Sponsorship idea for school facilities is worth a test

There are pitfalls for public school systems to navigate as they allow sponsors to fund and slap their names on new or improved facilities. But it would be a mistake to discourage the trend. Public schools need all the friends they can get.

A pilot project under development at Shelby County Schools should provide an informative test run for the concept. White Station High School parent Richard Myers wants to find sponsorships for a library, an outdoor courtyard and a classroom addition at his son’s school.

And then he wants to move on to a similar endeavor at Whitehaven High.

Therein lies a crucial element to the plan. Sponsorships must not be allowed to create a system of the haves and the have-nots in the public schools, an uncomfortable reminder of the days when districts offered separate and unequal facilities for black and white students.

More basically, sponsorships can’t be used as a rationale for underfunding public schools from public coffers. It remains the responsibility of state and local governments to educate children in the community.

Again, Myers’ plan, which would not relieve the district from its responsibility to address deferred maintenance at White Station, reflects that principle.

The plan was made possible last fall when the Shelby County Schools Board of Education changed its policy to allow the sale of naming rights. Next step for Myers: persuading the board to approve the specific White Station plan.

We say give it a go. For a pilot project, this one is set on a productive course.

It could bring needed improvements to one of the county’s most academically successful schools, including a badly needed two-story, 10-classroom expansion.

It could establish a precedent that would lead to improvements at other schools throughout the district — improvements that, along with enhanced academic programs such as optional schools, would give more affluent families a reason to choose Shelby County Schools for their children.

It could engage people and businesses in the public school system who have only viewed it from a distance heretofore, giving them something specific they can point to as their contribution to public education in Shelby County and demonstrate their civic-minded impulses.

Preparing the budget for Shelby County Schools will never become a cakewalk. The district’s fiscal challenges will continue to grow as the student population and public funding that is tied to the population falls. That goes for capital projects as well as routine operations and the fulfillment of responsibilities to its retirees.

But if sponsorships for new school facilities are successful, they could enhance the image of a school district that — as everyone knows — has a crucial mission to fulfill if Memphis as a community has a chance to prosper and grow.