School Funding: What is Reasonable?

(Guest column by Nancy Loome, published in Mississippi newspapers including The Meridian Star, Mississippi Business Journal, and Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal)

Posted 11/30/18

What happens when elected officials undervalue public education? Mississippians – especially our children – are left at a competitive disadvantage. Communities wither and once-thriving businesses disappear. Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann recently shared the results of a survey showing that an educated workforce is by far the top priority of Mississippi business leaders, particularly of small business owners.

Yet Mississippi continues to slip further behind our neighboring states in the race to a brighter future. When it comes to school spending, Arkansas, second only to Mississippi in lowest median income in the nation, out-invests us by nearly $1,400 per student. Mississippi, failing year after year to comply with our own school funding law, is significantly out-spent, per student, by Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee, as well – all primary competitors in economic development.

More startling is the fact that, if our state statute, the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP), were fully funded, Mississippi’s public schools would still fall far short of our neighbor states, trailing them by an average of $600 per student. Some of our lawmakers think even that level of funding is too much to ask. State leaders proposing to rewrite Mississippi’s public school funding law argue that the current formula calls for an unreasonable investment in our K-12 system. Is the MAEP formula unreasonable? Or is the problem our state leaders’ unwillingness to make the investment needed to level the playing field on which our children compete with their peers, even their peers in the states most like ours?

The new school funding law proposed earlier this year by legislative leaders, when fully phased in, would have reduced the school funding called for in state law by an estimated $290-million annually – a giant step backward in a race we already are losing badly. It would increase significantly the multi-million-dollar-per-year advantage Arkansas’s children have when competing with ours. Those lost funds would mean fewer teachers and larger classes; fewer interventionists, reading coaches, counselors, and dyslexia therapists; inferior technology and reduced access to first-class career and technical training; older, less-safe buses and more failing HVAC units and leaky roofs – the list goes on and on.

Public school advocates believe any new school funding formula should move our children – our workforce of the future - closer to their peers, not further away. Indications are that Mississippi voters and business leaders agree.

Fully funding the MAEP would help to close the gap, leaving us $600 per student short of what our neighbors spend. Isn’t our future worth at least that?

Nancy Loome is executive director of The Parents’ Campaign. She and her husband Jim have three children, two graduates of and a current student in the Clinton Public School District.

Sources: National Center for Education Statistics; Y’all Business Survey 2017, Mississippi Secretary of State

#RedforEd Funding Protests Sweeping the U.S.

Posted 4/30/18

#RedForEd marches continue in Arizona (Source: Arizona Republic)

Arizona: How three decades of tax cuts suffocated public schools (Source: Vox.com)

Colorado teachers protest at state capitol (Source: Denver Post)

Colorado teachers are rallying at the capitol for more funding and higher pay (Source: Chalkbeat.com)

What teacher strikes are really about - there's more to the story (Source: CNN.com)

Which states might experience the next wave of ed funding protests? (Source: The Brookings Institution)

How tax cuts for the rich led to Oklahoma's teacher strike (Source: Vox.com)

Kentucky teachers rally for education money, fixes to their pensions (Source: USA Today)

The ripple effect of the West Virginia teachers' victory (Source: The Atlantic)

Pro-public Education Wave Sweeping Mississippi and U.S.

Posted 5/2/18

Public school supporters across the country  are taking to the streets to demand that their elected officials put their money where their mouths are when it comes to strengthening public schools.

Educators in the #RedforEd movement are using their "teacher voices" as they march on their state capitols and head to the polls, demanding higher salaries and better funding for their public schools. Recently, teachers in five states have left their classrooms to strike or rally at their capitols, and the pressure appears to be working. In West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona, and Colorado, lawmakers and governors are promising significant raises and/or better school funding in response to the public outcry. Read more here.

There's a common thread among the states seeing protests: years of massive tax cuts have decimated state budgets and led to deep cuts in public education funding.

Mississippi has been named as one of the top two states ripe for a similar revolt due to poor school funding and teaching conditions. Mississippi voters agree that our legislators need to do better, declaring in poll after poll that they support raising taxes to better fund public schools. And they're following through in the voting booth. The newly formed nonpartisan Mississippi Public Education PAC is undefeated, with all four of its endorsed state legislative candidates claiming victories in recent special elections.

Show your support for Mississippi's public schools:

• Invite your friends, family, and coworkers to sign up for our emails

• Share our posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

• Support the Mississippi Public Education PAC

• Develop strong relationships with your legislators

• Consider running for the State Legislature in 2019

Your voice matters, and when added to thousands of others, it can make an even bigger difference for our children and our state!

Statements on K-12 Appropriation, Defeat of HB 957

Posted 3/20/18

Senate Republicans break ranks to kill historic school funding overhaul by Bracey Harris, The Clarion-Ledger, 3/1/18, excerpt:

As part of the deal for a new funding plan, all districts in the state would have been shielded from funding losses for the next two years. (Lt. Gov. Tate) Reeves indicated that the bill's failure means the hold harmless provision no longer exists. So districts with declining enrollment might see less under MAEP next year.

Reeves said because of this some schools, and superintendents who lobbied against the new formula, may regret it.

"If you live in Lee County or you go to Tupelo Public Schools they would have received more money for their school districts next year," Reeves said. "Since the plan didn’t pass the likelihood that they’re going to see less money next year than they’re seeing this year is pretty high. Maybe when the superintendents see that is ultimately the case they’re probably not going to like the fact that they lobbied so hard against the bill that actually would have benefited them and their school districts."

Controversial bill to rewrite Mississippi's public education funding formula is dead in the Senate, Mississippi Edition, Mississippi Public Broadcasting Radio, 3/2/18, excerpt beginning at minute 03:41 

$8 million was available earlier for education, will it still be in final budget deal? by Bobby Harrison, Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 3/18/18

See also: video clip of House debate on HB 1592, K-12 appropriation bill, 2/13/18