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.
17 comments:
The same statistician produces Jackson's crime numbers. Smoke, meet mirror.
And this is the issue I can’t square with republicans pushing vouchers. Tate Reeves has no problem heralding the success public schools have had in improving our ranking when accountability data is reported, but yet with that same mouth and social media platform he wants to strip funding AND accountability and shift one (money) but not the other (accountability) to private schools. One more time, if public funds will be used for private schools, which is his plan (or marching orders depending on who you ask), then why does accountability apply one brick building on Lakeland Drive but not the other two?
The “Mississippi sucks” crowd will not like this news.
Clinton Clinton. Clinton. All they need to do is follow the accountability model that is the Clinton Public Schools. When they do success will follow. It's not that hard.
@9:44am - Mississippi still sucks. But hey, good thing we had school choice to herald in all the public school student success we’ve had. Oh wait.
Well, it is time to be honest here. I have no idea if public education is "improving" or not, but we are all aware how numbers can be manipulated to get the desired result. Every one of our children attended both public and private schools in the Mississippi Delta, and try as we did, the quality of the public schools reached a point where we were doing our children a disservice by continuing to send them to the public schools. Our family has seen this issue from both sides, and undoubtedly there are good, but far from excellent, public schools in certain locations in Mississippi, but it is a stretch to be pounding one's chest about the quality of a public school education in this state. One only has to look at what passes for public education in the Delta, Jackson and points south and the amount of money that is wasted achieving that result. Money is not the issue, accountability is, and absolutely none of our so-called "leaders" have the intestinal fortitude to address this issue. To all of those that are against the private school vouchers, what do you have to say about the very few children who, through no fault of their own, are stuck in an underperforming school but have the desire to actually achieve something in life?
Follow the money.
Sid/Bill again reads someone else's work on old news and apparently gets paid to slant and regurgitate it.
Public funds in private schools. JA says hold my beer.
No, the "people who've actually worked in the Mississippi Department of Education" will tell you how bogus these numbers are....in all the othe states mentioned as well.
After Covid....the desperation to keep the attendance numbers flush was literally becoming so intense, that the "numbers reported" went out the window.....and it's stil going on. ALL students are promoted now regardless of their meeting expectations or not at all. Kids are never failed/held back any more. Ever. So the systems administrators said, just put those grades in there no matter what. Grade inflation or "upgrading" should be outlawed just like "up coding" is unlawful in the healthcare industry. But nobody's gonna make any waves in this area because of the 10s of thousands of jobs throughout the state. Students are not prepared for college, not prepared for working within a heirarchy of accountability and being managed, and therefore - no where near ready or prepared to "adult full time" as they often lament with pride.
Hoseman is a self-serving, finger-in-the-wind RINO sellout. Like Crawford.
Go to school, wherever that may be. Excel despite circumstances. It’ll make a great story for college and if you’re truly broke and come from nothing there’s all kinds of money and opportunity waiting for you on the college level that the middle class only wished they had access to.
As to your Delta example, go sell that to the Madison Central parents or any parents that made the choice to reside in a successful district. Go count the national merits vs MRA, per capita, and get back to us.
I still wish we had gotten a mosquito flag
The United States spends more money per a pupil than any country in the world yet our schools are subpar
What does this have to do with JA?
You insist everything does.
But it doesnt.
You can sue every professional for malpractice except schools. Maybe we should be able to sue educators like all other professionals for education malpractice
When I was in school in the 1980s the honor role and class officers were about 50/50% boys and girls. Now it’s almost just girls. Why?? Schools have become more feminine and turn there back on boys
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