Mississippi Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Phillip Gunn are refusing to release e-mails that could prove they’ve been illegally colluding with anti-education lobbyists and policy-makers to undermine K-12 funding.

“We wanted to know what e-mails had gone out from state-funded offices, from the Capitol, to private individuals, lobbyists, whoever, about 42 and 42A.  If they were seeking to oppose Initiative 42, which they’ve publicly stated that they are, then they were using public funds to do that.  They were using public funds to oppose a political campaign, and I believe that is against the law,” said Patsy Brumfield, spokesperson for 42 For Better Schools, the organization championing Initiative 42.

Reeves responded by saying he had diverted the request to the Senate Rules Committee — which has no authority over records requests aimed at the lieutenant governor’s office.  Gunn, meanwhile, ducked the response entirely by allowing the deadline to pass without answer, in clear violation of the time period set forth by Mississippi’s Public Records Act.

“The politicians at the state capitol set laws for everyone to follow except themselves,” said Michael Rejebian, who filed the public records request on behalf of the 42 For Better Schools Campaign.  “Their refusal to release this information raises even more questions about their relationship with privately funded, special interest lobbyists who are fighting against Initiative 42.”

The information request specifically asked for copies of any and all written and/or email correspondence that includes any mention or reference to the proposed constitutional amendments known as “Initiative 42” and “Initiative 42-A,” either in the subject field or body of the aforementioned correspondence, for the period April 1, 2015, to the present.

By diverting the request to an unassociated legislative committee, Gunn and Reeves are hiding behind an incorrect interpretation of the state’s open records law.  However, Brumfield vowed to “keep pursuing” the issue.  Meanwhile, she said, citizens should be good and angry.

“The public needs to ask themselves what’s in those e-mails.  Clearly the e-mails exist, or they would have told us there are no e-mails,” Brumfield said.  “They could lie and claim they don’t exist, but it could eventually end up in a court of law and they’d have to repeat their answer under oath, and that would be a very serious matter for them.  They’d rather hide behind the law they’re mishandling than overtly disobey law.”

Initiative 42 is the citizen-led ballot measure that would require the Mississippi Legislature to abide by a 1997 law and fully fund about 150 school districts, which are home to 90 percent of the state’s K-12 public school students.  Voters will decide whether to adopt the amendment on November 3.

Members of the Mississippi GOP have worked to subvert the people’s will to fully fund public education since the Initiative met its required signature count last year.  During the last legislative session, they even went so far as to pass a second, parasitic ballot amendment that looks enough like Initiative 42 to confuse voters in November.  The parasite amendment, Initiative 42A, exists solely to steal votes from Initiative 42 and kill adequate public education funding.

The ballot initiative — now rendered more complicated by anti-education politicians like Gunn and Reeves — asks voters if they want to vote for or against either initiative.  Then, no matter how they vote on the first question, they will be asked which initiative they want to vote for.  For either initiative to become law, the first question only has to receive a simple majority.  However, one of the initiatives must garner support from at least 40 percent of all voters casting ballots statewide.

If you support adequate funding for Mississippi’s public education system, make sure your vote on the upcoming ballot looks like this:

Source: NAACP Staff