Barton Considered For Mississippi Job

Rayburn Barton, director of the Idaho State Board of Education, is under consideration to lead Mississippi’s university system, officials say.

“The commissioner’s job is very attractive to me professionally and personally,” Barton, 48, said prior to his Thursday interview for the Mississippi job.

Barton, who has served as executive director of the Idaho system since 1988, was one of several candidates interviewed by board members in Memphis for the job now held by Higher Education Commissioner Ray Cleere. Cleere is leaving to become a professor at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Barton, whose salary is $94,848 annually, oversees a system that includes Idaho’s 42,034-student universities and 7,425-student twoyear colleges, officials said. The Mississippi commissioner directs a 55,000-student university system with a budget of more than $1 billion for eight schools.

Cleere’s salary is $127,000 annually.