Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and Speaker of the House Philip Gunn announced Monday a new email address for the public to provide input to lawmakers as they consider revising the state’s current school funding practices.

The Legislature is working with the New Jersey-based group EdBuild, which will come up with preliminary recommendations to make the formula more “student-based” by the end of the year. At her first appearance before the House and Senate education committees, EdBuild CEO Rebecca Sibilia pointed to states that have a low per-pupil cost, then add specific weights based on the individual student to that number to come up with the final amount per student.

Republican leaders say the state’s current formula directs too much money to administration, and any revisions would be to direct more money into the classroom.

Mississippians can send ideas and input regarding the Mississippi Adequate Education Program and potential revisions to [email protected].

The Legislature will also hold public meetings with EdBuild, but those dates have not yet been announced.

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Kate Royals is a Jackson native and became Mississippi Today’s first community health editor in January 2022. She returned to Mississippi Today as the lead education reporter after serving in the same capacity from 2016 to 2018. Prior to that, she was a reporter for the Clarion-Ledger covering education and state government. She won awards for her investigative work, including stories about the state’s campaign finance laws and prison system. She was a news producer at MassLive in Springfield, Mass., after graduating from Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Mass Communications with a master’s degree in communications.