This conversation sums up in a nutshell why the pre-K vote failed; lack of trust in our government structures. In the end, no hundreds of thousands of dollars spent by philanthropists or local non-profits can overcome this lack of trust.  As a newcomer to Memphis, I admit that I don’t understand all of the full and rich history of this city and what it’s meant to be a Memphian.  It means many good things but one thing I’ve picked up on is that it seems that to be a Memphian requires a lack of trust in one’s government.  Not a mistrust in the traditional libertarian vein, but rather a mistrust that simply believes that any bold step by our government is destined to fail.  Nowhere else that I’ve lived have I encountered the amount of mistrust and cynicism towards government that I see from residents here in Memphis.

The sad part about this lack of trust is that it appeared that the mayor and the city council bent over backwards to ensure residents that the tax dollars would indeed be spent appropriately and wisely.  A special council was formed that would handle the pre-K money.  The city council would NOT handle the funds individually.  The council was to be made up of trustworthy citizens.  And the remainder of the sales tax increase not allocated towards pre-K would go towards sales tax relief.  Yet even these steps were still not enough for a general public.

Just like this sales tax increase would have allowed us to immediately keep what we have and expand it going into next year, its failure will also have immediate consequences for Memphians.  Supt. Hopson is already predicting cuts in pre-K classrooms across Memphis due to a lack of funding.  We will never improve as a city, or do right by our kids until we chose to trust each other, work together and put in the necessary social, political and financial capital necessary to make it happen.  We were given an opportunity with this proposal to take a step in the right direction and do so in a manner that would likely ensure it’s success, but we’ve too little confidence in our leadership to take that step.  It it will immediately impact our kids.

Public policy decisions are rarely perfect and they involve trade offs.  Opponents of the sales tax increase decried its impact on working families in Memphis.  But removing access to vital education services like pre-K for these same families will be even more debilitating in the long run as children continue to enter school behind their peers for lack of a solid pre-K education.

Ultimately this vote came down to a lack of trust.  I don’t know what it will take to fix this in our city, but its a serious issue that needs to be addressed within our community if Memphis has any hope of truly achieving its potential as a city.  The only way Memphis will start to change is if we put an end to this cynicism and start trusting those we put in charge.  We’ll continue to dream of what might be for our city and for our kids, but in the end it will only be a dream until we decide to take the step to put it into reality.