Mississippi Senate Debates Education Funding

Miss. Lawmakers are facing a midnight deadline tonight to pass appropriations and tax bills. Yesterday Senators debated funding k through 12 education for the next fiscal year. MPB's Stephen Koranda reports.

The bill would fully fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, a formula for funding k through 12 education. The plan relies on Governor Haley Barbour to use more than 50 million dollars from the federal stimulus plan to help fully fund MAEP. On the Senate floor, Jackson Senator David Blount says there's no way for lawmakers to know if the governor will follow through on his commitment to spend the funds on education.

“I know a lot of us would be concerned that we ‘d go home and events may change, the budget situation may change, revenue estimates may change and we thought we fully funded MAEP and we get home and find out we didn’t.”

The bill also includes an increase in money for classroom supplies, but Senator Gray Tollison of Oxford believes that money could have been used to fund a pre-kindergarten program.

“We’re having kids going to kindergarten across this state that I’ve personally been told some of them don’t know how to spell their names. They don’t know colors, they don’t know their ABCs. They are not prepared for kindergarten.”

After hearing Senator Tollison’s concerns, Appropriations Committee Chairman Senator Alan Nunnelee of Tupelo said there’s still work to be done on the legislation.

“This debate may very well be a fruitless debate because if there is a significant reduction in our revenue estimate, we’re going to be doing good just to hold our own. It’s not going to be a question of either/or. we’re going to be doing good just to stay where we were.”

Lawmakers need to continue work to compromise differences between the Senate and House versions.