School Funding

A growing body of evidence confirms that an increased investment in public education leads to better student outcomes. Mississippi has benefited from an increased investment in elementary-grade literacy funding and a corresponding rise in fourth-grade reading proficiency as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

In more recent years, federal pandemic funding allowed Mississippi school districts to ramp up resources for struggling students and improve offerings district-wide, leading to record-high proficiency rates in English Language Arts, math, and science.

A significant pay raise for Mississippi teachers, passed in the 2022 Legislative Session, helped to mitigate a dangerous teacher shortage by stemming the flow of teachers crossing the state line for better pay in neighboring states. But the impact of that pay raise has since run its course, as our neighbor states raised teacher salaries even higher. See more. 

Threats to Public School Funding and Achievement

The biggest threat to public school funding and, thus, student achievement, is the push to divert public education funds to private schools. Bankrolled by billionaire privateers from out of state, the movement has steamrolled through other states. But public education supporters in Mississippi’s State Legislature have fought back against the voucher scam that is bankrupting states with more gullible leadership and moving student achievement backward. See more.

More Changes in School Funding

In the 2024 Legislative Session, lawmakers rewrote the school funding statute, replacing the Mississippi Adequate Education Program with the Mississippi Student Funding Formula and increasing school district funding by $218-million. The new law includes an enhancement of the equity component, which sends more state money to school districts in communities with a low tax base and requires that local taxpayers in districts with healthy property valuations contribute more.

Additionally, the new law phases out a long-standing hold-harmless provision that kept student counts artificially high in some school districts that had lost enrollment. That, coupled with the change in the required local contribution, created significant variations in year-over-year funding differences among school districts for the 2024-2025 school year. While some districts saw big increases in funding, others saw no increase at all. See more.