Congratulations, SUPERHERO!
Today, the Mississippi House and Senate adjourned the 2018 Regular Legislative Session sine die, closing out a session in which parents, educators, public school supporters, and legislators STOOD UP together to protect our children and their public schools.
Working with our legislators, you accomplished:
PASSAGE of HB 1592, the K-12 appropriation bill that provides a $12.8-million increase overall, including a $3.1-million increase in the MAEP and a $2.5-million increase for pre-k. Public schools still face significant shortfalls statewide – HB 1592 underfunds the MAEP by approximately $240-million for 2018-2019.
DEFEAT of SB 2623, the voucher bill that would have used public funds to pay tuition at private schools while exempting the private voucher schools from all standards, oversight, and accountability to taxpayers.
DEFEAT of SB 2400, which would have changed the way school board members are elected to make it easier for privatizers to take over local school boards.
DEFEAT of HB 957, which would have changed how public schools are funded, reducing the amount of funding called for in state law by hundreds of millions of dollars and leaving the definition of “full funding” to the discretion of the Legislature each year.
You can find details of these bills here.
Many of you have contacted us to express your joy and relief at these outcomes. We cannot overstate the value of the relationships you developed with your legislators. You stood up and spoke out, and legislators responded. Your voice matters! Please be sure to thank the HERO legislators who stood in the gap for our children. You can find legislators’ votes here, and you can find the votes of all legislators who represent your school district here.
We are humbled and honored to stand with you in this noble effort to ensure that every Mississippi community has strong public schools, where the doors are open to every child. Thank you, thank you, thank you for calling and texting and emailing and posting on social media over and over and over again to ensure that all Mississippi children have a shot at a bright future.
We have a long way to go to provide for Mississippi public school students the way that other states provide for theirs, but we are making progress. In the last few months, you sent an unmistakable message to those who want to privatize and “profitize” our public schools: our children, and their futures, are not for sale!
Thank you again and again and again for standing up for our kids! Our children are so very fortunate to have you in their corner.
