No School District on the Coast Signed Up for Lawsuit

Friday was the deadline for school districts in Mississippi to sign up for a lawsuit against the state to recover education money owed under the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (M.A.E.P.)

To date, only 21 of 155 school districts in the state have joined the lawsuit, and no district on the Coast has signed up. Former Governor, Ronnie Musgrove, is among the lawyers suing the state for $240 million. News 25 caught up with House Speaker Philip Gunn and asked him why the state legislature hasn’t been funding public schools under the education program.

Gunn says, “Well we have. We have put $225 more million into education over the past three years, and we put $64 million into a teacher pay raise last year, so I think the lawyers are claiming what they want to make money.”

According to the Associated Press, if the lawsuit is successful, then lawyers representing the school districts could be paid as much as $41 million in fees.