Nonprofit Mississippi News Thursday’s surprise 27-21 vote by the Senate thwarted attempts to reform the state’s public school funding formula. Practically, the procedural vote to return the bill to committee killed the attempt to revise school funding. This was a goal set by Republican leaders in the previous two legislative sessions. Shortly after the vote, senators were buzzing among themselves with many exchanging shock looks. Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves was a major backer of the bill and expressed frustration during a conversation with reporters after the vote. Reeves told reporters, “I know that you’re all smiling large today.” Reeves said, “You worked very hard to end this, and you were very successful at it.” “There are many kids from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who were going to get funded at a higher rate than they currently get funded.” House Bill 957 would have replaced Mississippi Adequate Education Formula with an updated, weighted formula which would provide a $4,800 base per student. Additional dollars would be given to districts based on student characteristics, such as English language learners, low-income students and high school students. Reeves called out the inequity of MAEP and stated that it was unfair for districts to receive different amounts of money for similar students. Reeves stated, “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or a legislator to see that that ain’t fair and that’s not right.” Reeves said that the bill was taken up on Thursday in the regular calendar, less than one week before the deadline for passing the bill. This signaled that he believed the bill had enough votes to be passed. After the Senate adjourned to a meeting, Sen. Gray Tollison (R-Oxford), stated that he was disappointed and that the bill would have been fair for all districts. Tollison stated that the Senate leadership believed they had enough votes to pass the bill when they brought it up before, but now “that bill” is dead. After an hour of debate on the merits, Sen. Gray Tollison, R-Oxford, made a statement to reporters, saying he was disappointed with the outcome and sticking to his usual talking points that the bill would have been fair for districts. The vote was passed by 27-21. It included eight Republicans and all Democrats. The motion was not supported by four Republicans. The bill was effectively killed because the deadline for the committee had expired. “The fact was that there were 27 senators, all Democrats, who voted to not spend $108million more on K-12 funding,” Reeves stated. He was referring to the amount leaders claimed would be spent on the new formula once it was fully implemented, though the source of those millions was never established. Bryan, who was one of the original authors of the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, had been vocal critic of the proposed formula. Advocates for public schools argued that because the Legislature hadn’t made a commitment to fully fund the MAEP, it was impossible to know if the formula provides adequate funding. They also claimed that the new formula would result with less funding for public education after it is fully implemented in 2025. Senator Chad McMahan (R-Guntown), voted to recommit and stated that “I believe there needs to be simpler formula but the leaders in the districts and people I represent overwhelming opposed it.” I’m here for the will of my District.” Senator Walter Michel, R.Idgeland, voted to recommit and stated that “none of my school districts were supportive of the legislation.” They felt it wasn’t best for them.” Michel said, “I spoke to mayors in my area who weren’t in support of it. I didn’t receive a single call asking me to vote for it. Michel was also concerned about the data that legislators had on the effects of the rewrite in individual districts. He said that he was seeing confusing numbers. We were seeing two sets of numbers. One set was showing how wonderful it would be, while others showed it might not work for that district. The bill was not supported by anyone in my district.” Many of the components were derived from EdBuild, a New Jersey nonprofit consultant who was hired by the legislative leadership in 2016. The bill included a two-year “hold harmless” provision. This meant that districts would receive the same funding as in the current fiscal year, but some districts could see slight increases in funding in response to an increase in student enrollment. The bill’s major concern was whether current funds that are going to education programs, but not covered under the MAEP formula, would be covered by this new formula. It also raises questions about whether schools will actually receive more money. Philip Gunn, House Speaker, was the original author of HB957. Gunn stated that the Senate “missed an opportunity to provide our schoolchildren with a better funding mechanism.” “They allowed politics to get in the way for our students. You can debate the dollar amount all you want, but it is impossible to deny that this was a better method to fund education. Here’s the vote of the Senate to recommit the bill back to the Education Committee: Yeas (27) – Barnett, Blackmon and Blount, Browning. Bryan, Bryan, Butler Carmichael and Dawkins.
DeBar, Dearing, Frazier, Gollott, Hopson, Horhn, Jackson R. (11th), Jackson S. (32nd),
Jolly, Jordan McMahan Michel, Norwood and Seymour Simmons D. T. (12th), Simmons
W. (13th), Turner-Ford, Wilemon, Witherspoon.
Nays (21)
Fillingane, Harkins, Hill, Hudson, Massey, McDaniel, Parker, Parks, Polk, Tollison,
Watson, Whaley, Wiggins, Younger.
Absent voting or not voting (4) Contributing: Adam Ganucheau