Initiative 42

[IttaBenaKilla]

3spop, the ballot I just read very clearly referenced MAEP.

[Deltaquack]

A lot of confusion concerning I42, mainly due to a lot of political posturing on both sides. Below are the facts, I don't have all of the facts, but these are the ones I have "validated," if you can call it that, thru our state legislators....

1) MAEP was voted in years ago, and has never been fully funded per the mathematical formula. They know exactly how much money should go to each district each year. The money goes to district's SUPERINTENDENT and is disbursed from there, and must be spent in the classroom. The easiest way to fix a problem would be to vote out the Superintendent.
2) The change in language, making the "State" responsible for providing adequate funding to public education, is how you end up in front of a Judge. There are 4 Chancery judges in Hinds county, the docket is determined by computer, 2 white, 2 black, 2 women.
3) The language allows for the state to be sued, and when you sue the state, you do so in Hinds county. Whatever decision is rendered is guaranteed to be appealed, and the Supreme Court will sort it out.
4) The law in place calls for 25% of surplus to be spent on MAEP first, if it is not statutorily funded. There's around 600 million in the rainy day fund right now.
5) If it passes, an underfunded school district will be able to sue the state, and the judge will tell the legislature to follow their own laws. That's where the Judges come in, they don't unilaterally decide what goes where, they look at the formula, and hold the legislature accountable. The Supremes will have the final say.
6) I may have left some stuff out, and it's too late to matter anyway...I hope this helped.

You type this as though Superintendents in ever district are voted into office. That's not the case right over here in Bolivar County. The School Board is voted in and they decide what gets spent on what. The superintendent is hired and fired here by the School Board. I like it that way, b/c each area gets a school board member and everything is voted on instead of one person making decisions.
We definitely don't need to spend our rainy day fund. If we spend all of it, we'll end up like California with no way to fund the budget.

[IttaBenaKilla]

I agree with you DeltaQuack, point being it's easier, in theory, to vote out a Superintendent, or school board members as in your case, as opposed to a bunch of legislators. I never really thought it had much chance passing, I don't have any skin in the game (no kids), I was only trying to answer some of the OP's questions. My grandmother taught public school in Ruleville for 40 years, so I understand some of your issues up there.

[bigoak]

In #5 you say,* if it passes a judge will tell the legislature to follow their own laws.* How do you know that? That's not on the ballot I voted against today. It just said "adequate and efficient". It never mentioned MAEP one time. Seems to me like the intentionally vague language would allow lawyers to argue all day long about what adequate and efficient means if it passes. Then the judge would render his decision on what those 2 words mean.

Exactly right. All these liberal democrats keep saying that the judge will tell the legislature to follow their own laws. MAEP is not part of the amendment. They have no way of knowing how the courts will interpret what "adequate and efficient" means. The proposed amendment was written by a couple of liberal civil rights lawyers. They used that wording for a reason.

[MSDawg870]

You boys have been snookered by the very people we all put in office. Here's the folks really running things in Jackson amongst all the "leaders" we have down there.

http://empowerms.org/about/