Jackson Free Press

Gov. Haley Barbour called for a 2.9 percent average funding reduction to various state agencies today including education and Mississippi Public Broadcasting. He also called for state universities, including HBCUs, and public school districts to be consolidated.

Barbour released his budget proposal for the 2013 fiscal year at a Tuesday morning press conference. His budget proposal of $5.48 billion represents a reduction of approximately 2.9 percent in average cuts to various state agencies.

"We need to return to discipline," said Barbour, who will leave office in January.

Also, his $2.1 billion appropriation for K-12 education represents a 1.4 percent decrease, achieved primarily by reducing administrative expenses and consolidating school districts. Barbour said that while nationally K-12 schools spend 7.6 percent on administrative costs, Mississippi spends 8.8 percent.

"If we reduce ours to the national average, we would save $24 million a year," Barbour said.

He added that consolidating some school districts would improve the quality of education. If school districts overspend, he said that those districts would be able to borrow money from the state to meet any budget shortfalls.

Under his college consolidation proposal, which he floated in previous budgets, Jackson State University would absorb Mississippi Valley State University and Alcorn State University; Mississippi University for Women would join Mississippi State University. All of the campuses would remain open and the mergers would save the state $10 million, Barbour said.

Among other recommendations, he proposed slashing funding to agencies such as Mississippi Public Broadcasting and the Missisisppi Arts Commission by 15 percent, except for programming specifically aimed at education. He compared MPB to privately owned broadcasting outlets such as the Discovery Channel, History Channel, Animal Planet and Nickelodeon, which he said are profitable without receiving government support.

"If they can do it in the private sector, we ought to be moving in that direction," Barbour said.

Barbour also included a 1.6 percent decrease in the state's corrections budget.

Previous Comments

ID

165625

Comment

Take out education from the headline, insert BARBOUR DECIMATES CORRECTIONS BUDGET. I mean if a 1.4 percent decrease can be considered a sweeping cut, such as it's characterized above, I can only imagine how intense a description we can conjure up for the 1.6 percent decrease in the MDOC budget. I highly doubt collegiate consolidation will ever happen, but secondary district consolidation needs a serious look.

Author

RobbieR

Date

2011-12-20T14:49:41-06:00

ID

165626

Comment

The only question I have and I posed this before on numerous occasion, why not reduce our JUCO funding as well? Mississippi has 15 Junior Colleges with some of those schools having more than one campus in various counties, if not their own. I can't argue the point of consolidating the HBCU's since so many other southern states, such as Texas combined their own HBCU's with the historical white institutions in their own state. I just have to call it like I see it.

Author

Duan C.

Date

2011-12-20T15:07:21-06:00

ID

165627

Comment

Not to worry, Barbour spread the love around. With respect to community colleges, Barbour trimmed 2.27 percent, to $254 million from $260 million a year ago. We'll report more numbers in tomorrow's paper.

Author

rlnave

Date

2011-12-20T16:14:51-06:00

ID

165628

Comment

Take out education from the headline, insert BARBOUR DECIMATES CORRECTIONS BUDGET. A couple of points, RobbieR: (1.) "Decimate" would be inaccurate, of course, as the word means a cut of 1 in 10 or 10% (or, in some usages, something even more extreme than that). (2.) According to the FY2011 approprations information posted on the DFA website, Corrections in 2011 was about $313 million vs. the $2.62 billion spend on Education, meaning in actual dollars the cuts to education are considerably more significant, even if the percentages are similar. (3.) Also, for whatever reason, Corrections got $50 million more in the 2011 budget than it had gotten in the 2010 budget, whereas education was cut by $365 million in 2011 vs. 2010. So trimming Corrections by 1.6% would suggest only a tiny slice of a larger pie in 2011. So, it's interesting not only in *this* (2012) budget proposal, but also in the context of what Barbour and the Legislature have been doing year over year -- significant cuts to education. So, RobbieR, while it might feel like you could substitute corrections for education in the headline, I'm afraid you really can't. Not in Mississippi's budget. And certainly not using your wording. That's one reason that context is so important for these discussions.

Author

Todd Stauffer

Date

2011-12-20T16:47:40-06:00

ID

165629

Comment

If the Mississippi Legislature allowed every county to have one school district and every city of 20,000 or more to have a separate school district, it would immediately cut the current number of districts in the state by a third--from over 150 to about 100, reducing administrative costs and putting more money in the classrooms. Does Bolivar County, for example, with a total population of maybe 35,000 need six school districts--none of which serves more than a few hundred students? Of course not. But the problem politically is when you talk about merging any two districts you immediately have both sides adamantly against it. All administrators want to protect their turf, no matter how small. So I'm not sure I'd hold my breath on that proposal, regardless of what Barbour says or wants.

Author

ed inman

Date

2011-12-20T19:13:04-06:00

ID

165635

Comment

Like Todd said, the biggest problem with cutting K-12 education that much is that Mississippi has consistently underfunded education for years. Read this story from 2009 for more info: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/schools_short_on_pay_roll_012109/

Author

lizwaibel

Date

2011-12-21T14:45:57-06:00