The Parents' Campaign Home Page Legislators, Funding, & Accountability by School District
Candidates for
Candidates for
Senate District 34
All candidates for this office were offered a questionnaire by The Parents’ Campaign regarding education issues.
Responses appear below. The winner of the November 8, 2011, general election is indicated below.
Gary Blakeney Haskins Montgomery - WINNER
NO RESPONSE
What is your vision for Mississippi, and how does education fit into that vision?
I have a vision for a better quality of life for all Mississippians. Statistics show a person’s life time earned income is directly related to the level of education a person obtains. If a person earns more income they can give their family better opportunities.
What do you see as the greatest challenge facing Mississippi schools and how will you address it?
Mississippi schools need adequate funding. I will continue to fight for funds for education. We must be innovative to gain more parent involvement to have successful schools.
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?
Yes
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.
Yes
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)
I would support NBCT funding.
• Vocational Education
I would support funding. It is important for students to have the opportunity to learn a trade in order to enhance his/her life after high school.
• Gifted Education
I would support funding. It is important to have the gifted student challenged throughout his/her education to help enhance his/her future.
• Special Education
I would support funding. This is a high importance in education to give this student every help in order to produce a more productive adult.
• Education Enhancement/Teacher Supply Fund (EEF)
I would support funding. My wife is a teacher of 29 years and I have a daughter that is a teacher; I understand the cost related to the class room teacher. Most teachers spend out of pocket in order to have the materials needed to make their classrooms more inviting and learning oriented.
• Teacher Salaries
We need to increase salaries and protect annual service increases for our teachers.
• Chickasaw Cession Payments
This is law and I support it.
• The Public Employee Retirement System (PERS)
We must protect the integrity of PERS. We have a contract with our public employees.
How can Mississippi get creative to ensure sufficient revenue to fully fund education and other vital state services?
We must find ways to grow our economy to create more revenue.
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 would support appointed superintendents if the people of that school district support the concept.
What would you do to address Mississippi’s teacher shortage?
We must be more supportive of our teachers. We need to pay our teachers competitive salaries. We must find a way to let teachers use their skills to teach and enjoy helping a student learn while they achieve goals. We have teachers leaving the system because of the pressure of consultants looking over their shoulders, teaching only state mandated benchmarks in order for students to perform well on state testing, and because there is not any freedom to let the teacher or the students use creative processes.
What steps should be taken to improve the quality of teaching in Mississippi?
I feel that all teachers should attend college to be trained in teaching. The alternative route used to fill teacher shortages has proven not to give the system good teachers. Some of these teachers are in the classroom for up to three years and still didn’t pass the required testing. Those students have suffered from an inexperienced teacher.
What steps should be taken to improve the overall quality of Mississippi school leaders?
We need to improve the quality of school leaders through the state and local support. We need to make sure they are well qualified and have resources to provide on-going training.
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?
Yes. We could phase in early childhood in our present system. I would support doing less testing, do away with paying consultants, and put that money in early childhood. It is important for our children to be exposed at an early age to books, book language, proper use of language, and using social skills to interact with others. This will help our graduation rate at the high school level.