JACKSON — Mississippi’s leading Republicans are continuing attacks on Initiative 42, saying Tuesday that it will pass only if GOP voters are tricked into supporting it.
Gov. Phil Bryant, Lt. Gov Tate Reeves, House Speaker Philip Gunn and state Republican Party Chairman Joe Nosef took turns at a news conference criticizing the proposed constitutional amendment.
Proponents of Initiative 42 say students are shortchanged because lawmakers don’t provide as much as Mississippi’s school funding formula demands. The measure would require the state to provide “an adequate and efficient system of public schools,” and allow people to sue over shortfalls.
Republican leaders oppose the measure, saying it could give a judge control over much of the state budget. They placed an alternative on the ballot to require “effective” schools, without stipulating a right to sue. They’re urging people to reject the amendment, and then vote for the alternative, 42A, to insure Initiative 42’s defeat. For it to pass, voters must support the overall change, and then vote for Initiative 42.
“I want to make it clear that this is not a bipartisan effort” said Gunn, of Clinton. “The only way for it to be passed is for Republicans to be tricked into thinking it’s a bipartisan effort.”
The officials all again attacked the initiative as undemocratic, because it would give a judge oversight over the Legislature’s education spending.
“This is the greatest transfer of political power in the state’s history,” Bryant said. “If you think the process of appropriations in the Legislature is convoluted and confusing, wait until we give it to a judge.”
Republicans note that education funding has risen under their leadership in the past four years.
Supporters of the initiative, though, say Republicans are resorting to scare tactics to try to take the focus away from schools that need money, and the cumulative $1.7 billion shortfall in funding below formula-demanded amounts since the last time it was fully funded.
“These politicians ramble on like zombies about judges and lawsuits, but they’ve never understood that students are those who matter,” Patsy Brumfield, spokeswoman for 42 For Better Schools, wrote in an email. “When they finish their statewide tour attacking public education, maybe they can get back to work to make a difference for Mississippi.”
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