Please call your representative right away – our children need your help to defeat House Bill 957!
The House Appropriations Committee passed HB 957 this morning, and it is scheduled for a floor vote tomorrow.
HB 957 strikes the MAEP from law and replaces it with a horribly flawed plan that slashes K-12 funding by $150-million. HB 957 would yield the worst school funding since the MAEP was passed – far worse than what the Barbour administration provided and less even than this Legislature has provided in the last six years. See data.
Ask your representative to vote NO on HB 957 and go back to the drawing board.
Find contact information for legislators in your area (search by school district).
Capitol Switchboard: 601.359.3770
Share the same message with Speaker Gunn. Capitol: 601.359.3300
The leadership has acknowledged that the bill has harmful components. In fact, leaders can’t answer many legislators’ questions about HB 957 because the language is muddled and the data EdBuild used to run the numbers is incorrect.
Nonetheless, the House leadership is rushing it through, saying that people have had plenty of time to weigh in and that the Legislature will fix the problems next year after it has become law (yes, they really said that).
Facts not being considered:
• Legislators likely will not get a chance to fix this bill next year! The Senate leadership will be highly unlikely to take up a controversial bill in an election year.
• People have weighed in, and their input was a loud NO. Thousands called last spring and hundreds took off work to come to the Capitol to demand that the Legislature oppose the EdBuild recommendations and not rush through a bill.
This is the one shot the House of Representatives has at a rewrite of our school funding bill. HB 957 will be devastating to public schools, and it will be their legacy.
Taxpayers have made it clear that they want more funding for public schools; HB 957 provides less.
Businesses have repeatedly called for a stronger public education system; HB 957 weakens it.
The truth? The Legislature gave away too much state funding through enormous corporate tax breaks, and now they can’t pay the state’s bills. They are looking for an out, and they are finding it in the K-12 budget.
Parents and educators are incensed! We told our Legislators not to decimate state revenue with their enormous tax cuts and corporate handouts, but they ignored us. Now they are balancing their cash-strapped budget on the backs of Mississippi students.
Your legislators need to hear from you. If you have already called, call again. Ask your friends and family to call, too. Our children are counting on us, and together, we’ve got this!
