Have you seen how much your school district will lose if House Bill 957 becomes law? See what your district would lose here.
No matter how they spin it, HB 957 is bad for students.
It provides less than what current law requires – far less.
It is worse than the education funding trend we experienced in the Barbour years.
It is even worse than what schools would get if the current Legislature simply repeated the funding pattern of the last six years.
To make matters even worse, it is designed to facilitate vouchers, and it creates more hoops for school districts to jump through.
Ask your senator to vote NO on HB 957!
Find all contact information for legislators. Capitol Switchboard: 601.359.3770
Share the same message with Lt. Governor Reeves. Capitol: 601.359.3200
HB 957 would starve public schools, facilitate vouchers, and create an additional accountability system for schools.
It is estimated that HB 957 would shortchange school districts statewide by approximately $292-million in its first full year of implementation, 2025. See your school district’s loss.
Claims by state leaders that districts would see funding gains with HB 957 are based on a false comparison. They are comparing 2025 full funding of HB 957 to 2018 underfunding of current law.
The funding in HB 957 is even less than what schools would receive if the Legislature continued underfunding school districts at the same rate that it has for the last six years.
The “student-based formula” in HB 957 would make it easier to convert public school funding into vouchers for private school tuition.
The per-student amount would simply follow the student out of his or her public school and into a private, for-profit, or cyber school.
HB 957 would eliminate accountability for legislators by letting them create their own “full funding” number each year, while it would add yet another accountability system for public schools.
School districts would receive an additional grade under the “financial rating model” required in HB 957.
We do not oppose changing the school funding law. We do have a problem with a change to the law that reduces the school funding required and that moves our children even further behind their peers in Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana, which is exactly what HB 957 does.
Senators need to know that you oppose this bill. Please call and visit with senators while they’re at home this weekend. They’ll be back at the Capitol Monday and HB 957 could be acted on at any time. Ask your friends and family to call, and share our Facebook posts.
And be sure to wear your #BlueforMSTeachers tomorrow and every Friday through the Legislative session. Our children are counting on us, and together, we’ve got this!
