Greenwood-area supporters of Initiative 42 say they are disappointed the proposed constitutional amendment was defeated by voters.
At least one prominent advocate believes, however, the ballot initiative, even though unsuccessful, could prompt the Mississippi Legislature to fund public schools more generously next year.
“Something’s going to have to give,” said Billy Joe Ferguson, superintendent of the Carroll County School District. “We can’t keep going at the rate we’re going.”
On Nov. 3, 52 percent of the state’s voters rejected Initiative 42, which would have required the state to provide an “adequate and efficient system of free public schools” and allowed for judicial enforcement of the mandate. Supporters of the initiative said it was intended to compel the Legislature to fully fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, the law that is supposed to ensure that every school district in Mississippi has enough money to provide at least a midlevel education. MAEP has been fully funded only twice since its adoption in 1997.
Ferguson said that some who opposed the initiative tried to portray it as an attempt on the part of allegedly bloated district administrations to get more money. “They tried to make us look as bad as they could make us,” the superintendent said.
Robert Moore, Leflore County’s District 2 supervisor, said that he was “disappointed” with the statewide result but “really proud that Leflore County overall supported it.”
In Leflore County, 66 percent of voters supported amending the constitution.
“I just hoped that we could get this thing passed,” said Moore, who made a point of regularly asking candidates who spoke at the Greenwood Voters League in the run-up to the general election what their position on Initiative 42 was.
“A lot of folks feel that money won’t fix (public education),” said Moore, who worries that the state’s best teachers will gravitate toward better-funded districts. “If money won’t, I don’t know what will.”
Cora Lowe, an English and language arts teacher at Greenwood Middle School, said that the lack of funding is symptomatic of the disengagement of the business community from the public school system.
“Prior to 1968, we had private industries that contributed to the public school system,” she said. “People with businesses and money would donate.”
Since the rise of private academies, a significant segment of the population no longer has a direct interest in public schools, especially in parts of the state with the lowest-performing districts, Lowe said.
She blamed a defeatist attitude on the part of the initiative’s supporters as contributing to its failure. “Every time (Initiative 42 was presented), the conversation was negative. The message was, ‘It’s hard, it’s almost impossible.’
“If you tell me it’s hard, you’ve given me a reason to cop out,” said Lowe.
Lowe said she hopes that the initiative, despite its defeat, has brought the issue of school funding into the public eye.
She said that the “general standing of the public school system could have been elevated,” in part through increased funding for things such as science and computer labs, had the initiative passed.
• Contact Nick Rogers at 581-7235 or nrogers@gwcommonwealth.com.
