Fotno
August 18th, 2008, 12:18 PM
http://hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080818/OPINION01/808180322/-1/rss
There's been much to lament recently about the performance of the Mississippi Legislature and Gov. Haley Barbour's ongoing battles with the House leadership, but one major success story continues.
As the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported, legislative leaders of both parties are holding steady on their promise to keep the Mississippi Adequate Education Program fully funded, even in the face of an economic slowdown and a tightened state budget outlook.
For the first three years of his first term, Barbour opposed full funding of the MAEP formula, as provided in the law that created it, and he was joined by Republican allies in the Legislature. The rationale was that the state couldn't afford it.
But the state clearly couldn't afford not to fund schools at a level that the law considers sufficient only for adequacy, not excellence. Adequate performance in Mississippi, we now know clearly, is inadequate by national standards.
There's been much to lament recently about the performance of the Mississippi Legislature and Gov. Haley Barbour's ongoing battles with the House leadership, but one major success story continues.
As the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported, legislative leaders of both parties are holding steady on their promise to keep the Mississippi Adequate Education Program fully funded, even in the face of an economic slowdown and a tightened state budget outlook.
For the first three years of his first term, Barbour opposed full funding of the MAEP formula, as provided in the law that created it, and he was joined by Republican allies in the Legislature. The rationale was that the state couldn't afford it.
But the state clearly couldn't afford not to fund schools at a level that the law considers sufficient only for adequacy, not excellence. Adequate performance in Mississippi, we now know clearly, is inadequate by national standards.