Mississippi Legislative Outlook, 2007
The major education issue in the Mississippi Legislature in 2007 is full funding of the state’s school finance formula, the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, known as MAEP. MAEP has only been fully funded once since it was passed in 1997. This year has marked a significant shift in the legislative budget process because for the first time citizens and the media have been allowed to be present at meetings. More than two dozen education and community groups from around the state are working together to secure funding. Currently at issue is whether the state will provide a 3% increase in at-risk funding for children in kindergarten through third grade. Governor Haley Barbour (R) has recently said he would support full funding of MAEP, but he previously opposed full funding and backed strategies to delay a vote on the issue. Some proponents of public education are also concerned that the 3% at-risk increase and/or full funding of the basic MAEP formula will be passed at the expense of other essential funding included in the House’s education bill (HB 238).