Video: House Passes School Consolidation

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JACKSON, Miss (WCBI) – The state House today overwhelmingly approves legislation forcing the consolidation of the Starkville and Oktibbeha County schools.

But Starkville officials say legislators are ignoring the big elephant in the room…money to pay for the consolidation.

The creates a hybrid school board representing the city and county and provides some relief for Starkville on test scores and accountability.

But it does nothing to help fund massive improvements needed to county schools and the city says it doesn’t have room to take in 480 students at its elementary schools or another 400 at the middle and high schools.

“There are no resources attached to this. There are taxing issues, we have to generate financial resources to solve the problem, to address the county schools’ building and infrastructure neededs. No one’s addressed that,” said Dr. Lewis Holloway, superintendent of Starkville schools, he said he wasn’t surprised by today’s House vote.

The vote in the House was 107-6 and the measure now goes to the Senate Education Committee.