Topping the news in Mississippi this week:

• On Thursday, the public got its first opportunity to speak publicly to lawmakers and education consultants from the Edbuild organization about proposed revisions to the public education funding structure.

• National open government and public record experts say the policy adopted Tuesday by Mississippi Legislature to keep all legislative contracts confidential makes the state an extreme outlier compared to the policies of other states.

• The Cleveland School District has proposed a new plan to comply with a federal desegregation order from a decades-old desegregation lawsuit. The district’s original plan was criticized for moving all students to the schools that now are predominantly white.