New K-12 education funding formula passes legislature

No local legislator voted against the plan to replace MEAP

A new funding formula for Mississippi schools has passed the state Legislature, with the bill heading to Gov. Tate Reeves for his signature.

The measure passed is House Bill 4130, also known as the Mississippi Student Funding Formula. Only three senators voted against it when it passed the state Senate on Saturday. The House approved the bill and sent it to the Senate floor on Friday.

The proposed plan would replace the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, which has been determining funding for K-12 schools since about 1997.

You may read more about House Bill 4130 here. The Senate vote is here and the House vote is found here.

It should be noted that in the final House, Rep. Hester Jackson-McCray (D-Horn Lake) was listed as absent or not voting. The remainder of the DeSoto County House delegation voted in favor of the bill. In the state Senate, all three DeSoto County state Senators voted in favor of the proposal.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann issued the following statement of the education funding bill.

“In the past several years, we have seen our schools and students achieve so much. The Legislature has significantly raised teacher pay, addressed teacher workforce shortages, and increased funding for early education. The Senate’s past work on school funding and the compromise proposal we will hopefully pass this year is the next logical step.

We are grateful to Chairman Dennis DeBar for his commitment to Mississippi students and to transparency as we examine this formula’s implementation in the future.”

Grant Callen, Founder & CEO of Empower Mississippi, praised the passage of the bill, saying:

“HB 4130 is a transformational step forward in ensuring that Mississippi funds students, not systems. We believe every student should have access to an education that meets their unique needs, and for years we’ve advocated for embracing a public education funding formula that focuses on meeting the needs of individual students. Critical to that was repealing the deeply flawed MAEP formula.

We commend lawmakers for passing this landmark legislation and look forward to continuing to work with state leaders as we advance meaningful educational policies in the future.”