Video: Packed House for Public Hearing on Fully Funding Public Education

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TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) – It was a packed house at Tupelo’s Link Center for a public hearing on the future of public education in the state.The public hearing was the third being held across the state as required by the legislature.

In November voters will decide on whether to approve a constitutional amendment to fully fund public education in the state. Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann hosted the event. He says Mississippians who want the change will then decide whether to approve Initiative 42 which was initiated by a citizens petition or Initiative 42A from the legislature which does not allow the courts to intervene and does not require the full funding. Hosemann says 42 allows for the court to get involved.

“It says fulling funding but it also says that a court would make that determination, he says . “The MAEP (Mississippi Adequate Education Program) Formula is not in the constitutional amendment but people has assumed that funding MAEP would be fully funding education. The proponents of 42 say it’s been underfunded by 200-million dollars this year. And the opponents say that we spent all the state budget that we could spend on education and it’s been increased every year for the last several years”.
Hosemann says there will be a total of eight public hearings between now and the election, which will be November 3rd.