State Republican lawmakers are launching an “intervention” of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools district following the release of a 329-page interim forensic audit detailing “systemic problems.”
Republican House and Senate leadership formally announced their plans Wednesday in a press conference with Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury Jason Mumpower, whose office received the report from CliftonLarsonAllen LLP following a three-year investigation, which ran from fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2024.
“The failures evaluated so far include more than $1.1 million in waste and abuse, much of it related to contract spending within the school system, another $1.7 million in spending that is not in compliance with district policies and procedures,” Mumpower said. “It is notable in their work that CLA was not able to locate at least 40 percent of the I-9 verification forms it tested in regard to personnel in the school system.”
Mumpower said that more than 40 CLA staff members worked to compile the report, including data collection and more than 200 interviews. “Auditors have dealt with dysfunctional recordkeeping with outdated IT systems and obvious fiscal mismanagement,” he said. “They have dealt with an obvious disregard for policies and procedures within the district. The challenges they have faced have made this work harder, but they have also verified why this audit was necessary.”
“This only represents three years … but this has not been going on for just three years — this has been going on for decades,” said Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville), adding that he hopes Democrats will work with Republicans to address issues within MSCS.
“What this audit shows is that the Memphis-Shelby County school system is about as organized as a $5 bin from Walmart,” said Sen. Brent Taylor (R-Memphis).
“The next step will be to to move that legislation and wind up in conference committee, where we will hammer out the differences between the House version and the Senate version,” Taylor said, pushing back against the move being characterized as a “state takeover.” Taylor called it “the first step in solving our education issue in Memphis.”
“This is the state authorizing a local intervention that will be made up of the board of managers, who will be Memphians,” Taylor said. “They will be appointed by Speaker Sexton and Lt. Gov. McNally and Gov. Lee. They will be Memphians, and they will be intervening to try to turn our school system around, and I think that's an important distinction. It's a state authorizing a local intervention, not a state takeover.”
“If we can solve crime and we can solve education in our community, there is no reason that Memphis can't be the next Southern ‘it’ city,” Taylor said.
CLA has completed only 25 percent of its review of MSCS contracts, with the entire review expected to be completed in June.
“What they have already found in just the 25 percent they have completed is astounding — it shows complete disregard of students and parents and taxpayers in Shelby County,” Mumford said, noting the possibility of a federal criminal investigation “if anything rises to the level that's prosecutable.”
Democratic Rep. Torrey Harris, House Minority Leader Karen Camper and Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari observe a Republican press conference in the Capitol's Old Supreme Court Chambers, April 1, 2026
Memphis’ Democratic state delegation pushed back against the Republican effort in their own press conference.
“It's an unfair correlation to say just because you have bad bookkeeping, that means that you're going to have bad teaching in a classroom,” said Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis). “We've lost sight of the real issue here, and that is making sure that our children are in an environment where they can learn and grow and where it is community-driven.” Akbari acknowledged “some serious back-of-house issues” within the school system, calling for a balanced approach that respects voters and their elected officials. She also noted changes in district leadership and school board makeup since the timeframe of the audit.
“What we're hoping moving forward is that this discussion can be collaborative, that it can be centered on boosting Memphis leadership, not replacing Memphis leadership,” said Akbari. “That it can be centered on providing the tools that the school system needs to be able to achieve, not just in the classroom, but also in their administrative buildings.”
State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), who was not present at the Democratic press conference, told the Scene that he isn’t buying Republicans’ claims.
“If they were interested in collaboration, we would have seen it by now,” Pearson said later. “They aren't interested in collaboration. They have been focused and hell-bent on taking over our school board's power and our ability to control where our $2 billion budget goes, and that's what they've done today, and that's what they're going to do with the legislation.”
“This is not how government is supposed to function and operate well, and we're going to fight as hard as we can to preserve the integrity of our school system, advocate, and make sure that things are better for our kids,” said Pearson. “But this isn't how we should be using our power. This is a weaponization of power that's destructive to our community.”
