josh taylor

On November 15 of last year, Governor Barbour announced his budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2012, which included underfunding the Mississippi Adequate Education Program by $296-million, funding that is $65-million below the current school year’s level for the MAEP, citing the federal Education Jobs funds schools received in August of 2010. After 107 representatives and […]

On a 29-22 vote, the full Senate defeated the Senate Appropriations Committee’s strike-all amendment that would have stripped $81-million from the House level of funding in HB1494, the education funding bill.  Of that $81-million, $65-million would have come out of the MAEP.  Defeating the strike-all amendment restored the higher House level of funding.  Click here to see that vote. A

It is true that Mississippi’s student achievement lags that of other states, and much work remains to be done to ensure that our children and our state reach their potential. It is not true, however, that Mississippi schools have not improved in recent years. In fact, Mississippi schools have led the nation in improvement in reading

Some legislators have suggested that there is federal funding available that can be used as part of the MAEP appropriation.  There is not.  Legislators who advocate using federal dollars to fund the MAEP are referring to the Federal Education Jobs funding that was sent to school districts to help them pay teacher salaries for the current school year.  Federal

Since December when the Legislative Budget Committee released its Legislative Budget Recommendation for Fiscal Year 2012, the revenue picture has improved in the following ways: Revenue continues to come in slightly above projections . The Division of Medicaid has announced that it will not spend its entire appropriation for the current year and will return

The House of Representatives has passed the K-12 education funding bill, HB1494.  The funding in HB1494 is approximately $25.5-million above the Legislative Budget Recommendation, largely due to $16.3-million to cover an increase in the cost of state retirement. HB1494 as passed by the House provides our schools level funding for the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) plus

Last Thursday,  Governor Barbour sent a letter to legislative leaders reiterating his position on the budget for the next fiscal year (FY12 or the 2011-2012 school year).  His letter encourages legislators to fund the MAEP at $65-million below the level funding recommended by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.  His reasoning is that, because schools were sent federal Education