Mississippi Today
Bill to fully fund public education heads to House for consideration. Here’s what the changes would mean.
Bill to fully fund public education heads to House for consideration. Here’s what the changes would mean.
The Mississippi Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved two bills to change the state’s school funding formula and “fully fund” the new version, but the bills may face challenges in the House and from the governor.
The funding formula used to allocate money to public schools, the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, was established by the Legislature in 1997 and has been consistently underfunded every year since 2008. MAEP funding provides the state’s share of funding for the basic operations of local school districts, ranging from teacher salaries to textbooks to utilities.
In broad strokes, the proposed changes would change the amount some districts pay towards the formula and adjust the way inflation is calculated. Every school district except five (Carroll County, Coahoma County, Laurel, Holly Springs, and Wilkinson County) would receive more money than last year from the state under the new formula, but the state would make a one-time allocation to those five districts for the first year the new formula is enacted.
READ MORE: Senate, Hosemann want to spend $181 million more to ‘fully fund’ public education in Mississippi
Chickasaw County School District Superintendent John Ellison called the new plan “a step in the right direction.”
“We got so far from full funding, it was almost like ‘How are we ever going to get there?’ So to me this was kind of a meet in the middle,” he said. “It probably has lowered the ceiling some on what full funding of MAEP looks like, but at the same time, it’s given most of us an increase in funding for next year, so that’s always a good thing for us. The other positive, too, is if they change the formula to where it’s more likely to be fully funded, then we know what to bank on each year.”
The changes to the formula do not alter the calculation of the base student cost, or the amount of money that is necessary to “adequately” educate a student, which some advocates have lauded. The base student cost is recalculated every four years and receives an adjustment for inflation each year in the intervening years — this inflation adjustment is one of the two aspects of the formula that the Senate plan changes. Under the new plan, inflation will be calculated using a 20-year average instead of current inflation rates, and the amount of costs subject to the inflation adjustment will be reduced.
Senate Education Committee Chairman Dennis DeBar, R-Leaksville, said the changes in inflation calculation will provide more stability for both the Legislature and school districts. Since the year-to-year cost of full funding will fluctuate less with the shift to a 20-year average, it will be easier for the Legislature to anticipate how much fully funding MAEP will cost.
“By fully funding it, which is what districts are mostly going to be keen on, I think districts can work with fluctuations in actual inflation as long as we are fully funding it,” he told Mississippi Today.
The bill would also change the portion that must be covered locally. Under the current formula, there is a provision known as the “27% rule,” which states that no school district shall bear more than 27% of the cost of public education for its schools. The new proposal would alter the percentage to 29.5%. This change would slightly increase the contribution by wealthier districts, since their property taxes generate more funds and they are the districts who benefit from this cap.
DeBar said for full funding of MAEP to be possible, some districts need to be more honest about the level of local funding they already provide, since most school districts levy property taxes above the required amount.
“In any scenario that increases the 27% threshold, by any degree, even if it’s just 2.5%, what you’re saying is, those property-wealthy districts that were benefiting from this loophole are going to benefit a little less,” said Zahava Stadler of New America, a national think tank. “It frees up state money … to be sent to districts that actually need the aid.”
Stadler said while she sees this change as positive progress, the existence of the 27% rule is still very unusual nationally. She said most states only pay the portion of their formula that local districts cannot cover through property taxes, or guarantee to cover a much smaller portion of the cost.
DeBar said this revision of the formula is “the beginning,” and the formula should be reviewed for tweaks more often, possibly each time the base student cost is recalculated.
“It’s going to be hard to make changes to the formula if we’re not fully funding it upfront,” he said.
For school districts, the biggest impact of the funding increase will be the ability to avoid budget cuts or update neglected facilities.
Adrian Hammitte, superintendent of the Jefferson County School District, said this money will save his district from making cuts to protect new curriculum resources and allow him to address damages to buildings from severe weather events over the last few years.
“Those additional funds will help us to continue to make sure that students have a safe, warm, and welcoming school environment,” he said.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1997
Dec. 22, 1997
The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers.
In the court’s 4–2 decision, Justice Mike Mills praised efforts “to squeeze justice out of the harm caused by a furtive explosion which erupted from dark bushes on a June night in Jackson, Mississippi.”
He wrote that Beckwith’s constitutional right to a speedy trial had not been denied. His “complicity with the Sovereignty Commission’s involvement in the prior trials contributed to the delay.”
The decision did more than ensure that Beckwith would stay behind bars. The conviction helped clear the way for other prosecutions of unpunished killings from the Civil Rights Era.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Medicaid expansion tracker approaches $1 billion loss for Mississippi
About the time people ring in the new year next week, the digital tracker on Mississippi Today’s homepage tabulating the amount of money the state is losing by not expanding Medicaid will hit $1 billion.
The state has lost $1 billion not since the start of the quickly departing 2024 but since the beginning of the state’s fiscal year on July 1.
Some who oppose Medicaid expansion say the digital tracker is flawed.
During an October news conference, when state Auditor Shad White unveiled details of his $2 million study seeking ways to cut state government spending, he said he did not look at Medicaid expansion as a method to save money or grow state revenue.
“I think that (Mississippi Today) calculator is wrong,” White said. “… I don’t think that takes into account how many people are going to be moved off the federal health care exchange where their health care is paid for fully by the federal government and moved onto Medicaid.”
White is not the only Mississippi politician who has expressed concern that if Medicaid expansion were enacted, thousands of people would lose their insurance on the exchange and be forced to enroll in Medicaid for health care coverage.
Mississippi Today’s projections used for the tracker are based on studies conducted by the Institutions of Higher Learning University Research Center. Granted, there are a lot of variables in the study that are inexact. It is impossible to say, for example, how many people will get sick and need health care, thus increasing the cost of Medicaid expansion. But is reasonable that the projections of the University Research Center are in the ballpark of being accurate and close to other studies conducted by health care experts.
White and others are correct that Mississippi Today’s calculator does not take into account money flowing into the state for people covered on the health care exchange. But that money does not go to the state; it goes to insurance companies that, granted, use that money to reimburse Mississippians for providing health care. But at least a portion of the money goes to out-of-state insurance companies as profits.
Both Medicaid expansion and the health care exchange are part of the Affordable Care Act. Under Medicaid expansion people earning up to $20,120 annually can sign up for Medicaid and the federal government will pay the bulk of the cost. Mississippi is one of 10 states that have not opted into Medicaid expansion.
People making more than $14,580 annually can garner private insurance through the health insurance exchanges, and people below certain income levels can receive help from the federal government in paying for that coverage.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, legislation championed and signed into law by President Joe Biden significantly increased the federal subsidies provided to people receiving insurance on the exchange. Those increased subsidies led to many Mississippians — desperate for health care — turning to the exchange for help.
White, state Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, Gov. Tate Reeves and others have expressed concern that those people would lose their private health insurance and be forced to sign up for Medicaid if lawmakers vote to expand Medicaid.
They are correct.
But they do not mention that the enhanced benefits authored by the Biden administration are scheduled to expire in December 2025 unless they are reenacted by Congress. The incoming Donald Trump administration has given no indication it will continue the enhanced subsidies.
As a matter of fact, the Trump administration, led by billionaire Elon Musk, is looking for ways to cut federal spending.
Some have speculated that Medicaid expansion also could be on Musk’s chopping block.
That is possible. But remember congressional action is required to continue the enhanced subsidies. On the flip side, congressional action would most likely be required to end or cut Medicaid expansion.
Would the multiple U.S. senators and House members in the red states that have expanded Medicaid vote to end a program that is providing health care to thousands of their constituents?
If Congress does not continue Biden’s enhanced subsidies, the rates for Mississippians on the exchange will increase on average about $500 per year, according to a study by KFF, a national health advocacy nonprofit. If that occurs, it is likely that many of the 280,000 Mississippians on the exchange will drop their coverage.
The result will be that Mississippi’s rate of uninsured — already one of the highest in the nation – will rise further, putting additional pressure on hospitals and other providers who will be treating patients who have no ability to pay.
In the meantime, the Mississippi Today counter that tracks the amount of money Mississippi is losing by not expanding Medicaid keeps ticking up.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1911
Dec. 21, 1911
Josh Gibson, the Negro League’s “Home Run King,” was born in Buena Vista, Georgia.
When the family’s farm suffered, they moved to Pittsburgh, and Gibson tried baseball at age 16. He eventually played for a semi-pro team in Pittsburgh and became known for his towering home runs.
He was watching the Homestead Grays play on July 25, 1930, when the catcher injured his hand. Team members called for Gibson, sitting in the stands, to join them. He was such a talented catcher that base runners were more reluctant to steal. He hit the baseball so hard and so far (580 feet once at Yankee Stadium) that he became the second-highest paid player in the Negro Leagues behind Satchel Paige, with both of them entering the National Baseball Hame of Fame.
The Hall estimated that Gibson hit nearly 800 homers in his 17-year career and had a lifetime batting average of .359. Gibson was portrayed in the 1996 TV movie, “Soul of the Game,” by Mykelti Williamson. Blair Underwood played Jackie Robinson, Delroy Lindo portrayed Satchel Paige, and Harvey Williams played “Cat” Mays, the father of the legendary Willie Mays.
Gibson has now been honored with a statue outside the Washington Nationals’ ballpark.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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