November 1, 2006

Barbour unveils education plan

By ANDREW UJIFUSA

Assistant Managing Editor

Gov. Haley R. Barbour on Tuesday outlined his 2008 education spending plan that includes full funding of a high-growth formula to help districts like Madison County growing at exceptionally fast rates.

Barbour's plan includes:

• A 7 percent increase in overall funding;

• Support for a $65 million increase in the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) as part of a four-year phase-in plan for fully funding the program;

• A 3 percent pay raise for teachers.

Barbour, speaking before a meeting of the Mississippi School Boards Association, emphasized that spending on K-12 public schools, universities and community colleges would continue to be a top priority of his administration.

"Education is the number one economic development issue and the number one quality of life issue in our state," Barbour said at the start of his remarks.

If his spending plan is accepted by the Legislature, then state funding for education will have increased more than $480 million since Barbour took office almost three years ago.

Madison County Superintendent of Education Michael D. Kent, however, said that he would believe in full funding for MAEP only when he actually saw the money transferred to the school district, since county public schools have consistently been short-changed over the past three years.

Kent further pointed out that over the past three years, the $4 million MAEP funding shortfall in the school district has greatly affected the amount of money available for construction of the two new elementary and middle schools in Madison.

These schools have been identified by the district as a top priority to relieve potential overcrowding.

"If I had my $4 million, I'd be really close to building my two schools," said Kent. "That $4 million is significant."

In his speech, Barbour said that he would be funding K-12 education beyond the $158 million recommended by the MAEP formula from the State Board of Education, but that it would be inappropriate for all of that increase to go to MAEP.

MAEP is formulated to provide every public school district with enough state funding to provide an average and adequate education. But since its creation by the state legislature in 1997, the program has been constantly under-funded.

"I do not think that would be the most effective way to use an additional $158 million to improve our public schools," he said.

The $158 million (and Barbour's higher figure) would have to come out of the state's general fund, which is projected to increase by $250 million for FY08. The general fund must also cover public safety, health care, and higher education needs.

In addition to funding the $65 million for the MAEP plan for FY08 and the teacher pay raise, Barbour's proposed FY08 budget will cover 100 percent of increased costs for health insurance premiums and pension plans for teachers and other public school employees.

It will also provide doubled funding for classroom supplies, additional money for physical education programs to keep students active at school, and more funds for early childhood development initiatives.

Barbour said that he would be able to implement his proposed FY08 education budget with no tax increase.

While Barbour expressed strong support for the four-year plan that will gradually fully fund MAEP, Kent noted that the last time MAEP had its full allotment of money was during the last gubernatorial election season, but that it has languished since.

"I would have thought that with [Barbour] up for re-election, he would support full funding," said Kent.

He praised Barbour's support for the phase-in plan, but added that his support needed to be back up by action.

"My real reaction is, OK, what does that really mean? What's the bottom line? Show me the bottom line," said Kent.

Barbour noted that educational spending has gone up since he's been governor. "Since I have been governor, state support for our K-12 school districts through the Mississippi Adequate Education Program has increased $323 million, or 19 percent," he said.

Kent said that high-growth school districts such as Madison County are the ones that suffer the most when they don't receive their allotted MAEP funds.

Those funds are based on average daily attendance numbers in a school district, but schools with rapidly rising populations quickly outpace their attendance records from the previous year.

The growth formula designed to deal with high-growth school districts, Kent said, has not resulted in any actual additional money for the county.

"As always, those of us with growing districts are short-changed by the lack of full funding more so than any other districts," said Kent.

During the past budget year, the county school district did not receive $2.8 million from the state that was due under the MAEP formula.

Kent said that the 3 percent pay raise for teachers was "huge" because in addition to providing an appropriate cost of living increase, it could only help the school district in its quest to fill teaching vacancies in schools outside of southern Madison County.