Jackson Jambalaya

Yep, I suspected that these million$ would be going to the administrator's bank accounts, company luxury cars, artwork, office remodeling, covered parking spots, "conventions" (in Paris?), etc.

I know nothing about the dispute but I like telling the education hierarchy
"no".
RMQ

Only in backwoods Mississippi can million$/billion$ be allocated to fix problems that don't get fixed. Why? Because the money ends up in private bank accounts, both foreign and domestic.

Tater is just mad because he's afraid he wouldn't get the credit for helping education.

Education reform: Choice and Vouchers where money follows students to parents' choice of school. Best schools get best funding.

Cut administrative costs, then use savings for merit pay to teachers.

9:41 That would be ALL government. Not just Mississippi.

Delbert is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

So his objection is that democrats want to fund education. What a petty brat, own the libs and screw the kids. Later Tater.

No, Eggbert is a Donkey in a RINO suit.

Ed adminsitration is bloated in most MS school districts. Case study - JPS.

10:02 am is a complete and intentional mischaracterization of Tate’s statement Typical liberal tactic.

Someone with just a slight degree of intelligence please tell me what is wrong with using this money to increase teachers' pay as opposed to just "giving" the money to the school districts? I'm no fan of Tater, but I've seen first hand how the school administrators piss off our money.

I would publicly celebrate Tate losing in November, which I don't think is going to happen, but he's exactly right about this.

Check the weather channel. Hell might be freezing. I agree with Tate.

Should it really be, our only options are fully fund MAEP, which has not been fully funded, OR increase teachers' pay, who are woefully underpaid? No mischaracterizations here...but do you see how they took a BIG issue and divided it into a politized issue. Tater Tot knew EXACTLY what his statement would do. And the responses here prove he was right.

I believe 10:02 has his panties in a wad.........

Mississippi has the highest paid superindendent of education in the nation. How is that return on investment coming along?

I am so blessed to be exempt from state income tax.

@10:26 Spot on!

I don't like how much I find myself agreeing with Tate.

And I really don't like how anti-Dumbert I am with Chris McCrazy in the mix.

Hope this buys Hosehead enough votes to compensate for the ones he is running off.

" Yeah, well, That's like your opinion, Man!"

82 counties, 157 school districts. Give a mouse a cookie…..

Pay the teachers. we dont need more head office paper shufflers

When you have no argument, just call the proposal that you’re arguing with a name, like “liberal” or “woke.”

Geez, with this “governor” in charge, no wonder MS is loosing population for the first time in my lifetime. He’s a joke.

I agree with Tate, I would rather give more teachers pay raises than giving more money to all these superintendents and district offices.

We have 137 school districts in Mississippi, but only 82 counties. Let's consolidate all these extra school districts!

How about providing more funding for SPED teachers, literacy specialists, speech therapists, and dyslexia therapists? All school districts in MS are woefully understaffed in these areas. Every school in MS should have these specialists in every school!

Ben Dover @11:09 , I don't think we currently have a state superintendent of education. Mrs. Wright took the money and ran back up to the Northeast last year.

Shut up Tater. The school’s districts are suffering. No new bathrooms, books, ac units or anything much for decades!
Tater thinks we forgot how he paid an out of state group thousands to rewrite MAEP and stifle well needed money. He did it behind closed doors and had no consideration for the elected legislators. It failed in both chambers. We didn’t forget and won’t!

@10:20 - Sorry, in the article I read, Tater said to be very cautious because the democrats and liberals support the bill. The statement wasn’t even a full paragraph. Are you really too lazy to read it? Maybe your conservative education is the cause? Typical right winger, too dumb to read and too little shame to care.

What happened to all of the JPS bond money that was supposed to fix up the schools? Condos in Destin? New luxury cars? Raises for administrators?

If you fully fund MEAP by default teachers will get a pay raise and a better working environment . Tater is going to add in the usual dog whistles before you know it. MEAP funding isn’t about the money, it’s about who gets and from the money. People who have their kids in private/academy schools don’t care and would love not doing either.

Ben Dover @11:09

This was accurate in the past tense, but your statement makes it sound like School District Superintendents' salaries are the highest in that nation, and that is categorically incorrect. The Mississippi State Superintendent was the highest while Carey Wright had the job, but that is no longer the case. For School District Superintendents the National Average is $80,139 annually and the Mississippi average is $63,787.

12"22 - get your facts correct prior to putting your idiocy down on paper, or in this case, a blog comment.

Mississippi is reported to have lost population between April 1, 2010 and April 1, 2020, based on the census reports. Tate was sworn into office mid-January 2020. I don't believe the 6,000 people that MS lost (like that number is anything significant, other than it was a negative 6,000 rather than a positive 6,000 - in which case it would have been ignored) during the 75 days of Tate's administration.

It was a nice try to swipe at him, but it missed bigtime. Next time when you swing the bat, maybe just try for a bunt single.

@1:51 pm, staying true to form, this time by omitting the rest of Tate’s statement to give a false impression. I did in fact read his statement, which clearly expresses no objection to spending money on education, but just in a different manner than the dems. But go ahead and continue to push that false narrative, it’s what you do.

1:32 - shut up. MAEP dollars cannot be spent on building new bathrooms, ac units, or building renovations. And not all school districts are suffering; only those in areas where the number of students are declining to a point there is no justification for maintainance of a separate school district - other than historical reasons or sports teams.

And that rewritten MAEP seems to be the plan that the Senate is using to support their efforts today - guess somebody remembered that project's results and putting it in play. Whether it survives both chambers this time is to be seen. Maybe though you forgot what the improvements to the two decade old plan provided.

Tate done outsmarted Delbert-

Just FYI --
What does MAEP fund?
• Teacher and other district employee salaries, retirement and insurance
• Textbooks and other instructional materials
• Basic operational costs (utilities, facility maintenance, etc.)
• Transportation (operation of buses)
• Special education
• Vocational education
• Gifted education
• Alternative education

MAEP is a Promise from the Legislators to Mississippi’s public schools – in every zip code. It should give every student an equal chance to receive the best education possible.
Legislators’ continued underfunding of the program creates a burden on local taxpayers who must help make up the shortfall.
It is in every Mississippian’s best interest to fully fund MAEP.

2:28, and many Superintendents run a district the size of a one room school house. Only slightly exaggerated.

Team Delbert, and I cannot wait for his comeback to this politically motivated comment from the governor.

Well, I'm gonna agree with the Gov on this 1. We already have enough Assistants, Assistants to the Assistants, Deputy this & Deputy that. Let's PAY THE TEACHERS & move to a Performance Based pay for them. A person being present in a Classroom typically doesn't Educate a Child. Teachers who are passionate about their Job, who Care should be compensated -

"I don't like how much I find myself agreeing with Tate.

And I really don't like how anti-Dumbert I am with Chris McCrazy in the mix.

Hope this buys Hosehead enough votes to compensate for the ones he is running off."

You cannot believe a word Delbert says. He truly only looks after those who support him - the people of the State be damned. Like you, I find McCrazy a bitter pill to swallow, however at least you know where he stands. One cannot make that statement about Delbert. He would tell a lie when the truth would help him more.

4:55 do you really think Delbert himself isn't "politically motivated?" Delbert is a populist like Mitch McConnell. He will defend a position today, and yet sell out on that same position tomorrow. There's a track record on that.

You all need to pay attention to what these pandering politicians do and take credit for. All of your top MS executive office holders are crooks.
From Tate Reeves all the way to the insurance commissioner.
They all want to do things last minute then take credit and/ or cry when it wasn’t their idea.

Just like when Blue Cross Blue Shield and UMMC got into it, and Mike Chaney “wrote a letter” to Blue Cross Blue Shield after he let the situation play out and knew they had a resolution. And insurance rates in the state across the board are skyrocketing.


Open your eyes Mississippi and get these money hungry, selfish good for nothing crooks out of office.

I don’t know if those salary averages for district superintendents are correct - they sound awfully low. The superintendent in Simpson County makes $140,000 base pay plus benefits and the schools are mostly bad. He has two assistant superintendents making about $80/K each. This for a district with about 3,000 children in it. I have checked the same pay in other adjacent counties and mostly they make over $100/K.

MAEP is a scam. The education lobby came up with the formula. More money won’t fix bad schools. Education is already the largest expenditure in the state budget and what do we have to show for it? Mostly failing schools, crime, indoctrination of our young people, and an ignorant populace. The Simpson County Superintendent is on record denigrating the study of history and literature. There are violent gang members in the Magee and Mendenhall schools.

They need less money, not more. The private sector spends much less per student and does a better job. The education lobby always wants more. “No administrator left behind”.

UH...any of you figured out how to add space and equipment to all these "best schools" parents want their "darlings" to attend?
Any of you considered that " little darling" may not be able to compete in the new school or that "little darling" may BE the teachers nightmare, right along with the parents?
You want to improve schools? Build a facility for children with behavioral problems that includes secure boarding and a school for those with learning disabilities. It'd be a far better use of funds.
You are expecting the impossible from teachers...to teach the gifted,the troubled and the disabled in the same classroom.
If you went to school in the 50's and 60's YOUR teachers and school board had the authority to expel those children.
And, how about a home for teenage unwed mothers whose family can't or won't support them and a monetary cost to the pappy's family who has a boy who can't keep his pants zipped?
Simple minds with simple solutions to complex problems is tiresome and destructive.

Fund Students, Not Systems. Choice and Vouchers Legislation giving parents control of where their children learn has passed in
AZ
AR
UT
IA
Soon to pass in
FL
NE
OK
SC
TX.
Why isn't MS on this list? Sending money into the abyss of rotting school systems is and has been a self defeating waste.

Before we spend more money, let's eliminate the state income tax. Seems to be working pretty well for Florida and Texas. I'm with Tate.

9:31am
Let's suspend judgment on state income tax until we know what tax replaces it. Property tax in TX is so stratospherical it has given rise to a whole other profession: must hire specialist to protest your property tax in legal documents with the expense of private inspectors and assessors? And then have to pay in whole and wait for State rejection or approval?

Perhaps a sales tax can supplant the income tax? Then everybody buys a car in TX and a boat in AL?

Fussing over this and not worried about the state funding 1 penny to an essential group of first responders they call upon regularly.

Close friend of mine who is also a teacher agrees with Tate.

The feel good slogan of "Funding MAEP" is not the cause to rally behind.
You are just adding dollars to administration.
Y'all can chant "For the Kids!" all you want and we are simply not falling for it.

Allocated funds without strict oversight is useless.

See also HB1020