Attorney Defends Legislature’s School Funding Alternative

By Emily Wagster Pettus Associated Press JACKSON – An attorney is defending the Mississippi Legislature’s decision to put an alternative to an education funding measure on this November’s ballot. Michael Wallace filed papers Monday in Hinds County Circuit Court, asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed last week by Oxford parent Adrian Shipman. Shipman’s suit seeks to remove the Legislature’s alternative from the ballot, saying it could confuse voters. Better Schools, Better Jobs gathered signatures for an initiative that would require the Legislature to fully fund an education budget formula that has been shortchanged most years since it was enacted in 1997. The Republican-led Legislature approved an alternative for “effective system of free public schools.” Wallace says the House speaker and lieutenant governor asked him to defend the Legislature.