No time to stockpile money

By Staff
May 7, 2004
Whether it will ever see the light of day or not is up to legislators, but Gov. Haley Barbour's compromise plan to help Mississippi fund its schools is worth considering.
After the revelation last week that Mississippi's 152 school districts have built up "rainy day" funds of more than $349 million by setting aside a portion of the appropriation each year, Barbour said school districts should be asked not to save any of the state funding in the coming fiscal year and the state should fund districts at 95 percent of this year's level.
The idea is not as complicated as it sounds. Under this plan, with no new savings taken out of next year's state funding, appropriating education funds at 95 percent of this year's level would allow the same spending level next year, and no money would be taken from any savings funds balance. It would only mean that no more state money would be added to the already large school district savings funds.
Barbour may be onto at least a partial solution to the contentious issue of education funding that has attracted so many teachers and school superintendents to the Capitol. Most of the districts' "rainy day funds" officially known as "district maintenance" funds came from state appropriations in the first place. Rainy day funds, the governor said, increased in 2002-2003 by $82 million, or exactly 5 percent of their state appropriation.
Importantly, this plan would fully fund the K-12 teacher pay raise. The governor's plan is innovative and creative. Unfortunately, with the budget in the political equivalent of cardiac arrest, this is not a year for school districts to stockpile any more money. Surely, in the interest of more efficient government, districts can live next year with what they're spending this year.