Resources

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

The Mississippi Child Care Quality Step System is designed to provide incentives to improve the quality of existing early childhood education and after-school programs and provide Mississippi children the skills necessary for success in school. This system allows licensed programs that choose to participate to receive monetary rewards (quality bonuses over and above the current