Miss. School Districts Learn About Cuts

September 8, 2009

The state Department of Education budget will cut $103.5 million from its budget of $2.2 billion to comply with orders from Gov. Haley Barbour.

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School districts in the tri-county area, which are among some of the largest in the state, will have to make cuts ranging from $631,174 in Canton to almost $6.2 million in Jackson.

Jackson Public Schools, the second largest district in the state, gets the largest amount of state funding and will have to make the deepest cut of all of the state’s 152 school districts, according to numbers released today by the state Department of Education.

JPS leaders are looking at their budget and will have information on how the district will absorb the cuts at a later time, Superintendent Lonnie Edwards Sr., said in a statement.

On Thursday, Barbour called for $171.9 million in cuts from the state budget, most of which will come from K-12 education.
Barbour, a Republican, ordered the cuts after state revenues repeatedly made dismal showings.

Salary supplements for National Board-certified teachers or financial aid programs for students will not be included in the cuts.

Medicaid and the Department of Corrections also have been spared from the cuts.

Barbour has said that future cuts are possible.

Some school districts in the tri-county area factored possible state-level cuts into their budgets for the fiscal year that began July 1.

Also, federal stimulus funds coming into the state could help offset some problems.