Salter illustrates danger of rogue judges usurping legislature to control billions of ed dollars

Salter: Judge adds to alternative Initiative 42 debate

The political fallout grows and this question — which supposedly is about funding public education — increasingly becomes about everything but funding education.

But in one stroke of the pen, Judge Kidd turned the Republican rallying cry that “one Hinds County judge shouldn’t make education funding decisions for the entire state” from a minor point of debate into a bright line reality that will likely resonate from the Tennessee line to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

For good or ill, one Hinds County judge did in fact usurp the will of the Legislature on the question of Initiative 42 — which the law says has a right to offer a legislative alternative, not a judicial one.

Sid Salter
Clarion Ledger
4/8/15