Thread by @ashtonpittman

NEW: The Mississippi Lottery raised $59 million for public school education during its first fiscal year.

While that money will help fund pre-K and school supplies programs, it won't reduce the state's $272 million education funding gap. Here's why.
mississippifreepress.org/13923/lottery-…

The education dollars from lottery revenues are “outside MAEP,” the state's school funding program, @ParentsCampaign's Nancy Loome said.

Still, "you can’t minimize” what pre-K funds and money to help teachers afford classroom supplies will mean, she said. mississippifreepress.org/13923/lottery-…

“It’s very helpful for teachers to not have to pay for school supplies out of their pocket, which is happening now in many cases because schools are so underfunded that they are limited in the school supplies that the schools can afford to supply."
mississippifreepress.org/13923/lottery-…

Mississippi teachers are the lowest paid in the U.S., yet spend hundreds to make up for state underfunding.

“The teachers are buying things for their own classrooms out of their own pocket. We have teachers having to work 2 and 3 jobs to pay their bills.” mississippifreepress.org/13923/lottery-…

The State of Mississippi last fully funded education under the MAEP formula in 2008 before slashing budgets in the years after the Great Recession.

In the 13 years since, Mississippi has underfunded public education by more than $3 billion. mississippifreepress.org/13923/lottery-…

Mississippi’s history of school underfunding is part of a pattern that dates back to the Jim Crow era and that disproportionately affects students in majority-Black school districts.

The lottery funds will not fix those issues, but will provide some help. mississippifreepress.org/13923/lottery-…

Considering the overall state of school funding in Mississippi, “certainly anything that the state puts into education is helpful,” Loome said.

“Of course we still are well behind where we need to be, but it’s a big step forward and we are very excited." mississippifreepress.org/13923/lottery-…

Mississippi lawmakers adopted a lottery program in 2018 to shore up infrastructure funds two years after passing the largest tax cut in the state’s history, which mostly benefited the wealthy and corporations while axing $400 million from state revenues. mississippifreepress.org/13923/lottery-…

The first $80 million in lottery revenues to the state go toward state infrastructure projects, while anything raised after that goes to education.

The MS Lottery Corporation reported sales of $510 million in FY 2021, sending $139 million to state coffers.mississippifreepress.org/13923/lottery-…

During his 2019 campaign, Gov. @TateReeves vowed to raise teacher pay by $4,000. That has not happened yet, but he did sign a $1,000 teacher pay raise into law earlier this year. mississippifreepress.org/13923/lottery-…

And hey, speaking of funding, the Mississippi Free Press is a non-profit that depends on readers for support. Make sure you follow us @MSFreePress and, if you can, consider one-time or recurring donation to fund more journalism like this: mfp.ms/donate