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Democrats Poised to Filibuster Stopgap Funding Measure

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Saudi Arabia: Stampede at Hajj Kills 717 Pilgrims

A horrific stampede killed at least 717 pilgrims and injured hundreds more Thursday on the outskirts of the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the deadliest tragedy to strike …

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Kremlin: Putin to Meet Obama on Monday

Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama are to meet on Monday in New York, their first face-to-face encounter in nearly a year amid strongly troubled relations between the two nations.

Diy Guides

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Bryan's Rant

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City & County

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Charter schools weren't legal in Mississippi until 2013, when the Legislature passed the Mississippi Charter School Law, allowing nonprofit charter schools to enter the state for the first time.

Editorial

We Need to Learn From Charter Schools Before Expanding Them

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Style

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While Taboo Dance & Fitness is normally used for fitness classes, on Saturday, June 27, it made history as the home of Mississippi's first pole-fitness competition, Miss Taboo.

Civil Rights

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Payton Head, student body president at the University of Missouri, my alma mater, recently wrote that while walking through campus Sept. 11, a pickup truck full of white guys screamed …

City & County

Yarber Shelves $15M Sludge-Hauling Contract

With the Jackson City Council’s vote last week against a proposal for federal government-mandated hauling of biosolids from a city wastewater treatment plant, Mayor Tony Yarber is asking government regulators …

September 22, 2015

Reeves Seems More Concerned About Initiative 42 Than Actual Department Budgets

By adreher

Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves seems less concerned with creating a budget this year than he is with making sure Initiative 42 does not pass in November. During the Legislative Budget Office hearings on Monday and Tuesday, while most department heads were able to fend off taking sides, they were forced to answer obviously leading questions, primarily orchestrated by Reeves.

When the Department of Education presented their budget on Monday, they asked for the full funding of MAEP and funding for several additional programs including: the third grade reading gate, the MSIS system, state special schools and early education pilot programs.

Reeves asked state Superintendent of Education, Dr. Carey Wright several questions about the effectiveness of the additional programs in a way that indirectly asked about MAEP.

After questions from representatives and senators, Reeves asked several of his own. A small portion of the back-and-forth is below:

Reeves: How long have you been in Mississippi now? Has it been two years?

Wright: November the 11 will be two years.

Reeves: So you’ve had an opportunity to be in lots of school districts and a lot of schools across our state, my question is do you think Mississippi has an efficient system of public schools?

Wright: (Pause) Can you define efficient?

Reeves: Let me ask you a follow-up, can you define efficient?

Wright: Thinking about it from a superintendent’s hat, if I was a district superintendent, efficient to me would be am I utilizing funds the way they should be utilized, do I have an appropriate number of people at the school and central office level and am I efficient in my time and my management, and how I am executing my plans...

The verbal sparring continued, but few questions were asked about the extra $250 million that the department is asking for (over the FY16 Level of funding). Reeves' questions stem from the assumption that if Initiative 42 passes, the Legislature will be court-ordered to fully fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Formula (MAEP), which has been fully funded only twice since 1997. Republican leaders, mainly Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn, have vocalized what they see as the danger of Constitutional power transferring to the judicial branch of government.

For more MAEP coverage visit: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/maep/

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