Every year, Mississippi lawmakers debate the amount to spend on education. As important, perhaps, is the question of how we spend the money.
If Mississippi is serious about improving education, we need to improve the way we allocate the tax dollars that are available.
For almost 30 years, Mississippi has had an antiquated funding formula known as the MAEP, or the Mississippi Adequate Education Program. Complex and arcane, MAEP means we fund a system, not students.
Under MAEP, the money does not always get to where it is most needed: the classroom.
The shortcomings of the MAEP are widely accepted. Indeed, last year saw an 11th hour attempt to dramatically change it. In doing so, the Senate appeared to acknowledge that major change is needed.
You would be forgiven, therefore, for supposing that we might see progress on replacing the old system this session with one that works.
Rep. Roberson and Speaker Jason White support the INSPIRE bill.
At the start of this year’s session, Representative Roberson unveiled the INSPIRE bill, which proposed giving every child in the state a weighted amount of funding, based on their individual circumstances. Different people will no doubt have different views as to how best to weight the amount per student, but everyone ought to be able to agree on the basic principle of funding students, rather than a system.
The House overwhelmingly backed INSPIRE, with majority support on both sides of the aisle. (Indeed, according to the Magnolia Tribune, Democrat support for INSPIRE has increased with each vote). The Governor, also, came out strongly in favor.
I don’t think it is totally fair to say that the Senate is against INSPIRE. It is just that some in the Senate have used various procedural maneuvers to kill it off.
Why?
It can’t be about the amount of money. Most school districts would be better off under INSPIRE. There would be significantly more money. Jackson Public Schools, for example, could receive something like $20 million more in state funding under INSPIRE.
Some have said that they oppose INSPIRE because it does not have an objective formula for the base student cost. Opposing a funding formula for being insufficiently formulaic sounds to me like scrambling around for a reason to be against it.
Some, I suspect oppose INSPIRE because it wasn’t their idea in the first place. If so, then how sad for our state, and what a sad reflection on their leadership.
Governor Tate Reeves strongly supports INSPIRE.
There is a slight chance that we might still see real change. The House has given school funding reform another lifeline, inserting the INSPIRE bill text into SB2693. It is possible that the Senate might yet approve it.
Failing that, I hope that Governor Tate Reeves and Speaker White work together to play hardball, perhaps even extending the session, or holding a special session. Conservatives across the state would rally behind them.
Mississippi deserves better than what we have seen so far this session.
