Hello, my name is David Oles and I am your co-host of the Mississippi Happenings podcast.
Joining me each week will be my friend, Jim Newman.
Jim is currently out of the weather.
He's got a head coat and he sounds like a demon from a horror show.
So he's not gonna be with us today.
Each week we wanted to discuss the kitchen table issues that all of us as Mississippians face.
And one of the issues, most important issues that we have in Mississippi
is public education.
There's a lot of issues surrounding public education and we do want to take a look at those today.
Our guest this week is Erica Weber-Jones.
She is a former educator with 20 years experience and she's the president of Mississippi Association of Educators, also known as M-A-N.
also known as MAE.
And she's been the president since 2019.
And it is a very passionate advocate for public education.
Ms.
Jones, we greatly appreciate you being with us today.
Thank you so much for having me.
One of the most pressing issues in Mississippi, and we can start with this because as with a lot of things, everything, it's about money.
So if you would, let's talk about funding, how that money comes into the public educations.
Will you talk to us about that?
Yeah, so unfortunately, especially this legislative session for our public schools throughout Mississippi, funding is yet again another issue.
But this time it seems to be coming in the attack of possibly school choice.
So that is something that we are working around, kind of keeping our ears on the ground to what that looks like.
As many of you all know, our schools here in Mississippi greatly depend on funds from the legislature.
And many of our rural areas where there's no industry, they greatly depend on those funds.
And so at M.A.E., we just really advocate around the public funds staying in our public schools.
Thank you.
What is school choice vouchers and how does that affect funds for public education?
David, we've seen it called school choice.
It's also called scholarship.
Sometimes it appears in the term of a voucher.
But what we do know is that
Any way that you look at it, it is taking money away from our public schools, putting the money elsewhere.
Some advocates for school choice say that public dollars would be better served at private institutions for students.
That's one of the arguments we've heard.
We've also heard people around our charter school movement saying that the dollars would be better served at charter schools.
But one thing that we know, our public schools here in Mississippi serve about 90 % of our students.
So that's why we continue to advocate that our public dollars stay in our public schools.
Are there separate requirements between public education and the private schools?
Absolutely.
One thing that we know about our public schools, our public schools
generally take all of our students.
We're not able to cherry pick.
As a second grade teacher, once students enter into my classroom, they were there, they were there to learn.
But we know that some of the private schools here in our state have the ability to pick and choose with students that they want to attend their different institutions.
And you were just talking about the requirements and basically that
that the private schools or charter schools can basically pick and choose.
Is there a difference between a private school and a charter school or are those the same things?
No, they are not the same thing, especially when you think about the different types of private schools.
that are offered here throughout the state.
Some of them are religious schools or religious institutions with religious backgrounds.
Another type of private school would be one that the peers pay a particular tuition for students to attend.
When we think about our charter schools, charter schools operate on a different version than what our private schools operate on.
Similar to a private school, charter schools sometimes do have clauses that allow them to pick and choose which students they want to attend, and you just won't see that at a
public school.
Public schools generally are required to accept all students.
Gotcha.
Are there different requirements for teachers going from a public education system to a private or charter school?
Absolutely.
In our public school systems here in Mississippi, educators are required to have certification to teach in a certain grade level, to teach certain subjects.
You won't find that at charter schools.
Many times those educators there are not certified or have gone alternate routes in order to be placed in those institutions to teach.
And charter schools really do not have the same requirements that our public schools have.
when it comes to certification.
Okay.
What about children with learning disabilities?
In our public education system, how do you educate those with learning disabilities?
In our public schools, we take all students in.
And so once a learning disability has been discovered,
We have educators inside of that public school who can work with our students.
For example, we may have an autistic student who require additional one-on-one interaction with an adult.
So that might be the case.
We also have special needs students who require diaper changes, one-on-one with walking, one-on-one with feeding.
You can find that inside of a public school that would be housed inside of our
exceptional education department.
So students are welcome and are able to receive the help that they need.
I can't speak on charter schools if they're able to accept that and I'm not for sure private school offer that type of help as well.
Are the, so the private schools or charter schools, they don't necessarily have to accept a child with disabilities or with learning disabilities, is that correct?
They have a lot is correct.
If that is correct, charter schools and private schools have their own regulations that they go by and they can kind of craft those regulations
to fit the needs of their particular institution.
Thank you.
That's great information because it is so important that all children receive an education and even those with special disabilities and also with learning disabilities.
So that is so extremely important.
Last year, I understand that there was changes with the
MAEP, is, and correct me, because I always get this wrong, Mississippi Adequate Education, and what's the last one?
Program.
I always get it wrong.
Tell us a little bit about that and the funding and what happened
What is MAEP and how has that changed by our lawmakers last year?
Sure.
So over the past couple of years, we have really advocated around full funding for MAEP.
Last year, the legislature took a deep dive and started to look at the formula.
What we do know is that it has only been funded for two years, I believe.
since its inception, and I believe that was 1987 when this was created.
So one of the things that we have advocated around is for our legislators to really look at that formula, and they did.
And luckily this year we are under a new formula called the Mississippi Student Funding Formula.
You may see the acronym MSFF.
So this is our first year under that formula.
So some of the things that we advocated around was really changing the way that the formula was set up and placed in.
One of the most significant changes would be around how the funds are contributed to different districts across Mississippi.
Thank you.
I know there was a lot of issues with that in the past.
And like you say,
for many years that it's not been fully funded and I think you're absolutely right, was 1986.
Let's talk for a minute about, and I want to go back a little bit to choice schools, I mean school vouchers.
I want to go back to school vouchers.
One of the things that I hear a lot and read a lot about is
If a parent has a child in a private or charter school, if they have a child in debt, why should they not receive a school voucher to assist or help them to pay the tuition for a
private school.
So David, we've all had an opportunity to speak with parents around that issue.
It's similar to when I think about it as a taxpayer here in Mississippi that I don't get to choose exactly where all of my tax dollars go to.
I know some people would attribute it to being able to choose, like if you wanted your tax dollars just to go to a certain...
but you know the dollars are spread out throughout the state.
So as we have these conversations with peers about that tax dollar, being able to follow students to a particular charter or a particular private school, we always have to remind
them about the goal of public education here in Mississippi for all of our students to be successful.
We do know that parents will
continue to question why their tax dollars can't follow the child.
But for so many cases we see where this is not beneficial.
For example, sometimes in our charter schools, when students leave out of our public schools and they go over to the charter school and then they decide to come back to
public, the tax dollars do not return with the student.
So that creates another hardship for that particular public school.
That's an interesting point and I know I was not aware of that.
So I do appreciate and so a lot of our viewers probably were not aware of that fact either.
Let's talk a little bit about PERS, the Public Employee Retirement System.
It seems there's a lot going on with that.
We explained a little bit about that and its impact and what it's doing and what it's possibly not doing for our teachers and our educators.
So David, I've often been told I've been in education over 20 years now.
And my aunts were educators as well in North Mississippi.
And one of the things that they pointed out when I decided to be a teacher, hey, you may not get paid a lot of money teaching, but just hang in there.
We have a pretty good retirement system when we compare to our neighboring states.
So that was the one thing that I really held near and dear to my heart, thinking that once I reached 25 years, there will be a great retirement plan waiting for me.
Well, now we've attached on our PERS.
Many educators are really started to question, we spent all of this time in education, what's going to happen to our retirement?
This is something that MAE has really followed closely over the past couple of years.
Right now, we are under a defined benefit plan with our PERS.
And some of the talks around PERS seems to want to head toward
defined contribution where educators are actually paying into their retirement.
So some of the issues that we've heard and some of the issues that we'll focus on from educators throughout the state is that they really want to keep PERS the way that it is
now.
You're gonna hear a lot of arguments about why we need to change that, but as an educator who's worked in Mississippi public schools, our retirement plan is something that I was
looking forward to.
I have contributed to it over the years just by being an educator here in Mississippi.
So it's something that we're gonna continue to monitor closely because it impacts so many of our educators across Mississippi.
Thank you, thank you.
And were there some changes to the PERS system for the newer educators coming on board?
Absolutely, my husband and I are both educators.
So we were grandfathered in, we're recent.
teach 25 years and then retire.
If I'm not mistaken, the years have changed to 30 years for educators.
And I've heard talks that they wanted to increase it from 30 years.
And I'm not for sure what that next number is, but we know that is a bit different when you're right at the edge of retirement.
It kind of goes back to the
Social Security and I'm not wanting to get off track.
It's like the social security issues and wanting to raise the retirement age for that.
So it seems like the same situation.
And before I forget, I do appreciate you and all teachers for the service that you guys do to the students.
What
would you like to see from our Mississippi lawmakers?
thank you for that question.
As we are now right in the middle of this legislative session, I really want our legislators to continue to talk with educators here in the state about what our public
schools would look like if they received the funding that
they need.
We do know that we're working with the new formula, the Mississippi student formula that has been in place, that has replaced MAEP.
So just actually continuing to fund that formula so that our public schools throughout the state receive the resources that they need.
And then I would love for our legislators to take a look at community schools and what they can do to help our public schools throughout the state.
For those listeners, community schools are those schools that we find right inside of neighborhoods.
They may not necessarily have, some of our schools here in the state do not have access to a nurse and other resources that they need.
And that's where our community schools will come into play.
They will form partnerships with the business community, the health field, and provide our students with those resources.
And not only our students.
but parents in those particular communities as well.
And they would be up under the public school umbrella.
So not creating a new system, just ensuring that our schools inside our various communities throughout the state are well equipped to serve our students.
Fantastic.
Thank you so much on that.
And what would you like to see from, well, let me ask you this.
and Erin may have stopped at this.
Did I ask the question about what you wanted to see from parents and supporters of education?
No, but I would love to speak on that.
Okay, let me ask that question again.
Okay, well, Ms.
Jones, what would you like to see from parents and supporters of public education?
So Dave, I would really love for our parents to support our public schools in the areas that they reside in.
Our public schools service over 90 % of our students here in Mississippi.
And as a second grade teacher, I want to just talk for a moment about how important it is to collaborate with parents in order to have an education system that
impacts everyone, that is successful for everyone.
That engagement, parental engagement is so important as students enter into our classrooms each day.
Teachers just simply cannot do it alone.
We need the support and the help of not only our parents, but our communities as well.
Thank you.
Thank you for that.
And one of the final question is, what can we
as Mississippi happenings help do to help you to get the word out.
Let's continue to share and uplift our public schools and our different communities.
We have some teachers, David, that are really doing some great things inside of our classroom.
So continue to highlight those great efforts.
I do know that during football season and basketball season, our scholar athletes are
often highlighted, but let's do that with our educators as well.
They're in the classrooms each day working really hard for our students here in Mississippi.
They need and deserve our support.
So just continuing to uplift our educators, uplift our public schools, ensuring that we are building great public schools for all students across Mississippi.
Ms.
Jones, thank you so much.
I do appreciate your time.
and we will heed your advice and we will take notice and we will also share this information.
I do want to thank our subscribers and our sponsors and today I want to highlight Alley Ejlali He is with Alpha Insurance in Olive Branch, Mississippi.
He can help you with all types of coverage
he is my agent and he could be reached at 662-893-0928.
And I do want to leave with this final message and leave this with you.
May we never become indifferent to the suffering of others.
Ms.
Jones, thank you so much for being here.
It's good to see you again and we will heed your advice.
Thank you so much.
so much for having me.
Have a great day.