Today the Senate Education Committee met with EdBuild representative Rebecca Sibilia to discuss HB 957.
The bottom line is that the funding for school districts provided in HB 957 is even worse than an underfunded MAEP. Schools would be better off if the Legislature kept underfunding schools at the rate they have since 2012 than they would be under this new plan (view Daily Journal article). See what your district would lose under HB 957.
Under intense questioning from senators, Sibilia acknowledged that the way EdBuild was able to show an “increase” in funding for school districts was to compare the fully funded amount districts would get eight years from now under the proposed plan to the underfunded MAEP amount school districts received this year. It isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison.
When the current law – fully funded – is compared to their proposed law (HB 957) – fully funded – every single school district loses. A lot.
Senate Education Chairman Gray Tollison declined to provide senators a copy of the Senate version of this bill, but indicated that the numbers wouldn’t change much (we shouldn’t expect an improvement over the House version). Word is that he will present the Senate version next Monday or Tuesday; the deadline for the committee to vote is Tuesday.
Ask your senator AND senators on the Education Committee to vote NO on HB 957!
Find contact information for Senate Education Committee members here.
Find contact information for all senators here.
Capitol Switchboard: 601.359.3770
Share the same message with Lt. Governor Reeves. Capitol: 601.359.3200
We have designed a meme for each Mississippi school district showing what the children in that district stand to lose with HB 957. You can find those memes on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Please share and retweet them!
Proponents of HB 957 are pushing to give our children LESS school funding. That is not acceptable. Please call, text, message on social media, and visit with senators. Ask them to vote NO on HB 957. Ask your friends and family to as well, and be sure to share our Facebook posts.
