FOREST - What does Mississippi have in common with Delaware, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah?
We've never been sued over inadequate funding of education in poorer counties. The other 45 states in the union have been sued. Mississippi could make it 46 if the Legislature does not come through with fully funding the Mississippi Adequate Education Program - perhaps even fully funding education.
We all know how the formula works. If the state does not fully fund education, then lawmakers pass the expense down to the local districts, which must either spend rapidly depleting reserves or raise taxes. In doing so, the state is putting an undue burden on some counties.
If you want to know what led to the other 45 states being sued, then the above paragraph about sums it up. It comes down to how other states did not evenly distribute wealth, so poor counties had poor public schools and rich counties had good public schools.
The results of those lawsuits largely have been tax increases, which our legislators are said to be considering for this year in spite of election-year promises not to do so.
But here's the rub in raising taxes in Mississippi to fund education: In five years, will the money still be used for public schools?
In 1992, the Legislature passed a one-cent sales tax increase that was to be used for education. Soon after, however, legislators decreased the percentage of the general fund that went to education.
Then there was the casino revenue. Mississippi opened its coast, river banks and reservations to the gaming industry in the name of public education. But public education is still in a full-body cast waiting a prognosis from Jackson.
Reality is that the Legislature is facing a very difficult task in budgeting next year. Lawmakers really have only two choices if they fund education fully - raise taxes or cut health care and other programs so deeply that what happened this year looks like a paper cut.
The alternative is to cut education spending, which is like rolling loaded dice.
Proponents of cutting education say fat can be trimmed. The idea of bringing business sense to public schools dictates that public education can improve with less money. The truth is, proponents of cutting public education are probably correct in their assessment. The problem is that their assessment - at this point - is nothing more than a shot in the dark.
Before education can be cut, the state must have clear guidelines which public schools can follow to meet their growing needs with less money. Lawmakers cannot do with education what they did with Medicare - cut first and worry about solutions to arising problems later.
The problems must be anticipated and solved before the cutting ever takes place. Perhaps that is what Gov. Haley Barbour is doing with his new three-point education initiative that will involve educational and business leaders to study the state's public education system.
And lest we forget, funding MAEP and K-12 education is not the only problem our state's public schools face.
Mississippi is one of only 10 states which do not have a state-funded pre-K system. Educational professional after educational professional will tell you that early childhood education is key.
Furthermore, Mississippi's universities are drowning, and it is becoming increasingly more expensive for our young people to get a public college education.
All of these problems tie into economic development issues. If we cannot improve our educational system, then we cannot train a workforce that will attract the jobs we must have to sustain ourselves in a changing economy.
But the most immediate problem is the funding of MAEP. Not doing so could lead Mississippi to being sued. And that, my friends, will require the courts to step in and legislate one more battle in Mississippi.
