Missy McGee (Incumbent)     WINNER

1. What is your experience with K-12 public schools, personally and/or with your children or family? I attended Hattiesburg Public Schools 1st-12th grade. (Thames Elementary and Junior High, 1st-8th; Lillie Burney, 9th; Rowan, 10th; Hattiesburg High School, 11th and 12th grades.

I was also heavily involved with the local campaign that passed a school bond renewal for the Hattiesburg Public School District in 2018. We passed the renewal with 94% of the vote (fourth highest in state history at the time), and every ward voted heavily in favor of renewing $22.5 million in school bonds.

2. Do you agree that the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) should be fully funded every year? If yes, what actions will you take to ensure full funding? If no, explain why. I believe that our public schools must be the priority when it comes time to set our state budget. We need to work toward fully funding MAEP.

3. What will you do to ensure state revenue that is sufficient to provide all of the services Mississippi’s citizens need to lead productive lives? My hope is that we would wait to see the impact of tax cuts from previous years, once they have been fully phased in, before we consider any additional tax cuts.

4. Will you oppose vouchers that send taxpayer dollars to private schools, religious schools, home schools, or virtual schools? Why or why not? My voting record has shown that I oppose the expansion of vouchers. I voted against a bill during the 2019 session that expanded the state voucher program. I voted three times against a procedural motion that allowed final passage of this legislation.

5. Do you agree that all K-12 schools that receive taxpayer dollars, including private voucher schools, should be accountable to taxpayers for the quality of education they provide, using the same accountability measures as public schools? Yes

6. Public schools serve the vast majority of Mississippi students with disabilities. Do you agree that special education services in public schools should be fully funded every year? (Special education has been underfunded by the state every year since 2008.) If yes, how will you accomplish full funding? If no, explain why. There is no doubt that public schools serve the majority of special needs children. We must always take care that these programs are properly funded with the goal of full funding. My hope is that the Legislature will establish a multi-year plan to move us closer to fully funding MAEP, including special education, but also work to increase funding for early childhood education, the teacher supply fund and bring back funding for the public school building fund, none of which are included in the MAEP formula, but very important to education in our state.

7. Do you agree that Mississippi should provide high quality early childhood education statewide? Yes! There is no better investment than the years before age 5 when a child is developing both cognitively and socially. I was pleased that in FY 19, we were able to add an additional $2.5 million to expand early childhood education in Mississippi. This enabled the Hattiesburg Public School District’s collaborative to be awarded $2.1 million to expand access and improve quality of pre-k offerings in my city. This past year, over 80% of pre-k students who went through the HPSD’s pre-k program were deemed “kindergarten ready.” We want this number to grow even more, and increasing early childhood education funding would allow more school districts to experience these positive results.

8. The nation’s top teachers say that the greatest barriers to school success for K-12 students are family stress, poverty, and learning and psychological problems. What steps do you believe legislators should take to alleviate these obstacles for Mississippi children? Over 90% of the students in my district’s public schools live below the poverty line. I believe the best thing we can do for schools with high rates of poverty is to put highly qualified teachers in the classroom. This means the Legislature needs to correct a provision in the 2014 teacher pay bill which provides incentives to teachers in schools that perform well, but did nothing to reward good teachers in schools that may be underperforming. As a result, the Legislature incentivized good teachers to leave underperforming schools. We can also increase investment in early childhood education, which has been shown to be very effective in closing the achievement gap.

9. Do you support raising teacher salaries at least to the level of our neighboring states and raising pay for teacher assistants? I believe we must work toward raising teacher salaries to be competitive with neighboring states. I supported a pay raise for teachers and teacher’s assistants during the 2019 session. I am hopeful we can continue to add to this increase each year.

10. Do you agree that retired educators (and other retired state employees) should be able to draw their retirement while serving in the Legislature? Yes

11. Legislators have little or no staff to help them understand the many bills they must consider. Before introducing or supporting a bill that could affect public education, will you commit to seeking input from teachers, principals, superintendents, and parents of public school students in your district? Who will be advising you on education policies? All of the above! I believe my local superintendent, principals, teachers and parents would say that I have sought their recommendations and counsel on all education issues and that I have been very responsive to their thoughts and suggestions. I will continue to seek and rely on their opinion.

12. Legislators receive tremendous pressure from the leaders of their chamber (House or Senate), state and party leaders, and corporate lobbyists, to vote in ways that may contradict the will of their constituents and harm their communities. How will you respond to this pressure? When I ran for state representative, I pledged to put Hattiesburg first, and that’s exactly what I have done. I believe my voting record demonstrates how I would respond to such pressure. For example, in my first year, I voted against legislation that would change the MAEP formula. I believed there were too many unanswered questions about this bill. Additionally, my home district would have seen a reduction in funding under this proposed formula.

 Brandon Rue

1. What is your experience with K-12 public schools, personally and/or with your children or family? I am a graduate of a public school system. I have no children but my parents and all my brothers and sisters are products of the public school system also.

2. Do you agree that the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) should be fully funded every year? If yes, what actions will you take to ensure full funding? If no, explain why. Yes I believe that it should be fully funded. I will fight for innovative ways to ensure that the money that is supposed to go to public education indeed goes there.

3. What will you do to ensure state revenue that is sufficient to provide all of the services Mississippi’s citizens need to lead productive lives?

4. Will you oppose vouchers that send taxpayer dollars to private schools, religious schools, home schools, or virtual schools? Why or why not? I will oppose taxpayer dollars going to these entities because I believe that taxpayer money should be spent only on public education.

5. Do you agree that all K-12 schools that receive taxpayer dollars, including private voucher schools, should be accountable to taxpayers for the quality of education they provide, using the same accountability measures as public schools? Well I believe that private schools of any kind should not receive any taxpayer dollars, but for the sake of this question my answer is yes they should be measured by the same standard that public schools are.

6. Public schools serve the vast majority of Mississippi students with disabilities. Do you agree that special education services in public schools should be fully funded every year? (Special education has been underfunded by the state every year since 2008.) If yes, how will you accomplish full funding? If no, explain why.

7. Do you agree that Mississippi should provide high quality early childhood education statewide? Absolutely it starts when they are young.

8. The nation’s top teachers say that the greatest barriers to school success for K-12 students are family stress, poverty, and learning and psychological problems. What steps do you believe legislators should take to alleviate these obstacles for Mississippi children? I believe that it starts with truly representing the community. It takes representatives being in the community, building moral and helping people to believe. I do believe that there could be policy to help but first I think that representatives should be boots on the ground in the communities of which they represent.

9. Do you support raising teacher salaries at least to the level of our neighboring states and raising pay for teacher assistants? Absolutely, we can never pay teachers what they are truly worth but we can show them that they are appreciated.

10. Do you agree that retired educators (and other retired state employees) should be able to draw their retirement while serving in the Legislature? Yes I do. I believe that after they retire from educating they should be able to serve. These people are some of the main members of the community and the most educated on some of our state’s biggest problems.

11. Legislators have little or no staff to help them understand the many bills they must consider. Before introducing or supporting a bill that could affect public education, will you commit to seeking input from teachers, principals, superintendents, and parents of public school students in your district? Who will be advising you on education policies? Anytime there is a bill about education or even when the topic comes up I will always consult educators and the different professionals in the field. I understand that I do not know everything there is to know about a topic but I will always reach out to those who do.

12. Legislators receive tremendous pressure from the leaders of their chamber (House or Senate), state and party leaders, and corporate lobbyists, to vote in ways that may contradict the will of their constituents and harm their communities. How will you respond to this pressure? I will always vote in the best interest of the people I represent. I will be hired to do a specific job and the people of the district is my boss and no one else.