Educators Eye Funding (MS)

September 3, 2010

DeSoto County Superintendent of Education Milton Kuykendall said Thursday his district, along with the state’s other 151 school districts, would be hurt if its share of $82 million in Medicaid reimbursement funds isn’t channeled back to the schools this year.

However, Kuykendall said through wise planning his district will make do if those funds, and possibly additional funds for K-12 education, are made available in the 2012 fiscal year.

Late yesterday, Gov. Haley Barbour issued a statement saying that the leadership of the House and Senate have agreed to place the $82 million into the state’s reserve fund, with the anticipation next year could be worse for the state financially than this year.

The state funding relieved by the Medicaid dollars will, instead, be put into the Rainy Day Fund and will be available for legislators to appropriate in the coming year. There is no guarantee that the funding will be re-appropriated to K-12.

"Any money we don’t get hurts us," Kuykendall said. "If he (Barbour) holds it and gives it to us next year, that’s fine. "I would hope that money goes to K-12 education."

A number of school districts have said that they will have to raise taxes at the local level if the promised funding is not forthcoming this year. DeSoto County is not yet at that point, and through cutbacks and attrition, has so far weathered the state’s financial storm, according to Kuykendall.

State Rep. Wanda Jennings, R-Southaven, said if the state is not careful, it could drown in a sea of red ink.

"If we don’t save some of the money coming from the feds, we’ll be just under $1 billion in the red," Jennings said. "The school year has already started under the budget that has been made," she said, adding it’s possible additional funds for education could be made available next year.

Jennings, long a supporter of education statewide, said Mississippi’s financial situation is dire.

"The economists say it’s going to be even worse next year," Jennings said. "It’s a shame. I hate that all of our schools and all of our families are getting hurt. There could always be a compromise, and we could find more money for education, but when you know you’re looking at a worse situation next year, you have to be careful.

A $1 billion shortfall is devastating to any economy, or any government."

State Sen. Doug Davis, R-Hernando, vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in fact, Mississippi stands to gain more money, or $98 million in direct education funding from the federal government under a federal education bill passed by Congress earlier last month.

That’s even more than its pro rata share of the $82 million in Medicaid reimbursement funds which was being redirected to education. Davis said he’s not sure knowledge of the $98 million is widely known. He talked via phone with state education officials about the $98 million at noon on Thursday.

"Based on the information they (educators) are getting more in a direct appropriation for education than they would out of the Medicaid savings," Davis said. "Ultimately, they will also get a portion of the Medicaid savings because its being pushed forward to 2012."

Kuykendall said he had not yet been briefed on how much his school district would receive out of the $98 million in direct appropriations for education.