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The Senate voted 61-38 to stop debate on the bill, including two Maine Republicans (Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe), but neither of Mississippi’s senators voted for it. We hope Sens. Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker will vote for the measure on final passage, adding their approval to the almost $200 million the legislation would provide directly and indirectly for Mississippi’s public schools in the budget year that started July 1.
The measure will still have to pass the House, which has recessed for its August vacation, but it will be recalled for action next week by Speaker Pelosi to finalize the legislation and send it to President Obama for enactment.
The $26 billion plan would prevent the layoff or termination of many teachers, firefighters and other state and local workers nationwide.
The measure would give states $10 billion for education programs and $16 billion to help cover their Medicaid budgets in the first six months of next year.
The Washington Post reported that spending cuts to offset the extra costs involve terminating, in March 2014, an expansion of food stamp benefits enacted last year, and it would also eliminate tax breaks for some multinational corporations based in the United States that have operations abroad and ship American jobs overseas.
The National Conference of State Legislatures calculates that Mississippi would receive approximately $187 million from a six-month Medicaid funding extension, and that funding applied within the state budget would free about $96 million for K-12 and higher education in authorizing legislation passed during the 2010 session. The federal legislation does not include a general tax increase.
Mississippi Board of Education trustee Claude Hartley confirmed National Education Association estimates that Mississippi would receive approximately $97.8 million from the $10 billion education section of the $26 billion bill.
Some Republicans complain that the bill would make states more dependent on federal revenue, ignoring the fact that Mississippi (and others) already depend heavily on federal aid to fund a substantial part of the budget, including health care for the poor, transportation for all, and jobs development in an economy with the lowest per capita income.
The bill is needed and will help our state.
I guess we wouldn't want to disrupt the vacation plans of our congressmen to vote on funding for EDUCATION!! Their vacations are obviously much more important than helping school districts keep teachers in the classrooms!
It never ceases to amaze me how illogical, inefficient, ineffective and wasteful our government can be.
BTW, why don't they take the $26B out of the $421 BILLION of the $787 BILLION in "stimulus money" that as already been approved and is just sitting there unspent?
Oh no! That would make TOO MUCH SENSE! Instead, let's allocate an ADDITIONAL $26 BILLION that we have to borrow from China!
Look, I'm all for keeping teachers in the classrooms. And I'm in favor of this $26 BILLION, but I want it taken out of the $421 BILLION in unspent stimulus money that we had to have right away in order to save our economy.
We had to have the $787 BILLION right away to save our economy, yet more than 50% of it ($421 BILLION) sits unallocated and unemployment is higher than it was before the stimulus bills were passed!