Barbour has ordered a 3.2 percent budget cut for the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, the formula used to determine how much money each of the state’s 152 districts receives.
The governor cut all state agencies’ budgets last week, saying Mississippi’s tax collections will be short between $175 million and $310 million before the fiscal year ends June 30.
Of the $87.8 million Barbour cut from elementary and secondary education, $76.6 million will come from MAEP.
School superintendents will meet Wednesday in Jackson with state Education Superintendent Hank Bounds and lawmakers about the reductions and to discuss other funding options.
No one had clear ideas about providing a funding cushion for the districts. House Education Committee Chairman Cecil Brown, D-Jackson, said the state’s rainy day fund may be an option, but cautioned that the money in it will have to last a few years as the nation rides out the recession.
