FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMMERCIAL SCRIPT & FACT SHEET
CONTACT: BRIAN PERRY (601)984-3130
brian@haleybarbour.com
BARBOUR FOR GOVERNOR RELEASES:
"AGENDA FOR MISSISSIPPI'S FUTURE" AD
Campaign commerical shares Barbour's "Agenda for Mississippi's Future": Education results and reforms; improving access to healthcare
JACKSON (October 23, 2007) – Barbour for Governor began running a new television commercial Tuesday entitled “Agenda for Mississippi’s Future,” highlighting Governor Barbour’s “Agenda for Mississippi’s Future” including education results and reforms, and improving access to healthcare.
“Governor Barbour believes campaign should be about issues and policy and results. His ‘Agenda for Mississippi’s Future’ can be accessed at HaleyBarbour.com where Mississippians can read about his vision to build on the past four years of accomplishments to move Mississippi forward. He has a record of promises made, promises kept, and this agenda sets out a blueprint for creating more and better jobs, rebuilding South Mississippi bigger and better than ever, improving education, making a healthier Mississippi, securing safer communities, and providing an environment for stronger families,” said Barbour for Governor spokesman Brian Perry.
Below, please find the commercial script and fact sheet. The commercial can be viewed online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URv7K8-orD8
Barbour for Governor: “Moving Forward Together”
GOVERNOR BARBOUR: “How can you not be optimistic about Mississippi?”
NARRATOR: Governor Barbour’s “Agenda for Mississippi’s Future” … Moving us forward for the next four years.
GOVERNOR BARBOUR: “What we really need to judge politicians on is the results they demand and achieve for our children.”
NARRATOR: “Haley’s comprehensive agenda includes education reforms to get better results for the money we spend and a plan to improve access to healthcare.”
FACT: Haley Barbour believes that education must be our number one issue in Mississippi because it is our number one economic development issue and our number one quality of life issue. In his “Agenda for Mississippi’s Future,” Governor Barbour supports several initiatives to improve education. Haley’s agenda will:
1. Keep funding the MAEP formula at 100% every year to help local school districts while continuing to support stable funding increases for our universities and community colleges.
2. To keep our best teachers, increase the salaries of teachers with more than 25 years of experience.
3. Build on the more than 20% increase in teacher pay in Governor Barbour’s first term by approving more teacher pay raises that combine across the board increases with additional pay for performance raises.
4. Screen every first grader for dyslexia and other learning disabilities; then fund the programs necessary to help dyslexic and other children learn to read.
5. To help our new teachers manage classroom discipline, provide a seasoned mentor for new middle school teachers.
6. Support the state superintendent’s proposal to redesign high school to make it more relevant to kids who are not on a college path thereby reducing the dropout rate.
7. To help get our children ready to learn, better utilize the existing early childhood education programs that already serve 80% of our four year olds by providing financial incentives for them to expand and improve their educational content.
- Reference: Governor Haley Barbour’s “Agenda for Mississippi’s Future”
FACT: After ending the healthcare crisis with tort reform legislation, the United States Chamber of Commerce declared Mississippi “Open for Business.”¹ Our obstetricians are no longer leaving the state; they are back and practicing. Our neurosurgeons are no longer refusing to perform emergency surgery. In addition to tort reform, Governor Barbour, along with our state legislature, enacted reforms for the Medicaid program, saving Medicaid for Mississippians who truly need it. He also launched his “Healthy Mississippi” initiative to improve health at home, school, and work. In his Agenda², Governor Barbour proposes the following:
1. Establish a “Mississippi Health Insurance Exchange” to make it easier for more employers to offer their employees health insurance, to provide employees with more choices, and to make it easier for employees to keep their health insurance when they change jobs.
2. Enroll all eligible children in the State-Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The federal funding formula must be adjusted to remove the provisions that unfairly shortchange Southern states such as Mississippi.
3. Improve the quality of health care through improved medical technology.
4. Increase the number of physicians in our state by increasing the class size and the number of residents at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
5. Protect Medicaid for those who are truly needy by ensuring that everyone receiving Medicaid is eligible for Medicaid. Governor Barbour will oppose efforts to repeal the most effective anti-fraud program in Medicaid which requires beneficiaries to confirm their eligibility once a year in person.
- References
¹ Wall Street Journal, 6/16/2004
² Governor Haley Barbour’s “Agenda for Mississippi’s Future”
GOVERNOR BARBOUR: “We are working to get ways to keep those costs where people can afford their healthcare. Here in Mississippi we are moving forward together.”
(End Graphic: Haley Barbour / Governor)
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