Amendment Backers Say Enough Voters Have Signed

BY JEFF AMY
Associated Press

PEARL, Miss. — Supporters of a constitutional amendment to guarantee “an adequate and efficient system of free public schools” in Mississippi say they’ve collected enough signatures to put a referendum on the 2015 general election ballot.

Pearl school board President Sondra Odum, a supporter, said Monday that nearly 122,000 signatures of registered voters have been certified. That’s above the threshold of more than 107,000 required for a referendum. More than 21,000 signatures had to be collected from each of Mississippi’s five former congressional districts as they existed in 2000.

The petition will now be submitted to Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann.

The referendum aims to prevent lawmakers from underfunding public schools, after a seven-year period in which the state has fallen $1.53 billion short of the amount mandated by its school funding formula.