Mississippi

Funding priorities for p-12 and/or higher education

There are five major budget areas for public education in Mississippi: General Education, Chickasaw Interest, Vocational Education (CTE), Mississippi Schools for the Blind and Deaf, Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP). Mississippi uses a funding formula that incorporates both a student and a resource focused approach to funding education in the state. First, Mississippi focuses on determining the base amount of an education for each student in the system. This is the cost of delivering education to students with no special needs or services is used to determine the cost of the resources necessary to deliver an education to students is determined by calculating the cost of the resources and services necessary to do so while accounting for staff salaries and maintenance costs. Their formula must then calculate the additional costs associated with the education of other subgroups and categories of students by accounting for resource-based allocations that fund specific programs and initiatives while applying the multipliers to the base amount in order to generate supplemental funding for those students.

Property taxes are the sole source of local revenue for school districts in Mississippi. Individual school districts in Mississippi are expected to contribute to the revenue stream that funds public schools based on property values. Each district is expected to contribute $28.00 of $1,000 dollars of assessed property wealth. Property taxes are assessed using different ratios for various property types according to its use and classification which is directly related to the funding of Mississippi's schools. Mississippi has a set floor and ceiling on tax rates for local property tax amounts. School districts are required to impose the minimum of 28 per thousand dollars of property and may not collect more than $55.00 per thousand dollars of assessed property value from each property owner.¹

changes to funding formula for p-12 and/or higher Education

There were no changes to the MAEP formula for the 2020-2021 school year.

Pressing state issues affecting p-12 and/or higher education funding

The state passed SB2594; which amended the ESA Voucher Program. It now requires students have had an active IEP within the past 3 years, removes online schools from eligibility, requires eligible nonpublic schools to certify that they will provide services for a participating student's IEP, allows eligible schools to use public schools to provide special education services but requires that public schools be reimbursed, requires that a if a student returns to his/her home school that the funds must also return.

1. 1. The CARES Act provided $1.25 billion in aid for the state to use for funding education and other programs. Covid-19 forced the state to eliminate the proposed $1,000 per year pay raise for teachers. The state education budget was cut by 2.7 percent, a reduction of more than $70 million from the previous year.

2. 2. The budget underfunds the Mississippi Adequate Education Program by $250 million²

Exclusive to p-12: what are the alternatives to traditional public school offered by your state? what does the trend in funding look like for these alternatives?

Equal Opportunity for Students with Special Needs Act became law in 2015-it allows parents of students with special needs to use state funds to pay for private school tuition.

Mississippi had 6 charter schools for the 2019-2020 school year, and it approved a new charter school for the 2020-2021 school year.

Total dollar amount for your state's per pupil expenditure?

$479

Allocation of state dollars and percent of the state budget for p-12 and higer education

$236,172,420 (General Funds + State Support Funds)-K-12-24 percent p95

$374,615,380 (General Funds + State Support Funds)-HE-15 percent-p111³