Unintended Consequences
State Sen. Jim Kyle rightly warns of the unintended consequences that could occur if lawmakers raise rural teachers' pay to equal that of teachers in urban public schools.

Lawmakers could create conditions that cause teachers to leave urban schools for rural districts offering the same salary and fewer headaches, said Kyle, a Memphis Democrat and vice chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

A lot of teachers live in Shelby County but work in suburban school systems because they think it is safer there and working conditions are better, he said. "When you raise salaries it is going to cause more urban teachers to get the hell out of the urban school systems and go to the 'burbs."

I think he's right. The long-term fallout of the state Supreme Court's ruling requiring equalization of teachers' salaries could be boosting good suburban school districts at the expense of problem-riddled urban districts. And then some lawyer representing urban school districts may ask the court to rule that allowing districts to hire teachers means inequitable distribution of the best teachers, requiring the state to handle teacher hiring and placement statewide.

It may take a decade, but that's where this ruling is headed: more state control over what should be local decisions. Soon, the decision of which teacher will teach in the public school classroom where your child goes each day to learn will be made not by your local principal or even your local school board, superintendent or administration. It will be made by a bureaucrat in a downtown Nashville state office building, a bureaucrat who probably previously worked at the DMV, whose only job is to enforce "fairness." Educational quality of your child's school will become a secondary priority.