State Bean Counter Shadrack White issued the following statement.
Mississippi’s Education Enhancement Fund (EEF) procurement card program for public K-12 classrooms provides teachers with money for classroom supplies, but those cards are sometimes activated too late to be helpful according to a new report from State Auditor Shad White. “Common sense says money spent in the classroom is what makes the biggest difference for students,” said State Auditor Shad White. “My office found that Mississippi spends a greater percentage of its K-12 budget on administrative costs than every other state in the South, which means, when we do spend money in the classroom, it needs to get to the teachers on time.” According to the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE), the EEF fund will provide eligible teachers with $748 each for classroom supplies. MDE currently activates the procurement cards on August 1st. Analysts from the Office of the State Auditor (OSA) determined 75% of public-school classrooms will already have started school before teachers have access to their procurement cards—meaning teachers in those school districts will need to purchase school supplies with their own money or begin the school year without supplies they need. The 75% of classrooms that start before August 1st includes nearly 24,000 teachers with over 329,000 students. As a result, $17.8 million in classroom supply funds are unavailable to these 24,000 teachers to prepare their classrooms in advance of the school year. OSA recommends that MDE activate EEF cards earlier in future years so that every teacher in the state can use their procurement cards as intended before students are back in the classroom. Earlier activation would eliminate a financial burden on teachers during the costly start of the school year and ensure students return to fully equipped classrooms ready to learn. “As many students prepare to start the school year, we need to be smart about how we’re spending money in our education system,” said White. This report is one of many from OSA addressing the importance of inside-the-classroom spending in K-12 schools. The full report can be found under the “Reports” tab on the Auditor’s website and searching “EEF.”The Mississippi Department of Education responded to Mr. White with the following statement.
The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) previously provided information to the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor (OSA) in response to the OSA’s questions about the EEF procurement card program. MDE is sharing key facts it provided to OSA that were omitted from the report OSA released today, Review of Mississippi’s Procurement Card Program for K-12 Teachers.
Key facts provided to OSA:
- MDE typically issues EEF funds to Mississippi teachers in July once funds have been appropriated.
- FY 2025 and FY 2026 are exceptions; the state changed vendors and new cards were issued.
- To allow sufficient time for eligibility verification and shipping, all cards will be activated on August 1, 2025.
- Beginning in FY 2027, since teachers will already have their cards, activation may occur any time after July 1.
- Cards are designed for reuse, allowing districts to request activation as early as July 1 each year.
It is always MDE's intention to provide teachers with all available resources as expeditiously as possible.
18 comments:
Makes sense. This minor adjustment can make the cards work better toward their intended purpose.
Really can't stand the little runt but I'm with him on this one.
Shad for Governor.
Shad just pandering. Cards are implemented in plenty of time. Never heard a teacher complain. These politicians are so fake. He could care less about teachers.
Should have written " could not care less "
So where does the bulk of that $17.8 million end up if not to classrooms? New luxury cars for superintendents? Conferences in Paris/Milan/London? High end office decor? No show jobs for relatives? Inquiring minds want to know.
Making supply donations to your local school helps out too. Pick up some pencils and paper at your next trip to WalMart and drop it off at the nearest school. It will make your day better...
Its not that difficult and is been said here many times, we have too many school districts. We have more school administrators per capita so we have more administrative costs per students. Duh, only the legislature can't do that math.
6:22 the teacher complaints are what brought it to the attention of the auditor.
Did Shad bother to ask MDE 'why'? Why they activate the cards on August 1 rather than earlier as he suggests?
If he did, he should have bothered to provide their response in his self-serving PR release.
If he did not (which certainly would fit his normal modus operandi) then maybe, just maybe, he should do so before releasing HIS opinion of how things across the state should operate.
Yes, based solely on what Shadrick puts in his self-serving campaign release, it might be helpful to activate the cards earlier. But, is there another side to this story; one which either Shad knows but isn't saying, or that he doesn't know because he didn't bother to ask?
Fact the United States spends more money on education per a pupil than any country in the world yet we don’t have the best schools!!
6:22. Have you asked public school teachers? I am a teacher and have/will spend hundreds of dollars before school starts just so my student have what they need. Thank you Shad!
@7:45. That’s what I was thinking. But figure out a way because that’s a huge “we don’t really care” flag.
Thanking Shad doesn't accomplish a thing (unless of course you happen to be working for Shad and posing here otherwise; then it gets you brownie points and a brown nose). If you want to see something happen with this, contact the MDE and suggest that moving the activation date earlier would be helpful.
See comment at 7:45; if Shad really wanted to do something other than campaign on public time, he would have directed this to MDE rather than as a press release. Or else he did and found there was a reason why MDE couldn't do this and thought he would take political advantage of it.
How about PERS taking the districts' money they contribute to a teacher's retirement when they bail before being vested (8 years)? That'd be something worth of an OSA report. EEF is pennies on the dollar graft.
Dear State of Mississippi,
This is how yall can save money.
1) Quit giving all teachers the same amount of money. Unless you’re an art teacher, science teacher paying for something to dissect, or maybe an elementary school teacher then I don’t know if you truly need all of that money.
2) Get rid of most of those teacher work days that aren’t parent teacher conference days or one leading up to the first day of school.
3) There are probably a number of jobs in education in Mississippi that aren’t really needed. I know of one politician that appears to have one.
The response from MDE is nothing more than CYA mumbo jumbo, which, after all, is exactly what would be expected.
And the usual cadre of bitchers on here who don't like the auditor are whiners who are afraid of the impact he's having in the common sense market.
On a related note, up until about three years ago, the legislatively enacted tax free holiday, which comes about the time school starts, never included school supplies or anything else commonly needed by parents and teachers for kids getting ready for the school year. Where was the MDE during all those years? Never heard a peep.
The MDE will typically respond when they think they need to protect their flank. Otherwise, they're fat, cool, calm and collected, all cruising toward PERS retirement.
You don't think the employee keeps/gets the employer contribution if the employee leaves the PERS system prior to vesting, do you? Hint: They don't.
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