Gov. Haley Barbour’s education proposal makes a good start at reforming our state’s educational system, but like any plan it has some shortcomings that must be addressed.

Probably the biggest problem with Barbour’s plan is nothing in it is revolutionary. It seeks no consolidation of smaller schools, provides no guidelines to streamline services that would save money and stops short of providing a real commitment to fully funding education to a point where needed cuts can be made according to a specified plan.

Barbour’s plan, dubbed Upgrade: Mississippi’s Education Reform Act of 2005, does address the latter, however, by seeking to make school districts itemize the costs associated with the Mississippi Adequate Education Program funding. This so-called &8220;transparency in funding&8221; is much needed and will provide the best road map for us to follow in cutting education spending-if indeed it does need cutting.

Of course, some of Barbour’s plan will require more money, such as monetarily rewarding experienced teachers for being a mentor to younger teachers and for administrators and teachers whose schools show &8220;a high rate of gain.&8221;

Rewarding mentors is laudable, but the other smacks of the old pay-for-performance plans that educators have routinely dumped on as being unfair. In truth, what Barbour proposes would put teachers in poorer schools at a gross disadvantage.

To say that certain teachers at poorer performing schools are not deserving of a bonus for the work they do to improve education makes about as much sense as saying all teachers at a higher-performing school have done their share in the strides that are made.

Furthermore, such a general performance-based pay plan would be in direct opposition to another one of Barbour’s goals, that of recruiting teachers into needy areas. How do you expect to get a teacher to choose the poorer-performing school who most needs good teachers over a higher-performing school down the road where they can make more money? It makes no sense.

Besides, Mississippi already has a good performance-based pay system that has barely been mentioned in relation to needed funding, and that’s the annual $6,000 stipend given to teachers who pass their National Board Exams. This program is the most grueling course a teacher can take, but the reward Mississippi offers is paying off. Our state ranks seventh in the nation for the number of teachers who have completed this difficult certification.

What seems to be one of Barbour’s most advantageous plans for students is mandating that Advanced Placement courses be offered in every district by the 2007-08 academic year. Nothing is more needed in small, rural schools than collegiate-level offerings for students.

That said, the feasibility of such a plan is questionable at best. How can the state mandate a school offer a class each year that may only have five or six participants who take it? Idealistically, if only one student wants it, then the school would offer it, but idealism and fiscal practicality don’t often go hand-in-hand, especially in the Barbour Administration.

But Barbour’s plan does have some good, common sense proposals. Getting teachers more involved in disciplinary actions at the school level when a principal chooses not to address the issue will be a big advantage to educators. Freeing good schools from state department scrutiny so the state department can spend more time with lesser schools is great. And requiring educational components to daycare is a good first step in bettering early education in Mississippi.

But more is needed-most immediately, fully funding MAEP, at least for this year.

Sam R. Hall

can be reached by e-mail to

shall@sctonline.net

.