I usually try to avoid anything political, but I have strong feelings about this. I want to give you my opinion on this initiative 42. I will be voting FOR initiative 42. Here’s why.

Eighteen years ago, the Mississippi legislature approved a mathematical formula for funding the state’s K-12 public education. I was working in the public schools when it happened. I remember it. Before voting the formula into law, for as long as I remember, the legislature hotly, many would say embarrassingly, debated the funding of public education every year. The formula, called MAEP, was going to end all of the yearly rancor and debate. It was a part of the selling point of MAEP: the public schools were going to know upfront what their funding would be, no more annual arguing and squabbling in the legislature over school funding.

Now, since adopting into law the formula, the state has followed the law of MAEP, TWO times — two out of 18 years.

• Do you remember when Mississippi’s sales tax rate was 6 percent instead of 7? If you remember that then you probably remember what was said coming out of Jackson to defend the sales tax increase: the 1 percent increase would go to schools and take care of funding public schools forever. Didn’t happen.

• Do you remember when casino gambling was made legal in the state of Mississippi? If you do you probably remember one of the prime selling points in bringing gambling to Mississippi: with the revenue influx from gambling, public school funding would be taken care of forever. Didn’t happen.

As someone working in a public school district, I heard all of the excuses for not funding MAEP: not enough money, natural disaster, other needs, the need for a rainy day fund. And the state’s own formula for funding public schools has now been funded two out of 18 times.

Initiative 42 should have never come up. It arose out public frustration that the state was never going to follow its own law. If state government had funded MAEP 10 of 18 times – or 14 times, or even 8 times, I have no doubt that 42 would not be on your ballot this time. The legislature simply has failed to do its job and keep its legal promise to K-12.

If you are FOR public schools, you should vote FOR initiative 42. If you are against public schools, you should vote against. It’s that simple to me. But remember that over 90 percent of the state’s school-aged children will get their education from the public schools. Most everybody you see in daily life is a product of public schools.

Do you know any young person who graduated in the last few years who you feel got a good education out of a public school? Do you know anyone in school now who in your view is getting a good education in a public school? Do you know anyone now or earlier who had a great experience in athletics or band or some other extracurricular endeavor? Of course you know these people.

Do you believe in and support Mississippi’s schools, or don’t you? Do you want better schools or don’t you? If you do, I’m assuming that you want them funded to an adequate standard as opposed to scrapping by.

I still have faith in Mississippi’s public schools. I have three nephews. They’re getting a very good education right now in public schools. I have two daughters who graduated within the last 10 years. I am very pleased with the education and the overall experience they received.

For reasons that I don’t completely understand, it appears that the majority – and that would be most of the Republican Party – in the state capitol do not have faith in the public education of their own state. The governor and the secretary of state showed up on the first day of school this year at a for-profit charter school. Why couldn’t they have chosen to do a photo op at one of Mississippi’s schools around the Jackson area instead? I don’t want my nephews going to a no-tradition, no-historical-tie-to-the-community charter school. I want their public school to be strong.

I was one of those public school county superintendents when my career in public education ended. I raised local taxes and depleted the district’s reserves (so as not to raise taxes more) and decreased the number of teachers and increased class size and chose to put older buses on the road…because that’s what we had to do with the amount of funding we were given. Had MAEP been funded just 9 or 10 or 12 times in the last 18 years, I wouldn’t have had to do those things, and we wouldn’t have initiative 42 today.

If you want to vote for 42, be careful what you mark. Opponents of 42 have tried to make it seem confusing, but it’s simple. Vote the top “bubble” under each of the two questions: First, to approve either 42 or 42A, then for Initiative Measure 42. If you mark any one of the four spaces wrong, you’ll be voting against it. It’s hard not to believe that somebody wanted it that way. And the story about the “liberal” judge in Hinds County having control of all school funding for every district is just more smoke and mirrors, more politics. It’s not true.

The state’s law for funding has been only fulfilled two out of 18 times. Do you like your public school, or not? If you do, then vote for 42. It’s simple.

Tony Davis is the retired superintendent for the Lawrence County Schools headquartered in Monticello.