MS-01: Greg Davis and education, don't fully fund our schools

In Tuesday's Daily Journal, Bobby Harrison pointed out the glaring truth for the voters of north Mississippi to see. You don't have to look any further than one vote to see where Greg Davis stands when it comes our most valuable resource, our children.

Not all decisions made by politicians are equal.

In 1997, Greg Davis was one of about 55 members in the 174-member Legislature to vote against the MAEP - a program that is now hailed by the mainstream of both parties as important legislation, a program that Barbour boasts is fully funded, a program, by the way, that has been critical to the success of the school system in Davis' fast growing home county of DeSoto.

Davis originally voted for the bill, but after Republican Gov. Kirk Fordice vetoed it, Davis was one of a few members to change their votes and oppose it. It should be noted that many Republicans, such as Sen. Alan Nunnelee of Tupelo, said while they supported Fordice he was wrong on that issue and they voted with the majority to override the governor's veto. It was a tough vote for Republicans like Nunnelee because the head of their party was opposing them, but they stood firm.

Being out of touch with your constituency can mean a lot of different things. The more important question for voters is, what have the candidates done when given an opportunity to make decisions that actually have an impact on our lives?

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.

Reason #1

As promised, we'll be sharing important reasons why Rep. Jeff Smith should not be Speaker of the House. Here's Reason #1.

"I didn't want to do anything to be perceived as against fully funding MAEP."

That's what Jeff Smith said earlier this year about his voting record on education. Hardly a surprise, Smith has cast many votes that did not support education at all levels in Mississippi. And when he wanted to protect the voters "perception" of him, he just just didn't vote for a bill at all.

(Check out HB 238 & 241 in 2007; SB 3019, 3021, 3022 in 2006 for a sample of his poor record.)

Politically maneuvering his way through the votes in the House, Smith frequently votes against bringing up MAEP bills. A critical piece to the education-funding nightmare Mississippi finds itself in every year, fully-funding MAEP is vital to Mississippi public schools.

Smith, however, is more concerned about his "perception" than our future. These are the lives of our children, and he treats it all like a political game.

Speaker McCoy has kept Mississippi first, not his political career!