My Hattiesburg

Mississippi Education Crisis

The State Legislature has failed to come up with an agreeable budget for the 2005-2006 school year. The question at hand? “Where will the cuts come from?” I’d love to know why we are having to cut teacher’s jobs from schools. Obviously, the amount of taxes going in, does not equal the amount going out. I don’t know how this could happen since the casino’s that we all voted on to come to Mississippi is reportedly paying the school system $500,000 per month. This money that we didn’t have 10 years ago, when we didn’t have budget problems. We’ve also had a lot of new industry arrive, such as the Nissan plant, and we’ve got billions from tobacco companies.

The web site for Haley Barbour has other things to say about our situation though. This is taken directly from the site:

“The question during this budget debate is not whether education will be cut or not, but how big an increase it is going to get. The Legislative Budget Recommendation calls for a $29 million increase and the Governor’s budget calls for a $70 million increase. This year the State Department of Education has asked for a $266 million increase over last year – and only about a third of that increase is the teacher pay raise ($98 million).

Education spending has risen 46% over the last five years with virtually the same number of students. Interestingly, the State Department of Education has reported that, even if the MAEP formula is fully funded this year, their request for next year will be at least $200 million over this year, an increase of 30% in two years! 15% a year increases aren’t sustainable.”

After reading this, I have to ask, where is the money going? Surely the teacher raises could not be responsible for this. I’m sure there was a plan 5 years ago when the teacher pay raises were passed, just to get us to the national average. I know teachers have a much tougher time than anyone over this. Not knowing if your going to have a job next year or not. Frequently, first year teachers take any job they can get. What does this say to college students wanting to teach? I think sends a clear message, be a politician.

If you’d like to see what your school’s budget is for this year, as opposed to what the state is proposing to give them, just click the link below. You must have Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice to view this document.

2006 MAEP District Allocations