JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi lawmakers are unlikely to create a new funding formula for public schools this year, after senators blocked a House proposal Tuesday — an action that creates tension during the final weeks of a four-month legislative session.
Senate Education Committee Chairman Dennis DeBar said leaders of the two chambers should discuss school funding after the current legislative session ends in May and before the next one begins in January.
“We need to come up with a formula, whatever that may be, that provides predictability, objectiveness and stability for districts as well as the state when it comes to funding our schools,” said DeBar, a Republican from Leakesville.
House Speaker Jason White said the current funding formula, called the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, is “broken and flawed.”
“By refusing to have meaningful discussion on this issue ... the Senate has moved to preserve the status quo, which will result in less funds to public schools and inadequate distribution in an unfair and inequitable manner,” White said in a statement.
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said Senate leaders “are not married to the current formula.”
"We do, however, believe any appropriation as significant as that which funds our school systems should be vetted and discussed with stakeholders including parents, educators, and the public at-large,” Hosemann said.
MAEP is designed to give districts enough money to meet midlevel academic standards. It has been fully funded only two years since becoming law in 1997, and that has created political problems as education advocates say legislators are shortchanging public schools.
MAEP is based on several factors, including costs of instruction, administration, operation and maintenance of schools, and other support services. Senators tried to tried to revise the formula last year, but that effort fell short.
House leaders this year are pushing to replace MAEP with a new formula called INSPIRE — Investing in the Needs of Students to Prioritize, Impact and Reform Education. It would be based on a per-student cost determined by 13 educators, including the state superintendent of education and local school district administrators, most of whom would be appointed by the state superintendent.
House Education Committee Chairman Rob Roberson, a Republican from Starkville, said Tuesday that he wants to continue talking to senators about a new formula.
“If our objective is to get funding out to the most-needed locations, the current formula doesn't do that,” Roberson said.
House Education Committee Vice Chairman Kent McCarty, a Republican from Hattiesburg, has said INSPIRE would be more equitable because school districts would receive extra money if they have large concentrations of poverty or if they enroll large numbers of students who have special needs or are learning English as a second language.
The House voted 95-13 last month in favor of INSPIRE, but the Senate Education Committee killed that bill by refusing to consider it before a deadline.
The Senate voted 49-0 last month to revise MAEP by requiring local communities to pay a slightly larger percentage of overall school funding. The plan also specified that if a student transfers from a charter school to another public school, the charter school would not keep all of the public money that it received for that student.
The House removed all of the Senate language and inserted its own INSPIRE formula into the bill. DeBar asked senators Tuesday to reject the House changes. They did so on a voice vote with little opposition.
As part of the budget-writing process, legislators are supposed to pass a separate bill to put money into schools for the year that begins July 1. A Senate proposal would increase school funding by more than $200 million.