JACKSON, Miss. – Tuesday the Mississippi House voted 64-57 to approve a House Concurrent Resolution that would create an alternative on ballot Initiative 42.
If the alternative initiative also passes the Senate, voters will no longer be voting yes or no to the question: “Should the State be required to provide for the support of an adequate and efficient system of free public schools?”
Instead, voters have to choose between:
“Should the State be required to provide for the support of an adequate and efficient system of free public schools?”
Or
“Shall the legislature be required to provide for the establishment, maintenance and support of an effective system of free public schools?”
or they can vote against both.
Having an alternative on the ballot would also require the initiative to receive 40 percent of the vote to pass.
Republicans say the alternative will keep decisions about funding education in the hands of the legislature and out of the hands of a Hinds County judge.
Opponents to the alternative believe the Mississippi Adequate Education Program should be fully funded and lawmakers should be forced to fully fund it. Democrats said on the House floor Tuesday that they believe the initiative alternative is meant confuse voters.
