School Funding

The new Mississippi Student Funding Formula (MSFF), adopted by the Legislature in 2024 as the mechanism for funding public schools, begins with a base student cost that is determined by an objective formula which has four components: Instructional – Calculated by dividing Mississippi’s average teacher salary (includes local supplements) by the average number of students

Passed by the Mississippi Legislature in 1997 (see history below), the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) served as the funding mechanism for public schools until it was replaced in 2024 by the Mississippi Student Funding Formula (MSFF).  The MAEP provided a formula designed to ensure an adequate education for every Mississippi child — whether that

In the 2024 Legislative Session, the House proposed a plan to strike the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) from law and replace it with Investing in the Needs of Students to Prioritize, Impact and Reform Education (INSPIRE), via House Bill 1453. The INSPIRE plan includes no objective formula for determining base student cost, allowing the

In the 2024 Legislative Session, the Senate proposed amendments to the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) via Senate Bill 2332. These amendments include adjustments to the inflation component that were put forward  but not enacted in 2023. SB 2332 amends the MAEP to increase the maximum amount in local contribution that wealthier school districts must

During the Barbour administration, legislators made a change to the school funding law that calls for a full recalculation of the MAEP base student cost only once every four years, instead of annually as the original statute required. In the intervening years, the amended law calls for the MAEP full funding amount to be determined

The treaty with the Chickasaw Indian Nation ceding their land to the United States failed to specifically reserve Sixteenth Sections, and when the lands were later sold by the government, no provision was made for the reservation of school trust lands. Later, the United States granted the State of Mississippi lieu land as compensation for

Initiative 42 was a citizen-sponsored amendment to the State Constitution, placed on the November 2015 ballot for statewide vote. The Mississippi Legislature added to the ballot its own legislative alternative, Measure 42A. Neither measure was approved by voters. See certified election results. Initiative 42 would: Bring the education section of Mississippi’s constitution in line with the education

Mississippi law requires that the State of Mississippi operate within a balanced budget, and it expressly prohibits the state from running a budget deficit. State statute further requires that, when revenue comes in 2% or more below projections, the governor take actions to bring the budget into balance. This law provides the governor, as the

Politicians and members of the public sometimes ask why schools aren’t using their reserve fund balances to cover the dramatic shortfalls in state funding they have experienced over the last few years. What are Fund Balances? School district cash flow reserve funds (to which some have referred as school district rainy day funds) differ from what