By Molly Parker, The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson)
Dozens of school superintendents watched from the balcony as House lawmakers passed a measure Tuesday that would restore $100 million to the state budget – a big chunk of it earmarked for K-12 education.
The latest House proposal calls for spending $50 million each from the rainy-day and tobacco settlement funds.
“We appreciate the House standing up for education,” said Steve Thrash, Jones County School District superintendent.
The money would go to targeted agencies, including education, to offset Gov. Haley Barbour’s total $437 million cut to the fiscal 2010 budget.
House Education Committee Chairman Cecil Brown, D-Jackson, said a major goal of the measure is to keep from “devastating the school districts.”
Thrash said he can make ends meet without cutting staff. But other school leaders said they see no alternative unless the Legislature intervenes.
“We’re looking at layoffs,” said Moss Point schools Superintendent Kim Staley. “It’s going to set any school backwards.”
House Republican leaders, who floated their own alternative, accused the Democratic majority of grandstanding. Barbour has said repeatedly he opposes further use of the rainy-day fund.
“We ought to have a magician come out here and do some tricks because this is a show,” said Rep. Mark Baker of Brandon, the House minority leader.
The defeated plan backed by Republican representatives would have used $50 million in tobacco trust funds to offset cuts. Barbour called it an “acceptable compromise.”
In contrast with the House Democrats’ plan, the GOP alternative earmarked little for education and included $17 million for the Department of Corrections. It would have restored a $1.9 million cut to a bonus fund for National Board Certified Teachers.
Supporters of the House proposal said they are acting in good faith regardless of the governor’s expected opposition to the measure.
Said Brown: “I think these people up here in the gallery may have some influence.”
School officials from across the state spent the afternoon at the Capitol as part of the Mississippi Association of School Superintendents’ conference, which began Sunday.
Clarksdale schools Superintendent Dennis Dupree said, “We’ll have to look at cutting personnel” if the governor’s cut sticks.
The House initiative is likely to meet a tougher audience in the Senate. Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant also opposes using more rainy-day funds in fiscal 2010.
Barbour responded Friday to the legislative stalemate by making a nearly 8.2 percent, across-the-board cut to agencies, recalling another $216 million in 2010 appropriations on top of what he cut in the fall.
The House plan would add about $43.4 million back to offset K-12′s cut, leaving the system $151.2 million short of its original funding level.
The Supreme Court, district attorneys, the Department of Mental Health, the attorney general’s office, and the Department of Public Safety would also see their budgets partially restored under the House plan.
The amended Senate Bill 2495 passed 73-47 almost along partisan lines. Two Republicans supported the measure, and two Democrats voted against it.
