MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2019 Regular Session
To: Education; Appropriations
By: Representative Miles
AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 37-1-3, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REQUIRE THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION TO DEVELOP A CURRICULUM AND A COURSE OF STUDY TO PROMOTE HOME ECONOMICS OBJECTIVES; TO PRESCRIBE THE MINIMUM COMPONENTS TO BE INCLUDED IN THE CURRICULUM; TO AMEND SECTION 37-13-151, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REQUIRE ALL LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO PROVIDE PROGRAMS OF EDUCATION IN HOME ECONOMICS TO STUDENTS IN GRADES 7 THROUGH 12 BEFORE SEPTEMBER 1, 2019; TO REMOVE THE REQUIREMENT THAT SUCH PROGRAMS OF EDUCATION SHALL BE SUBJECT TO APPROVAL BY THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION; TO REQUIRE THAT ALL DISTRICT HOME ECONOMICS PROGRAMS BE ALIGNED WITH THE CURRICULUM AND COURSE OF STUDY BY THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION; TO AMEND SECTION 37-13-153, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REQUIRE THAT STATE FUNDING FOR HOME ECONOMICS BE INCLUDED IN THE ADEQUATE EDUCATION PROGRAM AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION APPROPRIATION BILLS FOR THE APPROPRIATE FISCAL YEAR; TO BRING FORWARD SECTION 37-13-155, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, FOR PURPOSES OF POSSIBLE AMENDMENTS; TO AMEND SECTION 37-31-205, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, IN CONFORMITY TO THE PROVISIONS OF THIS ACT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. Section 37-1-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-1-3. (1) The State Board of Education shall adopt rules and regulations and set standards and policies for the organization, operation, management, planning, budgeting and programs of the State Department of Education.
(a) The board is directed to identify all functions of the department that contribute to or comprise a part of the state system of educational accountability and to establish and maintain within the department the necessary organizational structure, policies and procedures for effectively coordinating such functions. Such policies and procedures shall clearly fix and delineate responsibilities for various aspects of the system and for overall coordination of the total system and its effective management.
(b) The board shall establish and maintain a system-wide plan of performance, policy and directions of public education not otherwise provided for.
(c) The board shall effectively use the personnel and resources of the department to enhance technical assistance to school districts in instruction and management therein.
(d) The board shall establish and maintain a central budget policy.
(e) The board shall establish and maintain within the State Department of Education a central management capacity under the direction of the State Superintendent of Public Education.
(f) The board, with recommendations from the superintendent, shall design and maintain a five-year plan and program for educational improvement that shall set forth objectives for system performance and development and be the basis for budget requests and legislative initiatives.
(2) (a) The State Board of Education shall adopt and maintain a curriculum and a course of study to be used in the public school districts that is designed to prepare the state's children and youth to be productive, informed, creative citizens, workers and leaders, and it shall regulate all matters arising in the practical administration of the school system not otherwise provided for.
(b) Before the 1999-2000 school year, the State Board of Education shall develop personal living and finances objectives that focus on money management skills for individuals and families for appropriate, existing courses at the secondary level. The objectives must require the teaching of those skills necessary to handle personal business and finances and must include instruction in the following:
(i) Opening a bank account and assessing the quality of a bank's services;
(ii) Balancing a checkbook;
(iii) Managing debt, including retail and credit card debt;
(iv) Completing a loan application;
(v) The implications of an inheritance;
(vi) The basics of personal insurance policies;
(vii) Consumer rights and responsibilities;
(viii) Dealing with salesmen and merchants;
(ix) Computing state and federal income taxes;
(x) Local tax assessments;
(xi) Computing interest rates by various mechanisms;
(xii) Understanding simple contracts; and
(xiii) Contesting an incorrect billing statement.
(c) Before the 2019-2020 school year, the State Board of Education shall develop a curriculum and a course of study to promote home economics objectives that focus on the knowledge, understanding and skills necessary for living as an individual, as a member of a household, personal life management and postsecondary education advancement for appropriate, existing courses at the secondary level. The objectives must require the teaching of those skills essential to family and consumer science and must include instruction in the following:
(i) Cooking, including food safety, preparation and preservation and the nutritional benefits of a balanced meal;
(ii) Child development that provided instruction as to how to correctly respond to children at each stage;
(iii) Education and community awareness;
(iv) Home management and design;
(v) Sewing and textiles;
(vi) Budgeting and economics; and
(vii) Health and hygiene.
(3) The State Board of Education shall have authority to expend any available federal funds, or any other funds expressly designated, to pay training, educational expenses, salary incentives and salary supplements to licensed teachers employed in local school districts or schools administered by the State Board of Education. Such incentive payments shall not be considered part of a school district's local supplement as defined in Section 37-151-5(o), nor shall the incentives be considered part of the local supplement paid to an individual teacher for the purposes of Section 37-19-7(1). MAEP funds or any other state funds shall not be used to provide such incentives unless specifically authorized by law.
(4) The State Board of Education shall through its actions seek to implement the policies set forth in Section 37-1-2.
SECTION 2. Section 37-13-151, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-13-151. Before * * * September 1, 2019, all
local school districts shall provide programs of education in home economics,
in Grade 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 or 12, which include course work in responsible
parenting and family living skills. These programs shall contain instruction
to prepare students to understand children's physical, mental, emotional and
social growth and development as well as to assume responsibility for their
care and guidance, with emphasis on nutrition, emotional health and physical
health. All such programs shall be * * * aligned with the
curriculum and course of study for home economics developed by the State
Board of Education * * *.
SECTION 3. Section 37-13-153, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-13-153. Beginning
with the 2019-2020 school year, and each year thereafter, state funding for
the home economics programs required in Section 37-13-151 shall be * * * included in the * * * adequate education program and
vocational education appropriation bills for each fiscal year * * *. There shall be a
line item specifying the amount that is to be expended to employ no less than
one (1) instructor in each * * * school district in the
state. Any funds so appropriated by line item which are not expended for this
purpose in the vocational education appropriation may be expended for other
related home economics vocational purposes during the fiscal year for which
those funds were appropriated. * * *
SECTION 4. Section 37-13-155, Mississippi Code of 1972, is brought forward as follows:
37-13-155. Subject to the availability of funds appropriated therefor, any school district or community/junior college district may apply for funding through the Division of Vocational and Technical Education of the State Department of Education to acquire and operate a home economics training program to provide instruction in quality child care and educational programs to the local community.
SECTION 5. Section 37-31-205, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-31-205. (1) The State Board of Education shall have the authority to:
(a) Expend funds received either by appropriation or directly from federal or private sources;
(b) Channel funds to secondary schools, community and junior colleges and regional vocational-technical facilities according to priorities set by the board;
(c) Allocate funds on an annual budgetary basis;
(d) Set standards for
and approve all vocational and technical education programs in the public
school system and community and junior colleges or other agencies or
institutions which receive state funds and federal funds for such purposes,
including, but not limited to, the following vocational and technical education
programs: agriculture, trade and industry, * * * consumer * * * education, distributive
education, business and office, health, industrial arts, guidance services,
technical education, cooperative education, and all other specialized training
not requiring a bachelor's degree, with the exception of programs of nursing
education regulated under the provisions of Section 37-129-1. The State Board
of Education shall authorize local school boards, within such school board's
discretion, to offer distributive education as a one-hour or two-hour block
course. There shall be no reduction of payments from state funding for
distributive education due to the selection of either the one-hour or two-hour
course offering;
(e) Set and publish licensure standards for vocational and technical education personnel. The State Board of Education shall recognize a vocational and technical education teacher's work when school is not in session which is in the teacher's particular field of instruction as a means for the teacher to fulfill the requirements for renewal of the teacher's license. The board shall establish, by rules and regulations, the documentation of such work which must be submitted to the board and the number of actual working hours required to fulfill renewal requirements. If a vocational and technical education teacher who does not have a bachelor's degree takes classes in fulfillment of licensure renewal requirements, such classes must be in furtherance of a bachelor's degree;
(f) Require data and information on program performance from those programs receiving state funds;
(g) Expend funds to expand career information;
(h) Supervise and maintain the Division of Vocational and Technical Education and to utilize, to the greatest extent possible, the division as the administrative unit of the board responsible for coordinating programs and services with local institutions;
(i) Utilize appropriate staff of the State Department of Education to perform services for the vocational student organizations, including, but not limited to, procurement, accounting services, tax services and banking services. The department may also procure and pay for annual audits of the vocational student organizations using vocational funds or other available funds of the State Department of Education. It is the intent of this provision that any related costs be paid with vocational funds appropriated by the Legislature;
(j) Promulgate such rules and regulations necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter in accordance with Section 25-43-1 et seq.;
(k) Set standards and approve all vocational and technical education equipment and facilities purchased and/or leased with state and federal vocational funds;
(l) Encourage provisions for lifelong learning and changing personal career preferences and advancement of vocational and technical education students through articulated programs between high schools and community and junior colleges;
(m) Encourage the establishment of new linkages with business and industry which will provide for a better understanding of essential labor market concepts;
(n) Periodically review the funding and reporting processes required of local school districts by the board or division with the aim of simplifying or eliminating inefficient practices and procedures;
(o) Assist in the development of high technology programs and resource centers to support current and projected industrial needs;
(p) Assist in the development of a technical assistance program for business and industry which will provide for industrial training and services, including the transfer of information relative to new applications and advancements in technology; and
(q) Enter into contracts and agreements with the Mississippi Community College Board for conditions under which vocational and technical education programs in community and junior colleges shall receive state and federal funds which flow through the State Board of Education for such purposes.
(2) It is the intent of the Legislature that no vocational and technical education course or program existing on June 30, 1982, shall be eliminated by the State Board of Education under the authority vested in paragraph (d) of subsection (1) of this section prior to June 30, 1985. It is further the intent of the Legislature that no vocational and technical education teacher or other personnel employed on June 30, 1983, shall be discharged due to licensure standards promulgated by the board under paragraph (e) of subsection (1) of this section, if any such teacher or personnel shall have complied with any newly published licensure standards by June 30, 1985. Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to abrogate or affect in any manner the authority of local public school districts or community and junior colleges to eliminate vocational and technical education courses or programs or to discharge any vocational and technical education teacher or other personnel.
(3) The State Board of Education and the Mississippi Community College Board may provide that every vocational and technical education course or program in Mississippi may integrate academic and vocational-technical education through coherent sequences of courses, so that students in such programs achieve both academic and occupational competencies. The boards may expend federal funds available from the 1990 Perkins Act, or other available federal funds, for the alignment of vocational-technical programs with academic programs through the accreditation process and the teacher licensure process.
SECTION 6. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2019.