Memphis schools’ paddle ban cost could hit pocketbook hard
The plan, which advocates more personal intervention and counseling to improve behavior, includes two years of discipline training, conferences and a massive expansion of the in-school suspension program.
School board president Wanda Halbert, who voted last November to keep paddling students, criticized the discipline plan created by Supt. Carol Johnson.
“How much money does it take to effectively, efficiently implement corporal punishment? Zero. Now I’m paying $5 million to replace it,” she said.
A big chunk of the $5.6 million — $4.3 million — is for salaries for 170 in-school suspension teachers. Most Memphis schools don’t have an in-school suspension program.
“The cost is small when you consider the ramifications of what corporal punishment did to students,” board member Deni Hirsh said, “and how positive (the new program) can be for children who will, some maybe for the first time, get positive reinforcement.”
While $887,578 of the projected cost will come from an already approved 2004-05 budget, the remaining $4.7 million must come from a 2005-06 budget that board members are struggling to get the Shelby County Commission to fully fund.