What is your vision for Mississippi, and how does education fit into that vision?

Mississippi's brightest days are ahead of us. With a pro-growth work environment, with low taxes and with a strong educational system, we are poised to create jobs and secure our children's future. As a father of two, my wife Leigh Ann and I know that our most important duty as parents is raising safe, healthy and well-educated children. Leigh Ann and I are both products of the Mississippi public schools. For Mississippi to advance, we must do everything we can to ensure that all our children get the educational results we are paying for.

What do you see as the greatest challenge facing Mississippi schools and how will you address it?

Different schools face different challenges; we must remember this when we look to improve education in our state. Some places - like Madison, where we live - must accommodate extreme population growth. Other places urgently need help with early childhood education. Still others may need greater public and parental support and involvement. A one-size-fits-all approach will never get our children the results they need. I hope to help local school districts find the solutions that will help them improve and succeed

For Fiscal Year 2012, the MAEP appropriation is underfunded by $237,386,693. Assuming no more than 2% inflation, the formula would likely require about $2,365,180,600 for Fiscal Year 2014 (to be decided in the 2013 Legislative Session), about $392-million more than was appropriated for Fiscal Year 2012. Would you support getting to this full funding level in two legislative sessions?

I support full funding of MAEP, and where the realities of available funds allow, I believe we should always fully fund our schools. Every year I serve in the Senate, it will be among my top priorities to fully fund education.

Will you commit to closing by a significant margin the current gap between current funding and full funding of the MAEP for Fiscal Year 2013 (to be decided in the 2012 Legislative Session)? The MAEP is currently underfunded by $237,386,693.

Every year I serve in the Senate, fully funding education will be among my top priorities.

The following issues are very important to the 60,000 members of The Parents’ Campaign. Frequently throughout the year, we get calls and emails regarding these topics, and many of the questions submitted for this questionnaire were about funding for these specific areas. Where do these fit into your funding priorities, and how would you, as a legislator, address them?

• National Board Certification Program Stipend/National Board Certified Teachers (NBCT)

The National Board Certification Program Stipend is funding that was promised by the state, and therefore it is funding that the state should deliver. A government should avoid mandates; but when a government takes the step of issuing a mandate, it must follow that mandate with funds.

• Vocational Education

We must innovate to meet the challenges of this economy. Mississippians need to be trained with the skills to compete for good new jobs. If we build on our existing network of employers, community colleges, high schools and other school resources, we can create a steady stream of ready-to-hire, productive workers in manufacturing, agriculture, health care, energy, technology and other industries.

• Gifted Education

There is no such thing as over-promoting our best-performing kids. The highest achievers promise to give the best return on every dollar we spend, and the worst tragedy would be letting our best products spoil on the shelf. I would not be the person I am today without public funding of gifted education, so I know we must focus our help on the kids who can achieve the most for our state and never let them down.

• Special Education

Special needs children are our most vulnerable students, and we have decided to give them the care they need in our public schools. Special education is another state mandate that must be funded.

• Education Enhancement/Teacher Supply Fund (EEF)

The Education Enhancement / Teacher Supply Fund was a state initiative, and as such the state should fund it.

• Teacher Salaries

We must pay teachers competitive salaries to attract and retain the best teachers. My grandmother and my mother were career public school teachers. I know that schoolteachers truly do not do it for the money. But we must make it feasible for teachers to graduate and know they have a profession that will compensate them and provide them the benefits we agree to give.

• Chickasaw Cession Payments

We should probably look at the Chickasaw Cession Payments as well as the system of Sixteenth Section payments to make sure both systems still work as they were intended. School districts under each system need to be treated fairly, and one district should not be burdened by the ever-shifting landscape of Sixteenth Section rules and the work and money it takes just to comply with those rules while another does not.

• The Public Employee Retirement System (PERS)

My grandmother and my mother were both public school teachers for their entire careers. They labored to shape young lives, and were pillars of the small town where I grew up. The State of Mississippi made a deal with them, and the state will uphold that agreement.

How can Mississippi get creative to ensure sufficient revenue to fully fund education and other vital state services?

I'm not sure what good a funding formula does if it's never fully funded. School districts need to be able to predict what kind of funding they will have based on a working formula. We probably need to revisit the MAEP and get a system that more legislators would be inclined to embrace so that we can actually fund it.

In Mississippi, some local school superintendents are elected rather than being appointed by their boards. Would you support or oppose a phase-out of elected superintendents, moving to appointment as incumbent elected superintendents retire or leave their positions?

I believe Mississippi's citizens should have the most possible local control over their schools. That includes the ability to select their school leadership. The leaders we choose ultimately depend on the pool of available talent. If we attract talented, trained leaders, it doesn't matter how we select them.

What would you do to address Mississippi’s teacher shortage?

Accountability, financial incentives and investment in schools. Teachers should be awarded for the results they achieve, and when our kids' achievement goes up, more teachers will want to be a part of our educational system.

What steps should be taken to improve the quality of teaching in Mississippi?

Graduates of Mississippi's universities are getting better and better with every passing year. The legislature needs to monitor the universities closely and make sure we are giving them what they need to produce the best teachers. Jim Barksdale and other leaders in our state know that a functioning combination of teachers, parents and administrators are essential. We must train teachers and reward measurable progress in our students' scores

What steps should be taken to improve the overall quality of Mississippi school leaders?

Our school leaders clear the path for our students to succeed. We must hold school leader accountable based on measurable results. Where they fail our students, we must work with them to get better results. If student performance does not show measurable improvement, we must find leaders who can get results we need. Education is an investment in young minds and in our state's economy. We must get it right, or pay the consequences.

Would you support state funding for a statewide non-compulsory early childhood education program? If yes, what is your plan for getting state funding for early education? If no, why are you opposed to state funding for early education?

All research supports the value of early childhood education. Better educational achievement in Mississippi compels early childhood education. The hard question will always be one of funding. I am open to creative solutions for funding early childhood education in the context of a responsible state budget.