Want to know how much corporate tax cuts are costing your school district? See how much your school district is getting for the coming school year (and how much it has been underfunded since 2008). In recent years, lawmakers have said they were doing the very best they could to make good on the Legislature’s decades-old promise […]
See Your School District’s Funding for 2016-2017 Read More »
Last week, Governor Bryant announced that he is cutting public school budgets for the current year. Other state agency budgets are being reduced, as well. You can see here how much your school district will lose due to the cuts – all of which will be deducted from your district’s MAEP payments for May and June, the last
Your School District’s Budget Cut Read More »
It’s crunch time! In the next four days, six legislators will decide whether or not to change the law that requires adequate funding for our children’s schools. HB 458, the average daily membership (ADM) bill, is reportedly being used as a vehicle to make changes to the MAEP, ostensibly to reduce the amount required by the
Help Us Protect School Funding Read More »
The Senate has adjourned the 2016 session; the House must return tomorrow to dispose of a motion to reconsider before it adjourns sine die. You can see here the results of all the bills that we tracked this session. Governor Bryant announced today that he will make additional cuts to current-year budgets, including public schools, as revenue is
Governor Bryant Announces More Budget Cuts; Senate Adjourns Sine Die Read More »
The K-12 budget bill, HB 1643, has been adopted. It provides level funding for the MAEP, under-funding public schools by $172-million. Other portions of the education budget suffered cuts, but Chairman Moore noted that conferees worked hard to minimize the negative effect on students. The Schools for the Blind and the Deaf were cut more than $300,000, an impact
K-12 Budget, Corporate Tax Cuts Pass House, Senate Read More »
Last evening, the appropriations chairmen reported that “dummy bills” (with $0 instead of actual budget numbers) were required to meet yesterday’s 8pm deadline because the staff ran out of time while preparing the reports. Twenty-four hours later, we still have no real budget conference reports for K-12 and many of the largest state agency budgets.
Deep Cuts to Most Agencies, Still No K-12 Budget Read More »
Legislators met their 8:00 p.m. deadline tonight by filing “dummy” conference reports on some budget bills, including HB 1643, the K-12 appropriation. Dummy budget bills are placeholders that include $0.00 in the line items. A dummy tax-cut bill with a reverse repealer was also filed. The appropriations chairs reported that the dummy bills were necessary because the staff
School Funding Conference Report Filed Read More »
Legislators appear intent on making changes to the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP), the formula that determines the level of funding the state is required to send to public schools. In recent years, lawmakers have suggested a number of changes, almost all of which would reduce the amount called for by the formula. Following are some
Legislators Float Potential Changes to the MAEP Formula Read More »
This morning, the Senate voted 26-24 to send the charter school bill to Governor Bryant without any changes. Students in districts rated C, D, and F will now be allowed to cross district lines to attend charter schools, taking your local taxes and their MAEP allocation with them. See how your senator voted. The close vote is
School Funding at Risk, See Senators’ Charter School Vote Read More »
The Senate did not take up the charter school bill today (SB 2161), giving us another day to contact our senators. Please continue to reach out to your senator on this issue. The leadership will continue to apply pressure, and if we let up, we could lose this opportunity to have C districts removed from the
MAEP and Charter Update Read More »
