Teachers shouldn't be political pawns

By By Videt Carmichael / state senator
April 19, 2004
Now we are in the last month of the legislative session and it has turned out to be as difficult as everyone thought it would be at the beginning. Of course, the budget and education are the two big elements we have to deal with.
We passed a legislative deadline Wednesday and then Thursday took up and approved the Senate's opening effort to fund education.
Education funding has been a huge issue to deal with in what are turning out to be some very lean economic times. Wednesday the halls of the Capitol were filled with teachers who were worried about losing their jobs because the deadline for non-renewal of their contracts was Thursday. Some superintendents have already begun notifying teachers that they won't be rehired next year.
Didn't have to happen
This absolutely did not have to happen.
On March 18, as I mentioned in an earlier column, the Senate passed and sent to the House a bill that would have extended the re-hiring deadline to May 15. The House education leadership allowed that bill to die on the calendar. We responded by sending them another bill to extend the deadline to May 15. That bill currently sits on the House calendar awaiting action.
If the House had approved the earlier bill no teachers would have been notified. If they approve the bill they currently have, no more teachers will be notified.
This is not an unusual move. This year is a 125-day session, just as it is every four years when there is a new governor. When this has happened before, the education budgets are not finalized until later in the year.
For instance, in 1992, the first year of Kirk Fordice's administration, the education budget was not signed until May 12. In the first year of the Musgrove administration, 2000, the education budget
was not signed until May 22.
At no time during those years did teachers receive pink slips telling them they would not be rehired. Why this is happening this year is hard to say.
I do know that after lengthy debate, we approved the Senate's version of funding for education, at the original Legislative Budget Office recommendations.
This does not for one minute mean we're going to fund it at that level. We all hope to put substantially more money into education
through the conference process when we learn exactly how much money we can put into education. Hopefully it will be the amount the Department of Education says they need.
Good news
One spot of good news came Thursday when the Revenue Estimating Committee reported to the Legislative Budget Committee that the economy is showing signs of getting stronger and the revenue estimate was raised giving us an extra $44 million to appropriate. The lion's share of that will go to education, I'm sure. It will be real money with sources we can define and dollars we know will be there. It
will not be a budget based on hope.
One interesting amendment was added to the bill. The amendment stated that when schools are faced with budget shortfalls from the state, teachers can not be the first casualty.
If a superintendent chooses to non-renew a teacher during a budget shortfall, that superintendent will have to justify that decision to the state Department of Education.
We hope this will stop people in Jackson with political aims from using the teachers to further their own political agendas by scaring them with thoughts of losing their jobs. Teachers are our most valuable education asset and should not be used as pawns in political games.
State Sen. Videt Carmichael, R-Meridian, represents Senate District 33. He may be reached during the legislative session at (601) 359-3221 or P.O. Box 1018, Jackson, MS 39215.