josh taylor

At the Mississippi Economic Council’s 2014 Capital Day event, Speaker Philip Gunn was unequivocal about his support for an across-the-board teacher pay raise and said it will be on the agenda in the House of Representatives this session. While he supports merit pay, Speaker Gunn was clear that he also supports an increase in the

Lately, the airwaves have been abuzz with talk of funding the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP), the state law that promises our children resources sufficient for an adequate education.Here’s the bottom line: the recession is over. State revenue is back to 2008 levels, which was the last year that the MAEP was fully funded. It’s time for the Legislature

State leaders, frustrated by Mississippi’s perennial placement near the bottom of education rankings, have taken to saying that they want to “fund what works” in education. The implication is that they want to move away from the per-student funding provided through the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) and instead simply fund their pet education programs.

Prior to the “Great Recession,” support among legislators for adequate school funding was strong. The formula, passed into law in 1997 and phased in over a number of years, was fully funded for the first time in 2003. Four years later, bolstered by strong constituent support, Governor Haley Barbour, in his 2007 State of the State address, declared

Passed by the Mississippi Legislature in 1997 (see history below), the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) is a law that provides a formula that is designed to ensure an adequate education for every Mississippi child – whether that child lives in a “wealthy” community or a “poor” one. It is designed to provide schools the