School funding measure would allow one judge to control education

An initiative to fully fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Program that will appear on the ballot this November needs careful consideration.

Initiative 42 is sponsored by a group called Better Schools, Better jobs and would require Mississippi to fund an “adequate and efficient system of free public schools.”

If legislators fail to provide that, the proposal specifies that people could ask a chancery judge to order the state to provide the money.

What worries us is that the judicial portion would remove the will of the state’s 174 Legislators and put in the hands of a single judge elected by the people of a single judicial district in Hinds County.

It also concerned state Rep. Alex Monsour, who told the Vicksburg Lions Club this week he planned to cast a vote against the bill.

“Not only is that judge going to be able to tell you what money goes to what county and how they are going to spend it, they can all tell you what they are going to teach, and how they are going to teach it, whether it be sex education or whatever.

The judge is going to have final outcome on education. The word education is going to be taken out of the Legislature,” Monsour said.

Monsour’s take is the stand Republicans across the state are taking, and though we aren’t completely sold on the idea, it’s enough to leave us wondering if the removal of power from a large group of people to a single person is the correct choice.

Of the state’s $6.3 billion budget, $2.5 billion goes toward funding K-12 education.

Another $1.04 billion goes toward higher education. Monsour said Mississippi is 15th in the amount of money per student spent in the country.

“You’re looking at 60 percent of our budget going to education,” he said.

That is a lot spent on education, but we couldn’t find where he was getting rankings. In fiscal 2011, Mississippi ranked 45th in student spending, according to a study by Governing magazine.

According to a U.S. Census report released last year, our state ranked 33rd in per student spending in 2012.

Perhaps the fear over Initiative 42 lies somewhere within that mysterious list of rankings, or maybe it is real.

Either way, it’s time for voters to do their homework before making a decision on Initiative 42.