Resources

In 2001, Florida launched an Intensive Reading Initiative designed to improve dramatically the literacy of the state’s elementary students. With a $1-billion initial investment ($750-million in the first year), they implemented sweeping changes that touched every K-3 student and teacher: $300-million six-year Reading First grant to retrain all K-3 teachers on appropriate reading techniques. $700-million of repurposed state funding to […]

Since 1999, Florida has invested billions of dollars in real education reform that has catapulted the state’s student achievement into the realm of some of the highest performing countries. How Did They Do It? State-funded pre-K – $398Million/year  Intensive reading initiative – $1Billion initial investment and $130Million/year ongoing  Click here to read more Lowered class size – Lower elementary

The Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE) is a non-profit with a lobbying arm and Super PAC, The Foundation for Florida’s Future, that advocates for charter schools, vouchers for private school tuition, and tax credit scholarships for private schools, as well as education reform initiatives. Their funders include many for-profit corporations that have a financial interest in

Politicians often use the percent of the state budget that is dedicated to public schools as evidence of their support of K-12 education. You have probably heard them claim that education makes up over 60% of the total state budget. That is simply not true. While it is true that all of education – including

“Level funding” means that the same dollar amount in state funding will be appropriated for the next fiscal year as was appropriated for the current fiscal year. The term “level funding” is typically used when the Legislature fails to provide all of the funding that state law requires in the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP). In recent

An excellent early education experience for every child (A Blueprint Mississippi 2011 recommendation) $5-million for Mississippi Building Blocks Based on a per-student cost of $2,000, this will allow MBB in 2013-2014 to reach approximately 2,500 children in child care centers located primarily in low-income areas of Mississippi An excellent teacher in every classroom (A Blueprint Mississippi 2011 recommendation) $12-million

In September, The Mississippi Department of Education presented to the Legislative Budget Committee K-12 education’s budget request for the 2013-2014 school year. Fully funding the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) for FY2014 (the next fiscal year) would require an increase in funding of $300-million. The MAEP is underfunded this year by almost $260-million. Several members of the