It appears the courts will decide exactly what the title of an education funding ballot initiative written by legislators — and likely intended to confuse voters — will ultimately say.

According to The Associated Press, Mississippi Supreme Court justices quizzed attorneys Tuesday about how voters can tell the difference between two school funding initiatives that will appear on ballots in November.

More than 100,000 people signed petitions to put Initiative 42 on the ballot. Its title says 42 would require “an adequate and efficient system of free public schools.” People could sue if education funding falls short.

The Republican-controlled Legislature put Initiative 42-A on the ballot as an alternative. The original title for 42-A, written by Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood, said lawmakers must fund “effective free public schools.”

But a circuit judge rewrote the title of 42-A to say the Legislature should fund effective schools, but to specify that there is no mechanism for enforcement, meaning that the Legislature didn’t specify that people could file a lawsuit if funding falls short, according to AP.  The ruling in early April by Hinds County Circuit Judge Winston Kidd came after Adrian Shipman, an Oxford parent who supports the citizen-led initiative, filed a lawsuit to challenge the original title of 42-A. Shipman said the titles of 42 and 42-A were too similar, and that could confuse voters.

It’s confusing to be sure.

“How does a voter know that, ‘These are the three differences in these two things I’m getting ready to vote on’? Justice Michael Randolph said.

Just explaining the issue is a headache. We can’t imagine that voters will make better sense of this mess when it comes time to vote in November. And maybe that was the point.

Unfortunately, education funding is a political issue like everything else. And that means the party in power typically gets its way. But the citizen-led effort to force the Legislature to fully fund education seeks to put the public in control of education funding.

There is the fear that Initiative 42 could give one judge control over the state budget if lawsuits are filed. The Legislature’s alternative leaves the door open for lawsuits as well.

At this point, there’s no undoing the mess that this has become. But at the very least, the titles of both initiatives should be written clearly so the public knows exactly what it’s voting for or against.