Funding

You have probably heard by now that House Appropriations Chairman Herb Frierson summoned state agency heads to the Capitol yesterday in what was clearly a scare tactic designed to gin up opposition to Initiative 42, the citizen-proposed constitutional amendment that would make an adequately funded public education a fundamental right of Mississippi children (see details […]

The Mississippi Department of Education has released the state funding allocations for each school district. The amount appropriated by the Legislature is far less than what is required by state law in the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP). Click here to see how much your schools are shortchanged this year and how much they have been under-funded since fiscal year

Mountains of research show that poverty is the best predictor of academic failure. Studies also show that children living in poverty require significantly more resources to level the playing field and give them the same shot at success as their more affluent peers. Because Mississippi has the highest rate of poverty in the nation, Mississippi

How much will your district be shortchanged if the MAEP isn’t fully funded? A lot. Click here to see an estimate of what your district stands to gain if the MAEP is fully funded – and what it stands to lose if it isn’t. The current appropriations bill under-funds the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) by $201-million. HB 1536 provides an increase

Beginning in 2001, Florida took steps to improve reading proficiency among its youngest schoolchildren. In 2012, To learn more about the initiative, The Parents’ Campaign participated in two conference calls with the staff of Florida’s Foundation for Excellence in Education, a lobbying group pushing other states to adopt Florida’s Literacy-Based Promotion Act, among other school reform

Governor Bryant’s budget recommendation for the coming legislative session provides Mississipians the perfect reason to vote for the Better Schools, Better Jobs ballot initiative next November. Announced Monday, Bryant’s budget proposal underfunds the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) by roughly $260-million, despite state revenue being at its highest level in history. When state coffers are overflowing and state leaders refuse to put

Governor Bryant’s Executive Budget Recommendation for the coming year underfunds the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) by roughly $260-million. While he does recommend covering the $52-million cost of the second phase of the teacher pay raise, his budget does not put a single additional penny toward full funding of the MAEP.  In the narrative portion of his budget recommendation, Governor

Competing version on the ballot could doom the Better Schools, Better Jobs amendment Legislators, per Mississippi law, have the ability to place on the ballot a competing version of any citizen-sponsored, proposed Constitutional amendment.  When the current statute regarding citizen initiatives to amend the Mississippi Constitution was written and passed in 1992, it was done in a way

Our elected officials have some explaining to do… In the wake of the most recent round of attacks on the MAEP and excuses for inadequate school funding, The Parents’ Campaign Research and Education Fund (TPCREF) took a hard look at the realities of the state budget. The result is astounding. The numbers tell a very different story from what our elected