There’s been much to lament recently about the performance of the Mississippi Legislature and Gov. Haley Barbour’s ongoing battles with the House leadership, but one major success story continues.

As the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported, legislative leaders of both parties are holding steady on their promise to keep the Mississippi Adequate Education Program fully funded, even in the face of an economic slowdown and a tightened state budget outlook.

For the first three years of his first term, Barbour opposed full funding of the MAEP formula, as provided in the law that created it, and he was joined by Republican allies in the Legislature. The rationale was that the state couldn’t afford it.

But the state clearly couldn’t afford not to fund schools at a level that the law considers sufficient only for adequacy, not excellence. Adequate performance in Mississippi, we now know clearly, is inadequate by national standards.

Barbour backed off his opposition in late 2006 and the Legislature fully funded the law in 2007, an election year. At the time, Barbour and others committed to fully funding the program every year moving forward, eliminating the annual spectacle of a contentious political struggle over MAEP.

Full funding was easy in the 2008 Legislature, when the formula called for only a very small increase. Next year it will be harder; early projections suggest MAEP will cost $60.8 million more to fully fund in the 2009 session.

But Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant says the money will be provided. So does Senate Appropriations Committee chairman Alan Nunnelee, R-Tupelo. The House’s Democratic leadership holds the same position it always has in support of full MAEP funding.

This continued commitment on both sides of the Capitol and in both political parties is encouraging. It’s a farsighted recognition of the critical importance of adequate support for Mississippi schools, in trying economic times as well as in periods of strong revenue growth.

Money isn’t the only determinant of school quality, of course. But without adequate funding, schools can’t give children all that they need to succeed in a world where the competitive challenges are greater than ever.

The MAEP is especially designed to reduce disparities between the poorest and wealthiest Mississippi school districts, but it helps them all. Its existence has made Mississippi one of only five states to have avoided a court challenge to inequities between school districts. More important, its full funding means that Mississippi schoolchildren have a fighting chance to compete with anyone else.

The political leaders in Jackson have recognized these facts, and they should be commended for their insistence that MAEP remain top priority.

— Northeast Mississippi

Daily Journal, Tupelo