Brent Taylor
Brent Taylor Vs. Mark White’s Education Reform Plan- One Could Make Tennessee #1, While One Would Keep Memphis In Crisis Under Democratic Control
By: Public Affairs Staff on March 31, 2025
A Trojan Horse Filled With Democrats Inside: Brent Taylor’s Proposal A Dangerous and Disappointing Concoction
Senator Brent Taylor’s proposal- backed by no research is frankly, shocking for a Republican lawmaker from Eads—a wealthy, suburban, conservative district far removed from Memphis’ dysfunction.
Instead of removing control from the very politicians who have destroyed Memphis’ schools, Taylor’s plan hands oversight right back to the democratic led Shelby County Commission—the same body that has repeatedly enabled and benefited from corruption, favoritism, and crony politics.
Recalling the Recent Trail of Corruption
For years, Memphis and Shelby County’s political leadership—specifically the Democratic-led City Council and County Commission—have operated with a level of dysfunction and ethical misconduct unmatched in the state. The recent scandals are well-documented:
- Shelby County Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr.’s federal indictment for bribery and tax evasion who remains unchecked by Shelby County Commissioners.
- The Joint Ordinance by democratic led Shelby County Commissioners and the democratic led Memphis City Council in support of the More For Memphis scam: A fraudulent $1.4B scheme to funnel taxpayer dollars to political insiders tied to the Tennessee Prospers PAC
- The profanity-laced threats by Memphis City Councilman JB Smiley toward Superintendent Feagins on behalf of political donors – Democrat JB Smiley and the democratic led Memphis City Council Members have strong ties to the democratic lead Shelby County Commissioners, causing an overlap of unchecked corruption
Taylor’s proposal and overreach outside his jurisdiction:
- Gives appointment power to the democratic led Shelby County Commission—the same commission whose most influential leader – Edmond Ford Jr. is under federal investigation and involved in grant scandals – nearly all commissioners blindly back Ford or remain silent.
- Allows the democratic County Mayor to appoint a superintendent—placing partisan Democratic control over the entire district.
- Preserves the existing political power structure that has enabled fraud, waste, and poor academic performance for decades.
This isn’t reform—it’s surrender.
There is a darkly comic paradox here: Brent Taylor, a conservative Republican from the suburbs, has become an unlikely guardian of Memphis’s Democratic establishment in the school saga. Brent Taylor wouldn’t dare propose that in Eads why offer it in Memphis? Some speculate that Taylor, who once sat on the Memphis City Council in the 1990s, retains personal relationships with city power players and prefers not to alienate them.
Brent Taylor’s plan entrusts the fix to the same political ecosystem that produced the problem. It bets that the Shelby County Commission – a body not exactly renowned for its efficiency or purity – will step up as a virtuous steward of the schools. It’s a dubious bet. Not two months passed after Taylor unveiled his idea before a prominent County Commissioner, Edmund Ford Jr., was hit with a federal indictment for allegedly taking bribes and kickbacks, and cheating on his taxes. This is the same Edmund Ford Jr. who, as a city councilman years earlier, had faced ethics complaints for steering city contracts to a family business. Ford’s indictment in 2025 reinforced what many in Memphis already feared: allowing county politicians to pick school board replacements could simply reshuffle corruption, not eliminate it. Taylor’s bill would even permit the County Mayor – currently a Democrat – to handpick a new superintendent under certain conditions. But the county mayor’s office itself has seen political retaliation and turf wars with the school system in the past. In Memphis’s zero-sum patronage game, giving more power to local officials often translates into more opportunities for political payback and deals cut in back rooms.
Why Mark White’s Proposal is the Best Path Forward
State Rep. Mark White’s plan is everything Taylor’s is not—researched backed, principled, strong, and necessary.
Unlike Taylor, White is a Memphian. He knows firsthand the decades of institutional failure and cannot turn a blind eye.
White’s proposal:
- Strips power from the corrupt City Council and County Commission.
- Creates an independent, state-managed nine-member Board of Managers—comprised of Shelby County leaders but outside the influence of local politicians and PAC donors.
- Temporarily removes political interference to restore stability and academic excellence.
- Follows proven research backed models like Houston and Camden, which have successfully improved failing school districts under state intervention.
White’s plan is not only constitutional—it is a moral imperative.
It is the only proposal that recognizes what every Memphian knows:
The Democratic political machine in Memphis-Shelby County has run the schools—and the entire city—into the ground.
It is beyond foolish to expect the same politicians who created this crisis to fix it.
Choosing Courage Over Comfort
In the end, the battle for Memphis’s schools is shaping up as a test of political courage and ethical clarity. It asks whether leaders are willing to disrupt a failed status quo – and endure the cries of “undemocratic!” – in order to safeguard the futures of children who cannot afford to wait. Representative Mark White has chosen disruption. His stance is reminiscent of the reformers in earlier eras who took on Tammany Hall in New York or the Daley machine in Chicago – confronting a local political machine not out of ideology but because the machine had become morally bankrupt and an obstacle to progress. White’s board of managers may not be a silver bullet, but it is a clean break from the paralysis that has gripped Memphis schools. It carries the promise of a fresh start with leaders chosen for competence and integrity, not elected on the backs of political patronage. Crucially, it also carries the weight of the state’s authority, signaling that Tennessee will no longer tolerate one of its largest cities betraying its children’s potential.
Senator Brent Taylor, for all his good intentions, has chosen comfort. His proposal comforts the local African American led democratic machine by assuring them they won’t be fully sidelined; it comforts those who fear change by suggesting the solution can be found in familiar corridors of power. But comfort is a luxury Memphis’s students cannot afford. They need urgency. They need adults willing to be unpopular if that’s what it takes to tear down the barriers to a quality education. Taylor’s plan may be credible to those who think any compromise is inherently virtuous, but in the glaring light of Memphis’s crisis it looks more like an elegant exercise in political side-stepping. It avoids the hard truth that sometimes the people in charge are the problem.
Final Thought
If this crisis were happening in Brent Taylor’s district in Eads, no Republican would propose handing control to Democratic city leaders. Yet that’s exactly what Taylor’s bill does to the students of Memphis—students who’ve suffered under this political corruption for far too long.
For decades, Memphis’s chronic educational failure has been the Achilles’ heel of Tennessee’s progress. Even as the state touts rising academic achievement elsewhere, the continued dysfunction in Memphis casts a long shadow, undermining Tennessee’s educational reputation and moral credibility. The future of Memphis’ children—and Tennessee’s national education ranking—depends on rejecting Taylor’s politician-first Trojan Horse filled with democrats inside and opting for White’s children-first reform plan filled with hope inside.
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