Jackson Free Press

With no shortage of suggestions about how to fix the conditions and the lagging achievements of public schools during this legislative session, Democrats say that the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, or MAEP, has yet to receive the attention it deserves. Instead, lawmakers crafted new laws covering everything from charter schools, teacher standards and scholarships, early childhood education and when to advance children to the next grade.

Lawmakers designed MAEP to provide poorer school districts enough money to educate their children; however, since the Legislature passed the law in 1997, it has only fully funded the formula twice--in years when the influx of federal dollars after Hurricane Katrina bolstered the state budget.

That's a problem, Democratic lawmakers say, and they intend to bring the conversation back to those roots.

On Monday, March 25, the House Democratic Caucus, Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus and Mississippi Democratic Trust will hold a public hearing on full funding of the state's public schools.

"The hearing, I think, serves several purposes," said Rep. Linda Whittington, D-Schlater, who served on the House Education Committee until this session. "One, I think we'll hear from (Rep. Cecil) Brown and some others that have a lot of experience with the budget and with funding education, and I think we'll lay out a roadmap for how we can fund this."

The argument from the Republican side of the state house has been nothing if not consistent: Mississippi doesn't have the money for MAEP, nor is money the answer to bringing education up to par.

"There's no evidence that throwing the money at the problem would help it," House Education Committee Chairman Rep. John Moore, R-Brandon, told WLBT.

Democrats argue that the state hasn't sufficiently funded education, yet, and can't know whether more funding would make a difference. It may be a matter of political will and correcting priorities.

"We have passed right at $50 million in cuts to the general fund by giving different tax breaks to businesses," Whittington said. "If we don't have enough money to fund our critical shortage needs, why are we doing that? When they say they don't have enough money to me, I say, 'Then stop giving tax breaks.'"

Rep. Rufus Straughter, D-Belzoni, and a current member of the House Education Committee, will chair Monday's hearing.

Straughter asserted in a release about the hearing that the answer to Mississippi's education challenges begins with fully funding public schools, where 90 percent of the state's children attend class.

"As we fulfill our moral obligation to fully fund our public schools, we'll see tremendous improvements in the quality of the education we provide our young people," Straughter said. "This is how our local schools can afford to hire teachers or teacher assistants or some combination of them and to implement music, art, drama and other great programs that enrich our children's lives."

Democratic Caucus Leader Bobby Moak, D-Bogue Chitto, added, "It's fundamentally immoral to allow corporations to make money off of our children's public education and long past due for the state's leaders to fund the real needs of our public schools."

The March 25 hearing will be in Room 113 of the state Capitol from 10 a.m. to noon.