Ellington

Mississippi House of Representatives and Senate budget negotiators came to an agreement yesterday on the 2011 budget that pays the state's education department $14 million less than it did in 2010. House Democrats demanded K-12 education and the state's educational district distribution formula receive the same funding it received this year, but Gov. Haley Barbour sought to cut schools' maintenance and education materials budget by nearly $30 million.

The agreement funds the Mississippi Adequate Education Program at $5-million below this year's level, and it comes in at about $9 million below level funding for the total K-12 budget, representing roughly half the cuts the governor sought earlier this week.