Jackson Jambalaya

 The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal featured Mississippi education recently.

In a surprising story entitled “These Three Red States Are the Best Hope in Schooling,” the Times writer told skeptics “I told you so.”

After writing about Mississippi’s educational successes in 2023, “many of my fellow liberals then scoffed at the notion of learning from a state so tainted,” wrote Pulitzer Prize winner Nicolas Kristof. “The critiques have been effectively rebutted by Mississippi’s “continuing gains” and the “magnitude of the gains.” 

“Just as striking,” he continued, the Mississippi gains increasingly are being replicated in Alabama and Louisiana.”

The article highlights three state accomplishments: 1) Black fourth graders score better in reading than those in Massachusetts, often thought to have the nation’s best public school system; 2) Mississippi ranks ninth nationally in fourth-grade reading, but hits number one after adjusting for demographics such as poverty and race; and 3) using the same adjustment, “Mississippi ranks No. 1 in both fourth-grade and eighth-grade math.”

Noting a Black Mississippi fourth grader is 2½ times more likely to be proficient in reading than a Black California child even though California spends far more per pupil, Kristof expressed surprise that Republican leaders in Mississippi “seem strangely indifferent.”

“Indeed, instead of trumpeting the gains in three red states and doubling down on successful policies, Republicans even in these states are pushing hard for more vouchers (which have a mixed record at best) so that children can flee the improving public school systems — thus threatening the very progress they should be proud of.”

Kristof observed that Florida and Arkansas, which implemented school choice, have seen their fourth-grade reading scores drop.

This segues to the Wall Street Journal editorial entitled, “Republican’s threaten Mississippi Miracle.” The subheading written by the Editorial Board was “The Lt. Gov bows to the teachers union and kills a school-choice bill.”

“Many of Mississippi’s students are poor, and ESAs might be their only route to private education that better meets their needs,” the editorial stated. “Hosemann, who leads the Senate, took orders from the public school monopoly,” it said without attribution. “He cited the state’s recent rise in education rankings as reason to invest more in the status quo.”

“That gets the issue exactly wrong,” the Journal claimed. “Hard work, accountability and innovative thinking produced Mississippi’s education success. The competition created by school choice encourages more of the same.”

Twenty-five years ago, Jim Barksdale and his late wife Sally thought investing in public schools and requiring greater accountability worthwhile, putting up $100 million. Many Republican state leaders now think investing school dollars in private schools with less accountability is the way to go.  

“Blessed are the peacemakers” – Matthew 5:9.

Crawford is an author and syndicated columnist from North Jackson.