As Senate conferees continue to negotiate with House members on how best to craft the 2010 budget, we all agree that education funding should not be cut.

We have assured our national board certified teachers that we in the Senate are doing everything we can to ensure that they continue to receive their $6,000 annual salary supplement.

The state is fortunate to have nearly 3,000 teachers who took it upon themselves to further their educations in order to give our school children the best possible opportunities to learn, which we commend.

Our universities and community colleges should be funded at 99 percent of their 2009 level.

With this level of funding it is hopeful that there will be no tuition increases or reduction in faculty and staff for 2010.

The sticking point in negotiations has been the funding of Medicaid, according to our conferees.

The sentiment at this time is that there will be no hospital assessments.

We now have guidelines on how we can spend the $1.2 billion in federal stimulus money over a three-year period.

However, to make the 2010 budget work, Governor Haley Barbour has approved the use of $95 million from our reserve funds.

We are scheduled to resume this regular legislative session on Wednesday, and hopefully adopt a budget shortly thereafter.

Sen. Bob DEARING is a Mississippi senator representing a portion of Adams County.