Funding

How many excuses can state leaders make for their failure to provide adequately for our children’s education? A lot! Including some false allegations designed to discredit public schools so that they won’t have to fund them. Here are a few… The MAEP formula directs more money to administration and less to classrooms. Wrong! The formula does not […]

Are you ready for some football? How about better school funding? As we enter the home stretch on signature collection for the Better Schools, Better Jobs petition drive, volunteers are looking for every possible way to add to the signature count. Parents in school districts across the state have “signature fever.” They are tired of the chronic

“How can legislators get away with breaking the law by refusing to fund public schools like the state law requires?” Since I began advocating for strong public schools as a volunteer in 2004, I’ve been asked that question repeatedly, by hundreds – maybe thousands – of you, most recently just yesterday. Well, funny you should ask… The light

Mississippi Board of Education Chairman Dr. Wayne Gann has issued a letter expressing his dismay over statements made about public education funding by current Mississippi State Senator and U.S. Senate candidate Chris McDaniel. It has been widely reported that McDaniel, earlier in the campaign, advocated eliminating the education funding that Mississippi schools and colleges receive from the federal government. News reports indicate that

If you are a registered Mississippi voter and have not yet signed a petition for full funding of our public schools, please be sure to sign one before time runs out. Your signature on a petition will help get language on the November 2015 ballot to require the Mississippi Legislature to adequately fund public schools.

What impact might the current Senate and Congressional elections have on public schools? A BIG one! Mississippi children benefit heavily from the federal investment in our public schools, and the folks we send to Washington determine, in large part, the resources that are available to educate our kids. According to the Mississippi Legislative Budget Office, Mississippi received approximately

The teacher pay raise passed by the Legislature in 2014 includes a $1,500 across-the-board raise beginning July 1, 2014, with an additional $1,000 across-the-board raise effective July 1, 2015. The cost of the first year of the pay raise was included in the MAEP allocation for 2014-2015.  There is a catch, however, that will result

Despite being underfunded by more than $1.6-billion in the last six years, schools have seen their standards rise significantly and their administrative duties spike upward due to mandates by the State Legislature and policy requirements at the state and federal levels. Incredibly, as the Legislature has continued to pile on the administrative functions required of districts, they have

Governor Bryant has signed into law HB 504, giving Mississippi teachers an across-the-board pay raise for the next two years. Teachers will see a well-deserved $1,500 bump in salary on July 1 of this year and another $1,000 increase on July 1, 2015.  Increasing teacher salaries will improve the likelihood that top-tier students will consider a career in education, and attracting