My friend, Bill Crawford, wrote in this newspaper on Tuesday that “it’s pretty clear the Legislature has flubbed its responsibility to provide free and good public schools.” As College Gameday’s Lee Corso would say, “not so fast, my friend.”

Bill charges that “legislators have pushed much of the funding and responsibility to the local level,” principally by virtue of a flaw in the current Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) formula requiring local school districts to contribute up to 27 percent of the base student cost.

Now THAT is a curious take. Bill has it exactly backward. Properly stated, what the 27 Percent Rule actually does is GUARANTEE that the state, not the locals, will bear 73% of required funding for education—a percentage that far exceeds the national average of 46.7%. You read that right – Mississippi provides a much higher percentage of state as compared to local dollars for schools than the majority of all other states. Far from pushing the costs of education down to localities, the Magnolia State assumes a greater state share of funding than most of its sisters. Fact, not opinion.

So, what about the LEVEL of funding? According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest annual survey of school system finances released last June, Mississippi ranks 46th out of 51 in absolute per pupil elementary-secondary funding dollars. As everyone knows, however, Mississippi is a poor state. So, when the Census Bureau ranks state K-12 funding as rightly adjusted to take into account the various states’ levels of personal income, Mississippi ranks 17th in education funding. Again, you read that right. When properly adjusted for per capita income, Mississippi’s K-12 funding is in the TOP ONE-THIRD in the whole country! Fact, not opinion.

Bill is correct in pointing out that the 27 Percent Rule is an inequity inherent in the unfundable MAEP formula itself. The Rule’s guarantee means that K-12 funding always necessarily will be suppressed to levels that the state can actually afford. Further, the Rule artificially biases districts that have a high property tax base, thereby providing more money to them relative to poorer districts than otherwise required by the MAEP formula. Should the 27 Percent Rule be revisited? Surely. Should it be eliminated immediately as Bill seems to argue? That would be reckless and irresponsible.

Locally, the Meridian, Quitman and Enterprise schools districts benefit substantially from the 27 Percent Rule, although Lauderdale County schools do not. Immediately scrapping the Rule would cost Quitman $463.25 annually per student, Meridian $169.72, and Enterprise $131.62. (Tax base rich, minimum millege Kemper County schools would lose an astonishing $4,059.26 per student if the Rule were changed!). That is why the most recent legislative proposal to redo the way our state funds education does not immediately abolish the MAEP’s 27 Percent Rule.

The bottom line is that when it comes to K-12 education funding, the Legislature has not “flubbed” anything, other than the Senate’s recent missed opportunity to join with the House in replacing the unfundable MAEP with a more focused student-based, classroom orientated formula (a sad discussion best left for another day). Indeed, given the limited resources of our poor population, our funding efforts stack up pretty well with those of other states. Although we rightly should expect our state to continue to do even better, I for one will never apologize for the Legislature’s ongoing efforts to fund K-12 education which, by fair comparison to our sisters, have been prodigious.

Rep. Greg Snowden

Speaker Pro Tempore, District 83, Mississippi House of Representatives