JACKSON - Hardly has Ronnie Musgrove exited the state Capitol scene than his 1-year-old landmark achievement of putting education first is in danger of being dismantled.
Newly appointed leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on Mississippi Public Broadcasting's "Quorum" show last week expressed doubt they will honor the 2003 precedent and enact an omnibus funding package for all education programs by the end of the first month of the legislative session.
Not a good sign.
Last year, driven by Musgrove, state lawmakers for the first time in history enacted a two-bill omnibus $2.35 billion appropriation package to fund every education phase from kindergarten through higher education.
Always in the past, funding of different facets of education trickled through the Legislature in separate bills, as lawmakers parceled out overall state funding in a myriad of single-shot appropriations.
Not surprisingly, when money has in the past been dribbled out, all three educational levels have been in competition with all the other functions of government, and schools and colleges often were left battling against each other for the leavin's in the state treasury.
Everyone was happy - the K-12 public schools, community colleges and senior colleges - to be put together into Musgrove's omnibus education funding package. They hoped 2003 set a precedent for the future in the way education would be handled, as some legislative leaders promised.
Part and parcel of the K-12 part of the education package is a five-year stair-step increase in average teachers' salaries hoping to reach the Southeast average. This year the plan requires a $96 million installment.
The heartbeat of public education is the Adequate Education Program, now known as MAEP, which provides subsidies for poorer school districts with a thin tax base in order to raise their education level to an adequate, competitive level.
Enacted in 1996, the subsidy plan is credited with warding off lawsuits against Mississippi similar to what many states have faced for failure to provide adequate educational funding to districts with a poor local tax base.
Several key faces have changed around the legislative halls since last year, and, significantly, there is no longer an "education governor" sitting in the office in the middle of the Capitol.
New Gov. Haley Barbour gave lip service to keeping up the pace of public education improvement in his campaign. But of note, he glossed over education in his inaugural address, stressing primarily need for more parental involvement in the public schools.
Many educators closely watched Barbour's "State of the State" address at the beginning of the week and found some hopeful signs that he will keep public education as a top state priority in his administration.
However, he did not demonstrate that by calling on the Legislature to fund education - all education - first, in keeping with the monumental precedent his predecessor and the past Legislature set a year ago.
So far, most of the signs coming out of the Legislature suggest a slippage in the "education first" concept around the state Capitol.
The joint Legislative Budget Committee - commonly called LBO - in December presented a proposed 2005 budget that was long on self-praise about education funding but devilishly lacking in the details.
As a prime bit of eyewash, LBO plugged in a separate item of $95.5 million to fund the fourth year of the teacher pay increase.
But at the same time, the budgeters were cutting the overall recommended amount for public education by $200 million, especially slashing the legislative allocation for the Adequate Education Program.
Rep. Johnny Stringer, D-Montrose, is taking over House Appropriations from the veteran Rep. Charlie Capps, D-Cleveland, who is stepping down after 16 years as head of the committee. Evidently, Stringer doesn't believe like Capps that omnibus education funding early-on is a commitment to be honored.
Stringer has been a friend of education. However, he made it clear on "Quorum" he intends to hold up education funding until later in the session (this one meets four months compared to three in other years). He says he wants to see if revenues improve but also indicated he would likely abandon the omnibus education package idea.
Actually, Stringer seemed to buy into delaying education funding after Sen. Travis Little, R- Corinth, the vice-chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, voiced the idea on the "Quorum" panel in response to a moderator's question.
Little wasn't known as a strong supporter of the Musgrove education initiative last year. He is remembered also as a close ally of Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck's move three years ago to make teacher pay increases contingent on a 5 percent growth in state revenues. That growth was obviously impossible to reach during the economic slide. If it had not been abandoned, Tuck's idea would have delayed state teacher pay from closing the Southeast gap.
Sen. Jack Gordon, the crusty old Democratic warhorse from Okolona, got his Senate Appropriations chairmanship back despite Tuck's switch to the Republican Party. He avoided on "Quorum" being pinned down on the omnibus, early education funding debate.
However, education forces who closely follow the Legislature fear that Gordon basically wants to abandon the Adequate Education Program and put public schools back on the old Minimum Foundation Program. That would put the state at risk of being sued for not subsidizing poorer districts.
