The educational fate of 150,000 black public school students in Memphis hangs in the balance as officials weigh their options. The struggling, majority-black Memphis City Schools system is hoping to force a merger with a successful, majority-white district, reports The Associated Press.

Some are taking the fight over funding and student performance as acts of institutionalized racism, making tensions soar between supporters and opposition everywhere from the school board meetings to union rallies, the state legislature and federal court.

On March 8, Memphis voters will decide whether to approve disbanding the city schools system and turning education over to the county district, which is earning good grades on its own and doing everything it can to stave off consolidation, says The Associated Press.

The white Shelby County School Board chairman, David Pickler, denies any accusations of racism.

Read More: Memphis Schools Push for Merger With Wealthier, Whiter District

(Washington Post) — The sprawling Wake County School District has long been a rarity. Some of its best, most diverse schools are in the poorest sections of this capital city. And its suburban schools, rather than being exclusive enclaves, include children whose parents cannot afford a house in the neighborhood.   But over the past year, a new majority-Republican school board backed by national tea party conservatives has set the district on a strikingly different course. Pledging to “say no to the social engineers!” it has abolished the policy behind one of the nation’s most celebrated integration efforts.  And as the board moves toward a system in which students attend neighborhood schools, some members are embracing the provocative idea that concentrating poor children, who are usually minorities, in a few schools could have merits – logic that critics are blasting as a 21st-century case for segregation.

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