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Group Wants Public-Education Funding on 2015 Ballot
By Donna LaddMore over, Personhood supporters. Public-education backers are working to put funding the Mississippi Adequate Education Program on next year's ballot—being that the Legislature simply refuses to fully fund it.
The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal is reporting that Jackson attorney Luther Munford has filed the initiative language on behalf of a group called Better Schools, Better Jobs:
The Mississippi Adequate Education Program is the formula passed in 1997 that determines how much funding each school district should receive. It has been traditionally underfunded, however, including a shortfall of more than $1.3 billion during the last six years. This year’s appropriation is more than $250 million below what the formula requires.
The state’s constitution leaves little recourse if legislators don’t fund MAEP, Munford said. The initiative would change that.
It would require Mississippi to use money from economic growth to fill the void. Its language says at least 25 percent of new growth of general fund revenue would go into MAEP over a period of years until it was fully funded. It does not require a new tax.
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