"Restoring" Education Funding?

Below is an excerpt from an email from Nancy Loome of The Parents' campaign. It give a good explanation and update of how the governor's budget cuts are affecting our public schools overall.

from The Parents' Campaign
Governor Barbour announced today an additional $19.16-million in cuts to K-12 education. Of that, $16.8-million is to MAEP and $190,671 is to the National Board Certified Teacher Program. This brings the total cut to this year's K-12 education budget to 9.476%, or $223,769,811.


Of the total funds that have been cut from schools, $37.6-million was restored as a result of your terrific work on Senate Bill 2495. As you know, schools are already reeling from the earlier rounds of cuts, and critical teaching positions and programs are being lost. The cuts made today to all state agencies totaled $41-million.

This most recent round of cuts was made in response to the revised revenue estimates that were adopted by the Legislative Budget Committee this morning. The Revenue Estimating Committee recommended revised revenue estimates for both the current fiscal year and the next fiscal year. The estimates were revised downward as follows:

• Fiscal Year 2010 Down $119.4-million from the November estimate to $4,432,000,000

• Fiscal Year 2011 Down $112.9-million from the November estimate to $5,562,900,000

The Revenue Estimating Committee bases its recommendations on national forecasts and recent and historical economic trends within the State of Mississippi. It is on the revenue estimate for FY2011 that the FY2011 budget will be based.

The downward revision in the FY2011 revenue estimate means that the Legislature will have even fewer dollars to appropriate for the coming year. This makes it more important than ever for the Legislature to make K-12 education an absolute priority, setting it apart from other state agencies whose functions, though important, are not vital to the success of our state. Our state's constitution and state statute make it clear that it is the obligation of the Legislature to ensure that every child is provided a free and appropriate education - in good times and in bad. We will need your help to make it so.