Over the past few years, Mississippi lawmakers have passed some critical conservative reforms. Last year, Mississippi became the first state in America to legislate to eliminate the income tax in 40 years. In 2022, we implemented flat tax reform. A few years before that, we passed important labor market reforms. In 2024, we reformed school funding to get more money into the classroom.
It is thanks to these flagship conservative reforms that Mississippi has enjoyed more economic growth in the past five years than over the previous fifteen combined. Yet every single time one of these flagship conservative reform was being considered, I noticed a similar pattern. Those opposed to flagship conservative policy are too wily to come straight out and say they don’t want conservative policy in a conservative state. What they do instead is offer less substantial alternatives, which might be perfectly good policy, but don’t really change much at all. On school funding, for example, those opposed to the new funding formula offered a few tweaks to the old system. Those that did not want income tax to be eliminated proposed a handful of performative tax reductions here and there. Now that Mississippi has a real chance to achieve universal school choice, we are seeing the same distraction strategy. Speaker Jason White’s Mississippi Education Freedom Bill (HB 2) is the most consequential education legislation seen in a generation. It establishes Magnolia Student Accounts as education savings accounts to enable universal school choice in Mississippi. Families would receive roughly $7,000 per child deposited into a dedicated account. Parents could use these funds for tuition, curriculum materials, or other approved education expenses at the school of their choice—public, private, charter, or homeschool. The program is due to begin in the 2027-28 school year with 12,500 accounts. Half of those (6,250) are reserved for students currently enrolled in public schools, while the remaining half are awarded via a first-come, first-served lottery to any eligible student. Speaker White’s bill goes further by dismantling outdated, self-serving bureaucratic restrictions. It eliminates school districts' ability to block student transfers: If a receiving district is willing and has capacity, students can freely switch. The bill also removes barriers to charter school growth. HB 2 allows charters to open wherever operators see demand and viability, enabling statewide expansion.
You would have to be a socialist to oppose this – which is why it was so disappointing to see some Republicans listed at the bottom of this message vote against parent power. Having failed to kill HB2 in the House, the socialists are now trying another tactic. They are offering up far less significant reforms that appeal to conservative ears, but fall far short of giving parents power. This week the Senate approved a cluster of such education bills. There’s a bill that will require financial literacy lessons, another that will insist on civics. One of the bills approved by the Senate will try to improve math outcomes, another that will require 8 th graders to reach a certain reading standard before advancing. All of these things may be desirable, but they fall far short of parent power. The danger is that some misguided voices big up these bills as something more substantial than they really are – and in doing make it easier for those opposed to flagship conservative reform to quietly kill off the important bits in HB2. HB2 has now passed out of the Mississippi House and is on its way for consideration by the State Senate. If enacted, this would represent the pinnacle of conservative education reform in the United States. Most importantly, it shows a deep understanding that truly successful education reform requires parental involvement. The Magnolia State has made great progress in recent years on the education front. Mississippi’s fourth graders now read better than those in New York, California, or Minnesota, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores. You read that correctly: A state that barely a decade ago ranked near the bottom for fourth grade reading now sits near the top of the NAEP tables. But despite Mississippi’s stellar progress, almost half of fourth graders still are not proficient in reading and math, and roughly one in four elementary students continues to be chronically absent. The solution to that is not to micromanage how teachers teach in every classroom in our state, but to give families the power to choose the education for their child. Mississippi needs to give parents - not politicians - the ultimate oversight of what happens in the classroom. You cannot credibly claim to be a conservative in the legislature if you oppose HB2. Here, incidentally, is a list of the Republican members of the House that sided with the socialists against parent power. Who sided with progressives to try to block school choice?* Richard Bennett* Andy Boyd* Billy Calvert* Carolyn Crawford* Becky Currie* Jill Ford* Greg Haney* Stacey Hobgood-Wilkes* Timmy Ladner* Clay Mansell* Kent McCarty* Missy McGee* Dana McLean* Gene Newman* Fred Shanks* Troy Smith* Lance Varner Douglas Carswell is the President and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.
This post is a paid advertisement by MCPP.
34 comments:
I plan to take that $7000 and use it for a down payment on a new Ford F-150
I'm going to buy an ounce of gold with my 7k while I still can get it.
I’m going to buy Nvidia stock
right-
new car dealers will love this legislation
One does not receive a Parks and Recreation Tax Rebate from their taxes if they elect to join a country club; neither should one get an Education Tax Rebate if they elect private school.
There is a concept of the common good. That's why folks that never access the park, never call law enforcement, never drive, never have a fire, never go to court, and don't have children...pay taxes.
"Labor Market Reform"? Please explain.
As a conservative, and as the spouse of someone who works in the education system teaching in public schools, we both agree that this is a terrible idea, as well as every other parent who has worked their butts off to afford a place to live in a good school district. By allowing this to move forward you are opening the flood gates for these students who are not good kids to be introduced into the schools and districts which foster kids who actually want an education. If you want your kids to have a good education, then you should find a way to legally move into a district that provides that, or chose a private school instead of this. If this bill passes it could potentially crimple the already fragile education system that we have.
How’s this gonna be tied in to sports. There’s gotta be a sports side to this of transferring the good public school athletes to private schools. I guess the “sponsors” and people currently paying them to come their private schools are tired of footing the bill so they’ll figure out how to make taxpayers pay these schools for their players instead of them paying. Just wait and see. This is about football people!
The United States spends more money per a pupil on education than any country in the world yet we don’t have the best schools.
Propaganda
Bringing Marxist communism to private schools. Way to go Doug. Keep telling the conservatives what they have to believe to be MAGA. Most will listen if you throw mud around.
"...students who are not good kids to be introduced into the schools and districts which foster kids who actually want an education." This is misleading. Students can transfer to another school now under current law. Also, when a student requests a transfer, the receiving school must agree to it.
I hate fearmongering. Only good it does it to wave a red flag that the person has no reasonable argument and resorts to screaming fire.
Trying to shame the actual conservatives with some sense and backbone by calling them “socialists” for not voting for a taxpayer handout to private schools? lol that’s insane and some grade A bullshit right there
" you want your kids to have a good education, then you should find a way to legally move into a district that provides that, or chose a private school instead of this. If this bill passes it could potentially crimple the already fragile education system that we have."
This is xactly the response I would expect from "The Haves" to the "Have Nots". My old boss had a special needs kid & School Board would not let that kid go to the school that could help him. They had to sell their house & than Rent in another area for that kid. Don't you think for one minute Mr High & Mighty that there aint families out there that want better for their kids & not looking to just Dump their "Bad" kids on your hoity toity neighborhood...People like you make me sick...
Here's an idea....FIX BAD SCHOOLS!
Since Carswell has all the answers, make him State Superintendent of Education, and allow him to clean house, make his own regulations, etc, but.....remind him it's his obligation to educate all kids, regardless of where they live. Give him 13 years, one complete school career, and let's see how he does.
You guys either just don’t get it, or there’s really something rotten in Denmark. If you’d simply drop the money to private schools part of this, you’d get this across the goal line. There are those that are totally against school choice, and there are those of us that think it’s a good idea as long as we aren’t sending money to private schools or home schooling households. We want our money going to regulated institutions. Also, how did ultra conservatives go from tilting at windmills over whether or not public schools were teaching Critical Theory to now offering to subsidize the educating of students by whomever no matter what their views are on Critical Theory? What if a private school happened to be more liberal (and there are those schools in Mississippi) and they had part of Critical Theory in their curriculum? Are we now ok helping to pay for this? What if a Madrasas school were to open up in the state? Do the parents that send their children there get the same financial support as the parents that send their kids to MRA or Tri-County? Just checking. If so, we sure raised a lot of hell over CRT a few years back for nothing.
Conservative here.....let me explain: It's called "No Child Left Behind" which was/is an abject failure exept in perpetrating all the wishful thinking that every child will "get" the same treatment, or have the same "equitable" success. George W. Bush and company knew good and well it was just a campaign slogan that the mouth-breathers would vote for. Kids have been "held back" by numerous reasons since the beginning of time. Your entitement makes everyone sick. Too many folks like you today literally "dream" of their child going on to do great things, or having a "normal" life. Boy, are you sorely mistaken. No hate, just facts. It's the burden of becoming a parent and "doing the best you can", until your child tells their therapist: "Their best sucked" and asks to speak to you.
Anyway, public dollars should not be going to private schools. It's another scam by the MS "leadership" to create anothr flexible slush fund of your money for them to play with. Property taxes need to be eliminated....let's truly level the playing field.
Talk to educators. Talk to medical providers that work in ur mental institutions. What is happening in this state? The common sense of the youth is declining and our mental institutions are filled due to drugs and sexual abuse. Instead of tackling the real problems, they pay off their backers. This is another way for our leaders to repay their handlers. MS is creating a bigger divide between the haves and have nots. Their friends and deacons need more money. What we need to understand is u can’t keep pushing the have nots under the rug. That class of Mississippians is growing faster than the class of “haves”. It is reflected in daily living and lack of resources. This state is a desert when it comes to healthcare, food, etc. The environment in other states is full of choice. The people outside this state are on a higher level. Until the leaders choose to care for all their constituents, u will have this desert while ur leaders and their “haves” live high on the hog.
Mississippi's individual income tax won't be eliminated but will be reduced and possibly eliminated by 2040.
There's a bit of a catch. The process can only be triggered IF the state " sees large revenue growth or spending constraints".
As for me, I won't plan on living to see no income tax in this state. I will plan on keeping by lawyer and accountant.
All true, but you don't understand - it's on purpose. MS Policy is plainly this: "We're poor, and that's how we control everything - after we've taken care of our connected friends, family, and fellow churchgoers. We keep most everyone poor, because that keeps them in fear. See how it works?".
Currently paying that guy what $300k and came up with genius idea: Don't let kids that can't read take a reading test in 3rd grade then make all the 8th and 12th grade tests easy af like removing math or history...now them test scores are rising like they took one them lil blue pillz. They say Mississippi Miracle I say very average pencil whipping of your data.
Money being sent to private schools isn’t something most Mississippi residents want. Im sure the “polls” say one thing about education freedom yet I’d love the only question to be about vouchers for those in the private system to subsidize their tuition.
I’ve never heard an explanation as to why this is an emergency.
This policy is not near as popular as the polls the think tanks put out! Good of the #17 for standing strong.
Say what you want about the Mississippi Senate, they are definitely the more steady side of the Capitol. The House basically sits and waits for the next “great idea” to come along from Empower Mississippi, MCPP, or whomever else. I’m glad that this nonsense doesn’t have a chance of making it through the Senate. Come on House! Even the little brother eventually grows up and matures.
Disclaimer, there are a lot of wise, mature and capable representatives in the house. The leadership is the problem. It was a problem with Gunn, and it’s still a problem with White.
Until the mental (and physical) midgets like Lamar are put to pasture, the House will continue to push out of state funded BS.
As a died in the wool conservative who votes republican, the last thing I need is a Brit calling me a democrat, liberal or 'sky is falling' guy.
I assume most of us are still waiting for these Non-Profit Think-Tanks, radio talking heads, House leaders and politicians (none of whom has a child in public schools) to finally, at long-last state one or two reasons why Parental Freedom, formerly school-choice, is a good thing for Mississippi, its school systems, education in general, parents or students.
So far, all we have heard for almost two years is:
1: Our surrounding states are doing it.
2: Don't you believe in freedom for parents?
3: Don't you think parents know best?
4: We used to say it was for better education but now we say it's because of bullying. It's a fluid movement where goalposts move along with the narrative.
5: If you don't believe it's a good thing, you are either a liberal, belong to a teachers' union or are a democrat. (Well, I'm none of those.)
We have not heard from the first Mississippi educator, school board member, superintendent, principal, mayor, Sunday School Teacher, butcher, baker or candle-maker speak out in support of this social experiment. Not one.
And here we have a Brit admonishing us on what's best while his countryside and half of Europe are being overtaken by border-jumpers who will seize control of those governments.
Paul Revere warned us!
Very disappointed in Jill Ford all around
Also disappointed in Jill Ford all around, with the exception of this vote. She got it right.
Jill Ford is doing a great job!
All of our idiot MS politicians kids are in private schools. Ask yourselves why they all of a sudden care so much about this. 🏈💰🏈💵
She was hired to support the will of her constituency, not to tow a party line or respond to the Speaker's whip-pop. Her constituents are aware that Canton Separate School District would swamp Madison County School District. JPS and Canton influx would ruin an excellent system.
"Give me my $7,000; everyone else can go to hell"
Toeing the party line. That is all.
@7:37 - How do you figure Ford is toeing a party line voting no when the leadership in the House, all republicans, are in favor of the bill she voted against.
It's noted that you posted real early today, but DAYUM!
Post a Comment