Legislators in both parties are speculating that the leadership will hold the appropriations, transportation, and bond bills in conference and use them as leverage to flip enough votes to pass HB 957, threatening to kill important projects in districts of legislators who don’t agree to support this dreadful bill and offering sweetheart deals to those who do. As soon as they can coerce enough legislators into supporting it, leaders will call a special session to resurrect the school funding rewrite bill.
This is what our legislators have to put up with! Be sure to thank the HEROES who are standing up for our children by voting NO on HB 957, the bill that strips the MAEP from statute and reduces the funding state law says public schools should get by an estimated $292-million.
Tell your legislators you’ve got their backs. Public school supporters stand with legislators who stand up to bullies and with our children!
Ask your legislators to VOTE NO on any special session school funding rewrite.
Find contact information for representatives and senators (search by school district).
Capitol Switchboard: 601.359.3770
Tell our elected leaders that you expect them to respect the will of the people and that you oppose a special session to do an end run on the school funding rewrite.
Gov. Phil Bryant Capitol: 601.359.3150
Lt. Governor Reeves Capitol: 601.359.3200
Speaker Philip Gunn Capitol: 601.359.3300
HB 957 would:
• Shortchange public schools by $292-million or more; every school district loses
• Send schools LESS special education funding than they got this year
• Provide even LESS funding than what schools would receive if the Legislature simply continued its pattern of underfunding the MAEP
• Put at risk millions more in funding for Career-Tech, Buildings and Buses, and other programs
• Make it easier to convert public school funding into vouchers for private school tuition
Coercion and threats have no place in our legislative process. Ask everyone you know to call, text and/or use social media to message the legislators who represent your school district to let them know that HB 957 hurts our children and strong-arm tactics harm our democracy. Working in concert with our lawmakers, we can stand strong for what’s right and win a better day for our children and our state. Together, we’ve got this!
