Mississippi House Education Committee Chairman Randy &uot;Bubba&uot; Pierce likened the state’s efforts to improve education this week to &uot;pushing the snowball up the mountain.&uot;

He’s right. And now Pierce and education funding advocates are worried the snowball’s going to roll back downhill unless the state funds the Adequate Education Program fully.

The difference between what the Department of Education wants and what the Legislature and governor want? About $200 million.

To be fair, the Mississippi Association of Educators is a teachers union that is looking to protect not only education funding but a teacher pay raise package.

But with Mississippi still among the states with the lowest teacher pay, we need to do what we can to attract the best and the brightest.

Here in Natchez, our school district is offering moving discounts and free cable to try to compete. And while that program is funded generously by United Mississippi Bank, it’s still hard to compete with states that pay top dollar for one of the most valuable professions.

Pierce says he and other House members are looking to find ways to fund the shortfall between the legislative budget and the Department of Education budget.

Perhaps they can meet in the middle. We would hope the Department of Education is not planning to use its end of the difference to fund top-heavy administrative costs and rather fund actual classroom initiatives and teacher salaries that will help children learn.

And we would hope lawmakers have realized by now that funding education adequately and fairly is among their first priorities.