demonstrated that they are working to turn the Titanic around. Instead the system's attorney sends a nasty email.
Truth be told, the best planning for schools right now is going on at the Chamber of Commerce where talk about Chattanooga 2.0 seems to be in a holding pattern as four new school board members get their footing.
At the risk of sounding as though we're tuning up to play Kumbaya, we'll just start singing it.
Signal, Red Bank, East Ridge, Soddy-Daisy, Collegedale, Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga and Hamilton County need to play together nicely, energetically and faithfully to make public schools throughout this county better for our children. No, not just better. Fantastic. Today.
That cannot be accomplished in silos.
We already know a thing or two about wasting education dollars, but imagine how much more we can learn about squander when we pay for three or four or five central offices. Forming new, separate school systems will cheat all of our children.
Wake up, folks. Stop blaming. Start going to school board meetings and Hamilton County Commission meetings. It isn't just change you want. What you want is for your schools to be better. That will happen only when the school board and the Hamilton County schools administrators and the County Commission hear from you - again and again and again.
Kumbaya.