Republican Party Endorses Inadequate and Inefficient Public Education

It was bound to happen. For years, Mississippi Republicans have worked tirelessly to undermine public education in the state. Now, they have finally put their party's stamp of approval on it.

Early today, the Mississippi Republican Party Central Committee - not to be confused with the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China - voted unanimously to endorse the Mississippi Republican Party's opposition to public education. Some familiar faces are on this committee: Governor Phil Bryant, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, House Speaker Philip Gunn (R-Clinton), and House Speaker Pro Tempore Greg Snowden (R-Meridian).

If you recall during this year's legislative session, Gunn and Reeves rushed alternative ballot language through the legislature without any hearings or public input while threatening their rank-and-file Republicans to vote for it. Their goal: confuse the voters. During this session, Gov. Bryant pushed his private school voucher bill which will pull resources away from public schools. At the same time, Speaker Gunn has been at the beck and call of the Bomgar Caucus, an association of deep-pocketed interests that spent tens of thousands of dollars to defeat pro-public education Republican legislators in the August primaries. Just last week, Bryant and Hosemann voted to put their political talking points on the November ballot by putting misleading language before the voters. This intentionally-confusing language, mind you, was pushed by Reeves and Snowden through the Legislative Budget Office. The public has been refused access to the communication between these offices because they chose to not be transparent. Let's not forget that time Rep. Herb Frierson (R-Poplarville) threw out his scare tactics of frightening state agencies that if the state fully support public education, their agencies would see massive budget cuts - possibly leading to huge layoffs.

All these political players and all these moves have been a part of the Republicans' masterful strategy of deliberately weakening Mississippi's public education system.

Republicans can talk about how proud they are about continuing to not fully support public education and that Mississippi still pays its public school teachers less than their counterparts across the South. The truth remains that you can either be a Republican or support public education, but you cannot do both. The Republican Party's vote today proves it.

A Modern Day Literacy Test?

You are looking at the recently-approved sample ballot of Initiative 42, the citizen lead effort to induce the Mississippi legislature to do what they are already required to do by law: fully fund public education. 

This is a sample literacy test from days of yore.

Back then, Mississippians needed to be manipulated in order for elected officials to hold onto their power. Roadblocks at every turn were created to halt progress and expose the status quo. Ballots were made to be confusing and exhausting, misleading, and arduous. 

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

When Initiative 42 started out, it was made to be as straightforward and literal as possible. Nobody but the hardworking volunteers who set out to gather signatures expected it to be as successful as it was. So when the Republican-controlled legislature was blindsided by the results, they were forced to show their true colors and it came at a cost.

In creating an unprecedented need for a supermajority of support for 42, they tasked public school supporters with what seemed to be an insurmountable goal. Except support for fully funding education keeps growing, and efforts to "educate the public" to support the alternate amendment keep falling short.

A brave Mississippi parent, Adrian Shipman, stepped up and filed a suit against 42A, arguing that the language was nothing more than an attempt at exhausting voters.  

And that at least educated voters on what can only be described as persistent dirty tricks from the Mississippi Republican legislators.

So Rep. Herb Frierson (R-Poplarville) tried to scare other department heads into believing that their own budgets were in jeopardy. 

But those scare tactics fell short.

And now we are here. Staring at a massive block of text insisting that a single different word between the legislature's alternative and the initial wording could result in a catastrophe for Mississippi's budget.

We know not to fall for it. But every. single. Republican. that voted for this initiative amendment must be held accountable for this blatant attempt at misleading voters, and more importantly, insisting at all costs that public schools don't receive the support they deserve. 

Remember on November 3rd, friends. Not only do Republicans want to kill public schools, they will break the democratic process to do so. 

Performance Budgeting: "Kill 'em all and let Herb sort 'em out"

Last Wednesday, the House passed HB 1170, a measure characterized as a routine transfer bill that would shore up the general fund with dollars from the state savings account and shore up the savings account with money from special funds.  In the last minute frenzy to stay ahead of Thursday's deadline, the details of this little transaction were lost.  Here's some of the damage: