Video: School Leaders Speak Out About Funding Shortfall

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TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) — State and local school leaders are raising awareness about Mississippi schools being underfunded.

They held a “Strengthen Our Schools” event in Tupelo Monday night, emphasizing change needs to happen, so education can be a top priority in Mississippi.

State and local school leaders are concerned about a major shortfall in funding for public schools in Mississippi.

“And in turn, by not funding the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, it puts a lot of pressure on the local taxes and revenue and municipalities to fix that shortfall in some way, or cut school budgets,” said Beverly Brahan, Mississippi Association of Educators.

For example, Lee County schools have been underfunded more than $22 million since 2008.

Superintendent Jimmy Weeks says the budget cuts hurt his district.

“From possibly not buying new school buses, to not being able to keep a roof repair maintenance schedule,” Weeks said. “The last thing that you want to do is to cut classroom teachers or to cut the arts programs, but in some cases, school districts have had to do that.”

Weeks says the district has been fortunate they haven’t laid off any teachers.

“No one has lost a job, but there have been several positions that we did not fill as teachers either retired, or if they quit their job to move somewhere else or something, there have been a lot of positions that we did not fill to save that money,” Weeks said.

School leaders say being underfunded doesn’t just hurt the kids with larger class sizes, but it hurts the community as well.

“When the schools get less money, it’s less money for us to spend, to put back into our local economy, and it’s just a circle, never ending,” Weeks said.

Residents will have a chance to vote in November next year on a constitutional amendment, to ensure full funding.