Mississippi state Rep. Gene Alday (R) said recently that he opposes increases in education funding, citing “crazy welfare checks” that he doesn’t think benefit the state.

“I don’t see any schools hurting,” Alday (pictured on the right) said in an interview with the Clarion-Ledger highlighted by ThinkProgress. “The people are electing superintendents that don’t know anything about education.”

“I come from a town where all the blacks are getting food stamps and what I call ‘welfare crazy checks.’ They don’t work,” he continued.

The state lawmaker then complained that he recently had a long wait in a hospital emergency room.

“I laid in there for hours because they (blacks) were in there being treated for gunshots,” he said.

Alday was discussing whether the state needed to devote additional education funding the third-grade gate program, which requires students to repeat the third grade if they are not proficient in reading.

The Mississippi education department is looking to hire additional literacy coaches for schools and invest in training for language arts teachers.