Our state is now completely surrounded! Tennessee has just passed an Education Freedom Act, meaning that every single surrounding state is a school choice state.
In Tennessee from 2025 families will be entitled to an education freedom scholarship worth $7,075. Capped to 20,000 low income families at first, the idea is that in a couple of years every family in the state can use their pot of money for tuition and fees at a public school or private school of their choice. What about Mississippi? Are we in danger of being left behind by our bolder neighbors? Every time there is any suggestion that families be allowed to have any control over even a tiny portion of the $14,676 that it costs to educate a child in the public system, there is an outbreak of outrage. Often those most vocally opposed to school choice have been wealthy liberals who sent their own kids to private school. None of the bills being considered in the Mississippi legislature this year offer anything as comprehensive as Tennessee’s Education Freedom Act. There is, however, a very sensible bill offering a step towards more public-to-public school choice, HB1435. This bill would allow students in a public school to take their share of the education budget to a public school of their choice – if the recipient school has capacity.
Under the excellent leadership of Speaker Jason White, Rep. Rob Roberson and Rep. Jansen Owen, HB1435 is now out of committee and heading to a vote on the floor of the House. The bill still faces many obstacles, but it can no longer be quietly killed off. (See Texas primary elections for details). A second bill, HB1433, would allow students in failing districts to take about $6,600 of their share of education funds to a private school. It would be similar to what our neighbors do, but for a handful of school districts. With all our neighboring states on board with school choice, it would be absurd if even these modest steps towards school choice are derailed. Of course, even these modest proposals have generated the usual hysteria from the so-called “Parent’s Campaign”. Comically, the “Parent’s Campaign” describes a bill to allow parents more choice between public schools as “troublesome”. Desperate to find a reason to oppose HB1435, they attack it on the grounds that it might require school districts to determine what their capacity is. Pesky parents, eh? Given what conservative leaders have now accomplished in every neighboring state and given the unequivocal support for school choice from President Trump, it will be interesting to see if any Republicans dare to vote against. The White House just announced a roundtable on school choice with top Republican governors. The event, moderated by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who spearheaded a major victory for school choice in her state after taking office, is an attempt to encourage pro school choice conservatives to move ahead with passing legislation. Opposing school choice in Mississippi is probably not a great career move for any Mississippi Republicans. Nor is would it help raise standards in our schools. Momentum is with parent power. This is a fight we can and must win. Douglas Carswell is the President and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. This post was sponsored and paid for by the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.
23 comments:
Why even have schools at all? I thought you guys were killing the department of education. Didn’t the world wrestling lady get appointed to see it to its end? There’s a clear motive here to make Americans dumber, dumb people vote conservative.
Once they kill public schools, they will move to end the vouchers by calling them deep state socialist communism inducing dei handouts. They’ve already stated that diversity, equity, and inclusion are bad. The playbook here is to only have the wealthy kids attend schools while the rest work the land or as cheap factory labor.
For profit colleges have worked so well, why not take that awful system and apply it to an entire generation of kids. This sounds good on paper at face value. Once the slightest bit of thought is applied, it falls apart.
We did just fine without a federal DOE until Jimmy Carter thought otherwise and started one. Test scores and other benchmarks have steadily declined since then.
Remember every legislator that voted for this. To win a statewide Republican primary you must win DeSoto, Rankin, Madison and the coast. These are the districts that will be torn apart by this “conservative legislation”. We are on the verge of getting rid of the Dept of Education and these fools send more of our tax dollars away. You have ruined the only good school districts in this state. South Jackson won’t pay the same tax dollars but they will sit next to Reunion at Madison Station. When Hinds takes over the public schools in rankin, Madison and ocean springs remember names like Jason white and Jonathan McMillan. MRA gets more money and that’s all they care about. We ran Bomgar out with all of his money. Jope MRA produces enough votes, your time is limited. Ship of fools
Public school to public school transfer only. The legal bills for the A+ school districts will be huge when they deny transfers. A terrible bill but no voucher for private schools.
We can’t have this in MS. White liberals together with regular democrats will not allow it.
Amazing to watch folks point to our neighboring states - and others - and claim that their zero income tax is the basis for their success in attracting industry, people, and money to their state. Maybe those same folks ought to look at things like school choice - as TN (a state with no income tax that is constantly touted as a model) has now done. Allowing parents to use their tax dollars for EDUCATION, which is the goal of a government, not PUBLIC EDUCATION, which is the goal of the public education industry.
Moonbats are concerned they won’t be able to spread their bs and lies anymore.
Vast amounts of research indicating that school choice causes academic decline, yet our genius legislators want to follow others down this rabbit hole... like sheep to the slaughter. Remember when legislators said charter schools would be fantastic? Charters have proven to be an unmitigated disaster, so much so that legislators are now proposing that they not have to meet the same academic standards as public schools. You CANNOT make this foolishness up.
The present indoctrination system, that masquerade's as education, has continued to dumb down the people. This present system, nationwide, is controlled by democrats. They don't vote republican. You don't know your ass from a hole in the ground.
https://babylonbee.com/news/country-with-record-illiteracy-worried-what-will-happen-if-education-system-reformed/
Not every private school is Jackson Prep. These nuts need to get out of Jackson and ride around the state some.
Yes! The fewer poor children born and needing education (because their parents sure weren't), the better. Don't you agree?
How on earth did this even become a serious issue? If I'm not mistaken, I think it falls under "corporate welfare". Are ALL of Mississippi's Legislators RINOS? Hmmmm.
Can anyone tell me what I can’t send my children to a school that doesn’t admit scholars who I believe would be an untoward influence and a hindrance to my kids’ academic success?
Most of our citizens only have a high school education if we include GED's and those home schooled.
We only have 137 private schools in the entire state including some that would not be given a high ranking by colleges and universities.
So, please explain how vouchers will help get students into those private school when they have a full roster now and award scholarships to bright students ( to bring up their college rankings) and athletes. You are going to fund with our taxes, those last two categories and be sad you still can't get your kid into a private school.
I want to see a plan not "musings".
2:38, what do you think the DOE actually does? We do not need it in order to educate our kids. I bet you are also angry that government waste is being cut as well. Democrats are so late to the party….
I encourage others to look at test scores from states such as FL and AZ where school choice is supposedly so wonderful. Also, just because you say it’s wealthy, liberal private school parents who oppose these bills doesn’t make it true. Everyone can see with their own eyes that it’s parents from private and public schools, school administrators and teachers that are against the bill and the same handful folks on every page advocating for the bill. The large number of rep yay votes from the bill are because of the threats just like the ones you put in black and white here. Let’s threaten these politicians and make them do it even though the VAST majority of MS citizens don’t want it. Ahhhh….democracy.
I would encourage people to take a look at testing trends from states with schools choice. The trends aren’t looking good. Also, you say that wealthy, liberal private school parents are who oppose this bill, but it’s quite easy to see with our own eyes that it’s actually private and public parents, school administrators and teachers who oppose. The main reason there were so many favorable votes in the House was because of the blatant threats just like the ones you put in black and white right here. Democracy at its finest.
I'm not sure school choice is the solution for Mississippi, what with the state being rural, with low income. The best outcome for our children would be a continuation of public schools, and we should never settle for less than the very best in education.
That being said, what needs to happen with education is a wholesale restructuring of the present system. There are entirely too many districts for the population of this state.
There's too much money being wasted in the education bureaucracy, that should be flowing to teachers, and supplying the support that qualified teachers need.
It is outrageous, the amount of money that is being spent, and the low rate of return on that investment.
Just say NO to more Social Experimentation. If this crappola passes, it will be 14 years before you realize what a fuck-up the experiment was. And you supported it. For the sake of the chillun.
It feels like punishment for those kids and teachers in a better school district . There are more discipline issues and the kids have not been held accountable in their current schools. In some districts teacher's are not allowed to give failing grades or discipline if they don’t turn in homework. It sounds like a terrible idea. I tried to call my legislators to voice my opinion on the vote but struggled to find the phone number or email.
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