Word at the Capitol is that there is a move afoot to resurrect HB 957 and pass it in a special session. Sources tell us that Lt. Gov. Reeves is applying tremendous pressure to senators in an effort to flip the votes of our “HERO” legislators who voted to kill the bill.
Legislative leaders apparently are so intent on giving LESS to the children in our public schools that they want to override the will of the people and ram through a bill that would devastate our local school districts.
A special session within the regular legislative session could be called at any time. When that procedure is used, legislators halt temporarily the business of the regular session and go into special session to address a particular piece of legislation. If a special session is called, the funding rewrite bill will be assigned a new number.
Please ask your legislators to VOTE NO on any special session school funding rewrite.
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
If you haven’t yet thanked the HEROES who stood up for our children and our public schools and voted to kill HB 957, please thank them now, and ask them not to cave to bullying from the powers that be. Many of our members have taken the time to write brief, personal notes of thanks to those legislators who stood in the gap for our children, and legislators have been most appreciative. If you want to do likewise, you can find their contact information below.
It’s past time that we got back to a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” Strong-arm tactics by elected officials must end. Ask everyone you know to call or text the legislators who represent your school district (we’re told emails are ineffective), share our Facebook posts, and retweet our tweets. Our children are more than worth it. They are counting on us, and together, we’ve got this!
