Jackson Jambalaya

Dr. Timothy Alford climbed to the top of Mount Kosciusko to issue his commandments on education in Mississippi last week.  It is not known if these commandments were written on clay tablets or gold plates but they did appear as sacred writing in the scrolls of the Clarion-Ledger.  However, JJ must engage in a bit of heresy and disagree with Dr. Alford.   His column is posted below along with some comments by yours truly. 


As news came out recently that the state leadership has hired a third-party firm to examine the Mississippi Adequate Education Program funding formula, and in the wake of last year’s heated ballot measure conversations regarding Proposition 42, I have been thinking a great deal about Mississippi’s poor health status and its lack of commitment to public education.

And whenever I do such thinking, I am right to credit my alma mater, Millsaps College. Within the halls of the Sullivan Harrell Science Building where so many young aspiring scientists have passed  reads an inscription from John 8:32: “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

The opening shots are a claim to truth, the Bible, and moral superiority. 

 A clear-eyed pursuit of truth is a foundation of science, and the advancing field of population medicine is gathering more and more data from the social and computer sciences to further clarify Mississippi’s plight. The confluence of that information points to education as the chief determinant of health in a population. Health literacy is in fact literacy. To a family doctor from a small town whose kids benefited from good public schools, this means that Mississippi is not likely to move from the muddy bottom of health rankings without first lifting the public education system that educates nine out of 10 of its children. As former Gov. William Winter has long stated, the per capita income rises and falls with our commitment to public education.

Um, no one disputes this little truth.  In fact, both sides of the education debate state they are tired of seeing Mississippi finish dead last in education.  It's a shame he doesn't advocate "gathering more and more data" to determine if MAEP should be adjusted as he does for medicine. 

At the State Capitol we hear about spending more “efficiently,” and that too much money goes to administration and not enough goes to the classroom.  We also hear that the formula, which has actually not been implemented in 18 of 20 years, is “broken.” What if doctors had decided that penicillin might not be the perfect drug to treat strep throat because of the false assertion that a more effective drug was on the way? Science instructs us that such an irresponsible approach would risk inciting serious complications. I think it is fair to draw such an analogy between this common childhood illness and our suffering education system that educates 90 percent of Mississippi’s school children.

Here we go.  He considers his pet theory of how money is spent on education is to be the same truth as one that states penicillin cures certain infections.  Neither can be reviewed or questioned.  Well, at least he and doctors have the God complex so that is one thing they have in common.   One can almost hear Cartman screaming "Wee-spect my authowity!!!"  Wait a second, Dr. Alford is a medical doctor.  He comes by it honestly. Since Dr. Alford will later compare Superintendents to corporate CEO's, perhaps he should pay more attention to the private sector than what it pays. 

Any corporation worth its salt is going to review how it makes money on a regular basis, much less once every twenty years.  Many companies have gone broke when they failed to recognize reality or look in the mirror.  However, governments and politicians rarely do so. Mississippi is apparently no exception and that includes Dr. Alford.

The MAEP State Allocation Statement for 2017 gives full disclosure of how the Legislature’s shortfalls will hit home. In my hometown of Kosciusko, a community of 8,500 people, we will reach a record shortfall of $879,000 compared to what is deemed “adequate” by our state. The statewide reduction in per pupil spending per year is $830 since 2008 with no visible plan to restore that money. With all the talk of charter schools answering the call for failing districts, most Mississippi’s better districts remain on a starvation diet.

So, we hear that the formula is broken and we need to put more money in classrooms. More spending at the instructional level is needed to be sure. But I would humbly offer that students also benefit from qualified administrators. Must we be reminded that most educators are underpaid? The fact is, we know a lot more about the salaries of our administrators than we do the money that will flow retrograde to the State Legislative leadership as a result of generous corporate tax cuts.

There are less than half a dozen charter schools in Mississippi.  However, one word does not enter the good Doctor's vocabulary: innovation.  We should just line up keep doing the same things we've been doing and just spend more money.

Dr. Alford ignores economics.  It is quite clear he cherry-picked his facts because if he had conducted some authentic research, he would've seen that the better school districts spend less money per pupil than the failing ones. Teachers make up a larger share of the workforce in better school districts than in those that fail. They spend less per pupil. Indeed, the most recent Children's First Report (issued in 2013) stated that only 40% of JPS's employees were teachers.  Desoto County was 49% while Madison and Rankin Counties were at 56% and 54% respectively. That is efficiency in action.  Jackson and Canton spent more per student than all other local school districts.

However, Dr. Alford thinks it is a good think to have more administrators.  Yup, school districts should either get more top-heavy or they need to pay the suits even more money.  No wonder he considers "efficiency" to be an evil word.  The purpose of the corporate tax cuts was to help Mississippi businesses improve and thus grow the economy but Dr. Alford sees them as something to be plucked, not grown.  It is almost a catch-22.  Mississippi needs a growing economy to improve the revenue available for education but it needs to spend more money to improve education and thus grow the economy.  

Let’s take one school administrator as an example. The Madison County Schools, for instance, educates over 12,000 students at 12 schools. The district has well over 600 teachers and many more support staff. It has an annual budget of more than $100 million. The superintendent of that system makes somewhere near $150,000. That is a healthy salary, but I would challenge Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves to find a handful of businesses with 600 employees whose CEO’s make less than $150,000. The fact is, several CEOs whose home offices are located outside the state of Mississippi, will make more in a single day than the average school administrator does in a year. These are our children. Many of these tax immune CEOs live out of state. Let’s fix that formula!

No actual evidence is presented to support his claim about what these CEO's make.  However, evidence is not needed when one is parroting talking points.  What does Dr. Alford suggest? Impose an income tax on out-of-state CEO's? Such a tax would obviously be impossible to implement so the only other option is to... drum roll... increase the salaries of our Superintendents and other administrators.  You're going to be able to keep your perfumed princes and pay them even more money if he has his way.  Just tax the corporations some more. They owe it to our children.  How much more should we pay them? 10%? 25%? Dr. Alford doesn't say.  He just tries to morally shame us into dumping more money on the suits, economics be damned.

One little note to Dr. Alford if he is going to go this route and start comparing salaries in Mississippi to salaries of CEO's or teachers elsewhere: factor in the cost of living.  Some of those higher salaries for teachers or CEO's won't seem so high in some cases but that would again require some knowledge of economics.  

But I believe we might also start the conversation with the fact that our per-pupil student expenditures are $600 less than Alabama, $1,100 less than Arkansas, and $2,000 less than Louisiana. Much of what Reeves and Gunn are doing is a distraction from the fact that we aren’t spending enough on public education, period. We should not forget during this “formula renovation” that our per pupil and teacher spend is the lowest in the United States.

They also have much larger budgets than does Mississippi.  Louisiana's constitution also protects its public education from budget cuts.  That is one reason Louisiana universities see their budgets cut in half  while public schools are left alone when times are tough.  Those two states also have larger populations and larger cities.  Birmingham, Shreveport, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and New Orleans.  They also have more industry and manufacturing than the Magnolia state.  The actual truth is Mississippi is a rural state with a small industrial base.  There is only so much that can be taxed. 

Four hundred years ago Galileo shocked the world and turned the church on its ear by asserting that earth was not at the center of the universe and was in fact in orbit round the sun. For centuries “the truth” was ignored, suppressed, and even abused.

Galileo’s discovered truths in fact came slowly, over time and with a price. Likewise, because of the laws of science, the stakes for educational attainment have been raised, as it is not only a predictor of per capita income, but also the overall health of a community and the inherent costs therein. Yet we still do not talk of spending more in the single best place to invest as a society.

 Oh, damn.  Now he is comparing our leaders to the Catholic Church in Galileo's time.  We get it, Dr. Alford, we get it.  If we disagree with you, we are a bunch of flat-earthers.  One must also ask what does this guy mean when he claims we do not "talk of spending more" money on education? Hell, that subject has dominated the discussions for the last few years whenever the legislature meets.  Can this guy make an actual point without arguing "I'm good and if you oppose me you are evil" argument?

Notice something else omitted from his virtuous vituperation? The word "accountability".  I've read similar screeds and they all say the same thing: spend more money but don't account for how it is spent.  Trust us because we know better than you how to spend it.  Such thinking allows Mississippi to spend what it does have right into last place.

Mississippi teachers have done so much with so little, producing world-renowned musicians, writers, teachers, physicians, athletes, engineers and theologians. Imagine what could happen if our teachers had the support of legislative leadership. Unfortunately, perspective, reason and logic are sorely lacking in our State Capitol. It is as if the leadership believes it, too, is the center of the universe and somehow not subject to the truths of science and the economy that govern the rest of the United States.

What if we value our teachers and paid them at the national average? What if we really behaved as if our children were our most precious resource and increased per pupil spending to at least regional average? What if we funded pre-K statewide since that alone would get more children through the reading gate? These should be key ingredients for any education formula fix. Perhaps the formula doesn’t need fixing, rather the politics needs fixing.

We are reassured that the truth will ultimately prevail but Mississippi has been in the desert a long time, held down by politics. Now more than ever the hard science suggests that Mississippi’s health and economy will forever languish until it commits to taking care of its children rather than its corporations.

 That, my friends, is the truth.

Wow.  Who does he thinks produces jobs and tax revenue? Do such things just come out of thin air? Does he even understand economics or is he practicing Ali Shamsid-Deen economics? 

The Dr. Alfords of Mississippi see education as a sacred priesthood that should not be discussed by anyone but the privileged few.  A different kind of one percent. School districts can blow money on consultants.  They can blow money on their favorite lawyers.  They can blow money on bonds.  They can blow money on everybody but teachers as the good ole boys hire friends and family, actual needs be damned.  However, let someone question this spending and he is labeled a heretic who hates the children.  Get out some matches and stakes, there is some burning to do.  Don't even think of mentioning efficiency, accountability, or innovation and that my friends, is the real truth.

Fully funding MAEP would require the legislature to spend at least another $100-200 million per year.  Dr. Burnham asked for an additional $300 million back in 2011 to fully fund MAEP.  Where exactly can we get the money? Raise taxes? Cut spending for say, Ole Miss, Medicaid, and highways? Borrow the money? Will the good doctor tell us how much more money we should spend and how we can get it?  JJ would love to get back the money spent on Kior or lost on Outlets of Mississippi but that money is gone.  It is true there are more needs than resources.  However, where exactly are we going to get the money? 

Data is data and a periodic review of how we spend our money is smart.  In fact, it is criminal negligence not to do so. Is the formula valid? Should it be adjusted? Can it be improved? Those are valid questions that should be asked but are apparently opposed by Dr. Alford. The difference between this writer and Dr. Alford is I don't think he is evil or on a par with those who would burn Galileo at the stake.  He simply has a different viewpoint on how to improve education in Mississippi. Such differences make for a debate that should be had among our leaders.  However, the same can not be said for him.  He does after all, speak the truth.  One does not question the truth.  A true God complex on display is Dr. Alford's column.