This cynical measure preserves the educational status quo and does nothing to advance school funding.
What’s more is that this vote subverts the will of over 200,000 Mississippi voters who signed petitions to place the initiative on the ballot. The people of Mississippi deserve an up or down vote on Initiative 42, not a convoluted process aimed at voter confusion.
The House and Senate leadership argue that the alternative amendment will promote school performance with its language of “an effective system of free public schools.” Effective schools are a no-brainer. Who could argue with that? However, the addition of these words to the Constitution will have no practical effect on the conditions or performance of our Mississippi schools. As Rep. Greg Snowden has acknowledged, the alternative amendment would have no fiscal impact on the state budget, meaning more status quo for our students and teachers.
The “performance over funding” rationale for the alternative amendment presents a false choice: Performance and funding are not an either/or proposition. Instead, performance in our schools has improved most dramatically when our schools were fully funded. The last time MAEP was fully funded, Mississippi children showed a greater percentage point increase than students in any other state in the country in 4th grade reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), our national report card.
When our legislators fail to fully fund MAEP, this necessitates a tax increase in many local school districts and communities who must dig into their coffers to make up the difference. The failure of the state to meet its obligations also further disadvantages those communities without the local tax base to compensate for the shortfall, crippling their abilities to improve performance as they cut teachers, instructional aides, and the host of other support personnel and programs so vital to the success of our students.
As a former elementary principal in the Delta, I know these challenges first-hand and have had to wrestle with a shrinking budget in the face of rising accountability. I’ve had to make painful and agonizing cuts to support staff and delay needed technology upgrades. Our teachers and administrators embrace accountability and want to improve student outcomes; improving learning is why we enter this field. But we chafe at being mandated to do so without the financial resources necessary to improve.
Mississippi ranks 47th in terms of overall per-pupil spending, lower than each of neighboring states (Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee). While a reduction in spending may have been justified after the economic turmoil of the Great Recession, now that our economy has recovered beyond pre-recession levels, isn’t it time for us for our education funding to rebound? Instead, according to research completed by the Mississippi Economic Policy Center, our school funding is down $623 per student when compared to pre-recession levels.
Initiative 42 is a very conservative approach to righting the funding gap by requiring that 25 percent of future increases to state revenue be utilized to provide an adequate and efficient education. If we are to truly provide for an effective education system, we must not renege on our obligation to adequately fund our schools. There is no alternative.
Michael Cormack is CEO of the Barksdale Reading Institute. Contact him at mcormack@msreads.org.
Read the article here.
