Rep. Steve Holland at Plantersville Middle School

Ginny Miller in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal: (2/2/2008)

State Rep. Steve Holland, who's running for the 1st District U.S. House seat vacated when Roger Wicker was appointed U.S. senator, visited a civics class at Plantersville Middle School to talk about Wednesday's Mississippi House passage of full school funding.

"We not only fully funded the formula (for the Mississippi Adequate Education Program), we did it plus $65 million over," said Holland, a longtime supporter of public education. Two billion is what it takes, but in House Bill 513, we increased that to $2.308 billion."

MAEP was designed to provide each school with the funds needed to provide an adequate education, as determined by the state's accountability system. It has been fully funded twice, in 2003 and 2007.
The funding bill will now go to the Senate.