Jackson Free Press

Education Appropriations
Responding quickly to dire news about Mississippi's school districts, House lawmakers approved a bill Jan. 21 that would appropriate $68 million for the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, the state's primary funding mechanism for low-revenue districts.

House Bill 1383 would divert $68 million from the state's general fund, an amount equal to the projected revenue for the 2009 fiscal year from a $1 ciga-rette tax, which the House approved last week. The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration.

The move comes on the heels of Gov. Haley Barbour's decision last week to slash MAEP funding by $76.6 million as part of an overall $85 million cut to K-12 education. Last Wednesday, Mississippi Superintendent of Education Hank Bounds said that he expected 14 school districts to have negative fund balances by the end of the school year as a result of the cut.

Bounds met with district superintendents Wednesday to explain the effects of cuts. He asked superintendents to refrain from cutting anything directly related to instruction.

"Let's do everything possible to protect the academic integrity of each school," he said.

The Hinds County School District has already taken steps to reduce its expenses, Superintendent Stephen Handley said, cancelling field trips requiring student fees and freezing new hires.

"It's not just the school districts that are hurting," Handley said. "It's families and communities."

Dr. Lonnie Edwards, superintendent of Jackson Public Schools, said that while he was not ruling out any measures, he would not sacrifice academic quality.

"We're planning to do an overall assessment of all of our programs," Edwards said.

Charter Schools
With Mississippi's current charter school law set to expire in July, the Senate moved Monday to authorize more charter schools in the state. The current law allows only six charter schools, but SB 2664, which passed by a vote of 37 to 11, increases that number to 20, or five in each of the state's four congressional districts.

Charter schools are usually operated by tax-exempt organizations that receive state funding but follow the regulations of a charter issued by a school board, rather than the standard regulations applied to traditional schools. At the moment, Mississippi has only one charter school, Hayes Cooper Elementary in Merigold.

Jackson Sens. Hillman Frazier and David Blount, both Democrats, and Walter Michel, a Republican, supported the measure. Alice Harden, D-Jackson, voted against the bill, and John Horhn, a Democratic Jackson mayoral candidate, voted present.

Bounds has stated in the past that he does not support charter schools.

"We understand that there are some great charter schools," Department of Education spokesman Pete Smith said. "But overall, research shows that charter schools don't perform as well as traditional schools."

Transportation for Patients
Jan. 20, the House voted to dip into the state's rainy day fund again to fund dialysis transportation for end-stage renal-disease patients. House Bill 865 would appropriate $1.1 million for the remainder of the 2009 fiscal year, which runs through the end of June. Proponents of the measure argued that around 500 low-income dialysis patients could die without help from the state. Federal Medicare funds cover the cost of dialysis but not travel costs associated with it. The bill has been referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Public Service Commission
Fallout from a conflict over Entergy's rate increases led House lawmakers to pass a bill on Jan. 22 merging the state's Public Utilities Staff with the Public Service Commission. Two weeks ago, the elected members of the PSC refused to endorse a Public Utilities Staff audit of Entergy's electricity prices that failed to address whether Mississippians received the cheapest electricity Entergy could have provided. The Public Utilities Staff reports to governor appointees.

House Bill 1090, reverses a 1990 decision to separate the two bodies. That decision stemmed from a corruption scandal involving two past Public Service Commissioners.

Unionization Bickering
Proving that no subject is too small for heated debate, House members traded accusations on Jan. 21 over a concurrent resolution honoring workers who have died on the job. Sponsored by Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Biloxi, and Rep. James Evans, D-Jackson, House Concurrent Resolution 25 commemorates Workers Memorial Day, an effort chiefly supported by trade unions to call for stronger work safety laws on April 28.

Rep. Brian Aldridge, R-Tupelo, introduced an amendment inserting language supporting secret unionization ballots. Defending his amendment on the House floor, Aldridge raised the specter of national legislation that would do away with the secret ballot and asked legislators to send a message in its defense. Supporters of the original resolution accused Aldridge of politicizing a simple commemoration. After 30 minutes of debate, the bill passed, with Aldridge's amendment.