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Increased funding:
Education funding has increased substantially the past four
years, but that has come despite Barbour’s opposition to fully
funding the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, or MAEP –
the state’s basic funding for kindergarten through 12th grade
schools.
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Lobbying lawmakers:
Barbour lobbied lawmakers his first three years against full
funding for the MAEP. He originally planned to fight full
funding in the 2007 Legislature. He called the MAEP last year
“an artificial formula,” and he recommended under funding it in
a proposed budget he released in November.
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About-face:
Barbour had a sudden change-of-heart in late December – days
before the start of the 2007 Legislature – saying he would fund
the MAEP. He said then and now that he expects the MAEP to be
fully funded every year.
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Unreliable:
Because Barbour changed his mind on funding the way he did –
after intense pressure from some lawmakers, parents and
educators – we have no guarantee he won’t change his mind again
and lobby lawmakers to vote against fully funding the MAEP in
the future.
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Teacher pay:
One of the reasons K-12 education funding has increased the past
four years is because a good bit of the money has funded a
multi-year teacher pay raise that was approved under the
leadership of former Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove. Barbour is
trying to take credit for something he didn’t do.
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Fund education first:
The easiest way to guarantee full
funding of all education is to approve education funding at the
start of each legislative session, something Democrats in the
state House tried to do in January. Barbour, though, balked at
funding education first.
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