The last time many Shelby County Schools system parents remember this much turmoil about local education was when they were children nearly 40 years ago.

If their children are younger and they have no first-hand memory of court-ordered busing that began in 1973, other parents have almost certainly heard secondhand of the era in which Memphis City Schools students in one neighborhood were bused to another neighborhood for purposes of racial integration.

It is perhaps a function of the passage of time that the experience hasn’t come up more in the public hearings that began this month by the schools consolidation transition planning commission. It’s also surfaced in other meetings by the various suburban governments outside Memphis weighing still tentative plans to form their own school districts as a reaction to the coming merger of Shelby County’s two public school systems in August 2013.

But the sentiment and its influence is present, says Daniel Kiel, a planning commission member and a professor at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law. Before he found himself with a seat at the table for the merger planning, Kiel had studied and written in detail on the desegregation of MCS in the 1970s.

“The fears that people have about this process are so much echoing fears from the desegregation process and are in many ways driven by the outcomes from the desegregation process – busing and the white flight and the annexation that resulted,” Kiel said. “All of that, I think, is reflective of exactly what happened.”

But he is quick to add there is a “huge, stark contrast” between then and now.

“We couldn’t really legally be further apart. I think that to the extent people feel this is a repeat of that process – that’s just wrong,” Kiel said. “It feels in some ways like a continuation of an effort to equalize education opportunities or make educational opportunities more broadly available. But it is not a situation where you are going to have a court ordering a school district to do things. This is much more collaborative of a process.”

To that end, Kiel presented last week a primer on Plan Z court-ordered busing in Memphis and what the current process is for consolidating the school systems.

Plan Z was the name given by Memphis Federal Court Judge Robert McRae to the specific court order he issued that set out which students would go to which schools.

Last year’s ruling by Memphis Federal Court Judge Hardy Mays in the schools consolidation case did not set any specific structure for the consolidated school system, let alone delve into which schools would be attended by which students.

Mays ruled the state laws governing schools consolidation were legal including the planning commission that is to create the blueprint for how that new school system is structured and how it will function. The court order also set the date for the merger.

The settlement agreement among all parties in the lawsuit that followed the ruling set the structure for the merged school board that governs both systems now and is then pared down to govern the consolidated school system.

“I think it is informing people’s feeling,” Kiel said of echoes from the busing era. “But it is not informing the work of the TPC or the work of the school board. It’s not informing legal requirements of the process.”

The sentiment is just one part of what transition planning commission members are hearing as their public meetings with citizens pick up in frequency and vary in location.

The hearing last week at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church drew more than 150 people. Many were Memphis City School system parents who want the new merged school system to come to retain optional schools programs as well as CLUE programs for “gifted” students.

Charlotte Garcia said choosing the right school for parents is still a hit and miss proposition. And she is hoping for stability in a merged school system.

“We have to chase education for our kids,” she said. “We’re running.”

Angie Britain expressed a common sentiment also found at the two hearings held so far by the planning commission in the county outside the city. She is uneasy about a larger school system.

“It makes me very nervous when I think about the structure,” she said.

The public hearings continue Monday, Jan. 30, with a 6 p.m. session at Bellevue Baptist Church, 2000 Appling Road, and a 7 p.m. session at Arlington High School, 5485 Airline Road. So far, nine other sessions have been scheduled across Shelby County in February.