Cuts to School District Budgets:
Consequences for Mississippi Children

Children go through school only once. Mississippi teachers have one year to lay the critical foundation necessary for a child to move successfully through school and into a bright future.

Research has shown conclusively that, when a child is provided an ineffective education for two consecutive years, that child never fully regains his or her lost potential.

Education is simply not one of those things that can be cut one year and then recouped in subsequent years. If we fail to provide our children an adequate education in even one year, our children will be forever diminished, and our state will not meet its full potential.

It is absolutely essential that we utilize every resource available to us to avoid long-term consequences to our children and our state. If we employ a careful, thoughtful approach to the challenges that face us we can ensure that Mississippi children are provided an adequate education, even in difficult economic times.

Please call your legislators, the lieutenant governor, and the governor today and ask that they support The Parents’ Campaign’s position:

For current year purposes:

· to use a portion of the Rainy Day Fund sufficient to keep school districts whole for this fiscal year, and

· to pass immediately an increase in the tobacco tax to generate additional revenue for the remainder of the current fiscal year.

For subsequent year purposes:

· to increase revenue by the increased tobacco tax by an amount sufficient to minimize or eliminate depletion of the Rainy Day Fund.