Editorial roundup

Sept. 1 Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

Public education funding bill

Opponents of Initiative 42, a constitutional amendment requiring full funding of public education under existing state statutes, inexplicably have refused a request to make public their correspondence. That includes emails related to Initiative 42, which was placed on the ballot by petition of Mississippi voters.

House Speaker Philip Gunn, R- Clinton, and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican from Jackson, have responded to a certified letter from 42 for Better Schools leaders seeking the correspondence as a matter of public record by saying House and Senate rules do not require them to release the information.

Gunn and Reeves oppose Initiative 42 and support a legislatively- crafted initiative, a purported alternative, which its opponents claim won’t require compliance with the funding mandate in law.

State law does not identify legislative correspondence falling under the Mississippi open records/ open meetings law.

Even so, correspondence from and to the two offices related to Initiative 42 and the legislative alternative is reasonably viewed as official business. Public education isn’t a secret issue, so the request to provide the correspondence should be granted.

Taxpayers have a right to expect transparency in how tax dollars are spent on what clearly has become a political issue.

The organization 42 for Better Schools, by contrast, is a private- sector initiative, funded by private donations and supported by private- sector volunteers and, in a few instances, paid staff members whose salaries come from private sources like any other business.

It is passing strange that men and women elected to conduct the people’s business seek to hide the conduct of that business by an unsupportable claim of confidentiality.

State law clearly allows the Legislature to set its own rules about open records, so refusing to provide the records apparently is not illegal, but it does nothing to engender trust in what elected officials do in handling public policy.

The law should be changed and legislators placed under the same standard as most other Mississippians and entities. At the very least, Gunn and Reeves should use their discretion or have the proper legislative committees upon which they exert great influence use their discretion to release information sought by 42 for Better Schools.