Republican Education Games

The Republicans in the House are playing political games and using the teacher pay raise as their political football as explained in the editorial of Monday’s Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. It is no secret to those who follow the politics of public education that Haley and his minions will do anything to thwart investing in the human capital of our state. Whether it be by a coup attempt for the Speaker of the House, concentrated support in races to remove public education supporters (see Rep. Cecil Brown), or by hyper-partisan politics in both chambers, the GOP in Mississippi has been a persistent and toxic foe of education. If you don’t believe that ask Hank Bounds (State Superintendent, Cecil Brown (House Education Committee Chair) or Claude Hartley (State Board of Education Chairman) what they think of Republican politics related to education in Mississippi.

The House already passed a three percent pay raise for teachers included in their big education funding bill that also met legislated education funding requirements as well as some proposed education funding requirements. The House is majority Democrat if you are wondering why there was success for pro-education legislation. While the funding bill was still in the House, an amendment to strip the teacher pay raise from the funding bill was thankfully defeated. The bill passed with support of all but 26 legislators. While this waits for conference with the Senate, the Republicans made a political move that must be understood by the public for what it really is.

A new bill to give teachers a five percent raise was brought forth by the same Republicans who opposed the three percent raise in the original bill. The educators only called for a three percent raise, why the change of heart? The opposition cited other departmental costs such as Medicaid as reason for not supporting the first bill. But now with House approved tobacco tax, the money is there for a monster raise according to the House Republicans. Oh, the irony is unreal. These are the same “pro-teacher raise’ folks who voted against the tobacco tax, the very instrument they propose to use to pay for their escalated raise. Funny, they were not in the teachers’ corner until it became politically advantageous. The five percent raise will likely be shot down in conference, but either way the Republicans can now try to crack the teacher lobby by saying, “but we voted against the first bill, so we could pass a bigger one but they killed it”. The key here is the instrument of funding. Had the Republicans really wanted to give a teacher pay raise (they did not), then they would have supported the tobacco tax. Never mind we have the most regressive tax structure of the 50 states as shown by independent research, but that is a discussion for a different day.

On a personal level what was embarrassing to me was the vote of my old hometown representatives back in Tupelo – Lee County. I had the advantage of attending Tupelo Public Schools who have always been not only a state leader but noticed nationally for their fine schools. I don’t know of another town in Mississippi that has so prospered in large part to a strong community commitment to public education. Tupelo was the only major town not to have a private school until recently to my knowledge, creating a true community school. The children of the wealthy Tupelo families like the Reed’s, Dodge’s, and Hancock’s all went to public schools along side the Smith’s, Wilson’s, and Jones’s. We had two longtime representatives who were not only education supporters and education advocates, but education leaders in Jackson, with Democrats Eloise Scott and Tim Ford. Unfortunately they have been replaced by Laurel and Hardy, otherwise known as Republicans Jerry Turner and Brian Aldridge. To see both representatives from Lee County to vote against the initial pay raise is mind boggling, embarrassing, and downright stupid. Just as sad as their stance is that of their supporters, the business leaders of Lee County who obviously are not worried about the skills of their labor force, and are unwilling to recognize the benefits they have gained from having a strong public school system.