The Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Faculty Association hosted a legislative forum on Nov. 12 in the Jefferson Davis Campus Fine Arts Auditorium in Gulfport. More than 200 attended the event, which included Rep. John Read of Jackson County; Rep. Steven Palazzo, Harrison County; Rep. Michael W. Janus, Harrison County; Rep. Brandon Jones, Jackson County; and Sen. David Baria, Hancock and Harrison counties.
John Speed, Jefferson Davis Campus language arts instructor and vice president of the Faculty Association at the campus, said the forum’s goal was to educate Gulf Coast students and employees and the public about Mississippi’s higher-education funding process. “This comes at a crucial time, when state funding cuts are imminent and could hurt community colleges in South Mississippi still recovering from Hurricane Katrina,” he said.
Members of the Mississippi House and Senate spoke about the community-college system and answered questions during the forum. Janus outlined the spending cuts required by Gov. Haley Barbour for fiscal year 2009 and explained how the shortfalls in revenue make the cuts necessary. “While the federal government can function outside its budget allowances, the state of Mississippi functions on a balanced budget. If we don’t have the revenues, we have to make cuts in spending. We do have a rainy-day fund, but we would prefer not to use it unless it is absolutely necessary.”
Read added that most of the appropriations from the budget go to education. “Public education gets almost 62 percent of the appropriations. The bulk of that, 44.6 percent, goes to K-12, but higher education gets 17 percent. That breaks down to almost $200 million for the 15 community colleges in the state and more than $7.7 million for the administration of community colleges.”
Jones pointed out that Mississippi is a depressed state. “Unemployment is high, and people need help right now. Education –especially education that focuses on training or retraining people for specific jobs– is one of our top priorities right now. We have committed to mid-level funding for community colleges. That means we are working toward funding community colleges somewhere between K-12 and the institutions of higher learning (IHL). We will strive to give our community colleges as much as we can. Community colleges are a terrific asset and one that we want to take advantage of in these tough economic times.”
Mississippi community and junior colleges rank in the top four community-college systems in the nation, according to a 2008 Policy Brief by the Rockefeller Institute of Government. The State Board for Community and Junior Colleges reports that funding is crucial for the community-college system, because it is the major access point for higher education in the state, providing education for 273,000 Mississippians annually. Additionally, Mississippi’s 15 community and junior colleges trained more than 150,000 workers last year at the request of employers and currently boast an enrollment of half the college undergraduates in the state.
