NATCHEZ &045;&045; The governor’s education agenda released Thursday didn’t include the one thing Superintendent Anthony Morris wanted to hear.

&uot;I don’t see anything in here about fully funding the Mississippi Adequate Education Program,&uot; Morris said Friday. &uot;To me that’s the basic upgrade we need right now.&uot;

MAEP, a program to make sure every school gets the money it needs, was not fully funded last year costing the Natchez-Adams district millions and forcing the school board to raise taxes and fire employees.

Gov. Haley Barbour said Thursday he was in favor of fully funding the final year of a five-year teacher pay raise, which would cost $95 million. The pay raise was not funded last year with the failure to fully fund MAEP.

Morris said the district is financially behind on paying the 8 percent teacher pay raise. If the MAEP money doesn’t come again this year Morris fears the future.

&uot;If you are going to talk about fully funding an 8 percent across the board raise for this coming year, then what about last year?&uot; he said. &uot;We’ll still be in the hole for that.&uot;

The agenda Barbour unveiled Thursday will be presented to the legislature at the 2005 session. He would not comment on MAEP, which has only been fully funded one time since its 1997 inception.

Barbour’s plan focused on helping teachers and included raises based on increases in student performance and financial incentives for teachers who serve as mentors.

Pay for performance was something Morris said he had concerns about.

&uot;When you start saying pay for performance teachers interpret it as net pay,&uot; he said. &uot;There’s always a worry and concern of whether a program like that would be fair an equitable to all teachers.&uot;

Morris used the example of teachers in classes for the gifted versus teachers in classes for students several grade-levels behind to say the program may not be fair.

&uot;The challenge is much greater for one that teaches students that are behind,&uot; Morris said. &uot;The gifted will show more growth.&uot;

Morris also expressed concerns with Barbour’s plan for college preparation requiring certified teachers to take additional courses.

&uot;My concern with that is will the college professors go back and get the necessary training to provide cutting edge teaching for students or if they are going to do the same thing they’ve always done.&uot;

Barbour’s also stressed recruiting and maintaining certified teachers from all states.

&uot;Any efforts that the governor can devote to that would be appreciated by everybody in the state,&uot; Morris said.

&uot;But until we fully fund MAEP I really don’t think we are going to move to the level we need to.&uot;