Except for a rare few among us, matters of constitutional law are mostly a good way to elicit sleep, but they’re often among the most important, most fundamental matters society faces.

An extremely important, constitutional matter will appear on Mississippi’s general election ballot in November. The initiative will have far greater long-term impact than who wins the governor’s race or state house and senate races.

Initiative 42 focuses on adequately funding Mississippi’s largely inadequate public education system.

Much rhetoric and even some vitriol have been spread — and will continue to be spread — as the election draws near.

Initiative 42 aims to modify the Mississippi Constitution to force the hand of the Mississippi Legislators, who, like most politicians, loath the idea someone can tell them what to do.

At issue is Mississippi’s 18-year-old formula for funding schools.

The initial purpose was simple — creating a system to adequately and fairly fund all of the state’s school districts, regardless of how wealthy or poor the districts may be.

The difference in wealth can — without guidance — cause significant inadequacies in the quality of education. Rich districts have laptops for each student while poorer districts may struggle with the basics of technology.

Sadly, the whole mess is on the ballot simply because lawmakers failed to do what they said they would do in 1997 when they signed the Mississippi Adequate Education Program into law. Since then, MAEP has been fully funded only twice — in 18 years. That’s a sad, sad record, particularly given Mississippi’s traditionally low educational results.

If lawmakers will not give education top priority over other state pork, perhaps the voters will, by voting “yes” on Initiative 42 in November.