JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – During the 2023 Legislative Session, lawmakers pledged an additional $100 million for Mississippi’s public schools.

While educators across the state were delighted to see the investment, they are still calling for full funding of the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP).

The public-school funding formula takes into account many factors that yield a set amount public school across the state can receive in state funds. The formula has only been fully funded twice in its history. Despite attempts from the Senate this year to fully fund the program, efforts were killed in the House.

House Speaker Philip Gunn (R-Miss.) said the formula is broken, but teachers tell a different story.

“I don’t think MAEP is a sacred formula. I don’t think it works. I have said that publicly, and I’ve said that to them privately. It is a dysfunctional, it is an obsolete, broken formula,” stated Gunn.

“I’m curious, and I have questions about why is the formula there if it’s difficult for our legislators to understand? Why haven’t they something before and now to remedy that problem, if it is so difficult for them to understand? Fully funding MAEP would have yielded us a different result than what was given here. We knew by fully funding that formula, our school districts throughout the state will receive the necessary funds that they needed this upcoming year to operate. The funds were there to fully fund MAEP. Our legislators chose to do something differently,” said Mississippi Association of Educators (MAE) President Erica Jones.