Recent editorials from Mississippi newspapers:
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Feb. 1
The Sun Herald on plans to revamp Mississippi’s school-funding formula:
All we know about the plans to revamp Mississippi’s school-funding formula is we don’t know enough to proceed.
So far, we have the MAEP formula and a report from EdBuild, the New Jersey firm hired by legislative leadership to advise on the school-funding formula.
And the Legislature is more than a third of the way through its 2017 session.
It is clear this process has slipped behind schedule. EdBuild, for example, was supposed to have its report in the hands of lawmakers by the end of 2016. It didn’t deliver until the 2017 session had begun.
We urge lawmakers to resist the urge to accelerate to try to catch up. This is not a problem that arose overnight. The MAEP is 20 years old and rarely has been fully funded. It is hard to fathom what changed about the state’s circumstances this year that would require immediate action.
The stakes are high.
Pascagoula-Gautier School District Superintendent Wayne Rodolfich told the Sun Herald his district has been able to surpass the stated goals of state leadership - even without a fully funded MAEP - through good stewardship of its revenue. The EdBuild plan, he said, could jeopardize those gains.
The Associated Press calculated Pascagoula-Gautier would lose $14,355,017 in state funding each year and Biloxi would lose almost $4.1 million. Those districts already believe they’ve been shortchanged over the years by the Legislature’s failure to fully fund the MAEP.
The problem is we don’t know if any of those numbers will hold up because we haven’t seen a bill that outlines how either the House or Senate plans to apply the EdBuild report.
We hope the legislative leadership is upfront about its proposal, and exactly what goals it believes that proposal will achieve. And we hope its colleagues are given time to read, study and thoroughly vet the bill.
If not, we would rather the overhaul of education funding wait for a special session or, given the cost of special sessions, wait until the 2018 session.
This is not an emergency.
Online:
https://www.sunherald.com
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Jan. 29
The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal on legislation that would reduce the school year:
Among the most important challenges facing Mississippi’s future is improving the state’s educational level.
Regardless of which measurement is used, the state consistently ranks at or near the bottom in various educational rankings. There are many reasons - including a history of generational poverty that means many students have more to overcome in order to be successful in school.
Educators are working hard to improve the state’s trajectory, and the state has recently made some of the largest gains in the country on the nation’s report card.
There are many tools they are using, and one that is gaining traction is the thought of having students - especially struggling ones - spend more time in school.
Yet as their efforts continue, some state lawmakers are considering doing the opposite.
The House Education Committee on Thursday approved legislation that would shorten the school year by 10 days, as reported by Daily Journal Capitol Bureau chief Bobby Harrison.
The legislation, which now will go to the full House for consideration, reduces the school year to 170 days. If the House agrees, the bill would still need approval of the Senate.
Supporters of the bill said students would get a longer summer break and avoid having school during the hottest period of the year.
That goes directly against growing education research that calls for a shorter summer break. School leaders worry about the so-called “summer slide,” in which students lose some knowledge during the extended break. It requires teachers to spend extra time at the beginning of a new year reviewing skills that had been previously taught.
The problem particularly impacts low-income students - often those who already face the biggest challenges - because they do not have as much access to educational resources during the summer as do their more affluent peers.
Extending summer break exacerbates that problem.
In fact, some of the state’s most cutting-edge school districts are moving in the opposite direction. Mississippi recently passed a Districts of Innovation law that allows schools to try new approaches.
One district in that program - Corinth - is using a modified school calendar that divides the year into four quarters. Instead of one long summer break, students have shorter breaks at the end of each quarter, as previously reported by Daily Journal education reporter Emma Crawford Kent.
Teachers and volunteers can use those breaks to work with struggling students and give them extra help at various periods throughout the year.
Other reforms are looking at ways to increase the length of the school year and of the school day to give students more assistance. These are the approaches we should be studying.
Reducing the amount of time students spend in the classroom would instead be moving backward.
Online:
https://djournal.com
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Feb. 1
The Oxford Eagle on the arts in Mississippi:
When the people speak loudly in a state like Mississippi voices are heard.
That’s the case with bills that emerged last week in the Mississippi Legislature that would have dissolved the Mississippi Arts Commission into the Mississippi Development Authority.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant pushed for the change.
But many people in Oxford, and elsewhere in the state, pushed back with loud and strong voices.
The concern was that by dissolving the arts commission, so much creative programming including funds that help Oxford’s popular festivals would evaporate as well.
Members of Oxford’s arts community, and members of the arts community in Mississippi as a whole, went to work last week. Between those voices, and editorials in this and other newspapers, momentum for the plan faded.
We should also give credit to Sen. Gray Tollison of Oxford who played a key role in speaking out against the bill and squashing momentum. Tollison made his position in support of the arts in Mississippi and the Oxford community loud and clear.
Thus, the two bills that proposed dissolving the arts council died this week and it appears we are free from this threat.
Vigilance will be required, but there’s no denying this victory for Mississippi’s arts.
Online:
https://www.oxfordeagle.com
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