Sunday, February 8, 2026

Bill Crawford: Speaker Whines About Killing School Choice Bill

 Poor Speaker White. His omnibus school choice bill got short shrift in the Senate. His resort now appears to be name calling. “Senate leadership has aligned themselves with the ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center, the Mississippi Democratic Party, and the status quo,” he whined. 

This has been common rhetoric among school choice proponents – only liberals oppose school choice. Surely you saw on social media the “pick a side on school choice” ads. One featured President Donald Trump, Gov. Tate Reeves, and Mississippi Speaker Jason White (the conservatives) on top and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (the liberals) on the bottom. 

“Mississippi Democrats celebrate Republican senators’ decision to kill Trump-backed school choice plan,” screamed a headline in the Magnolia Tribune, a major dispenser of the pick-a-side rhetoric. 

However, it was conservative Republicans who killed White’s bill in the Senate. The vote in the Senate Education Committee, made up of 10 Republicans and 5 Democrats, was unanimous. And 17 Republicans voted against the bill in the House, where it passed by just two votes after two Republicans failed to vote.

The notion that those Republicans who voted against the bill are not conservative and chose a liberal path is ludicrous. And White knows better.

Nine of those Republican senators voting “no” represent conservative counties that voted for Trump in 2024: Greene 85%, Pearl River 83%, Rankin 73%, Jackson, 69%, Harrison 64%, DeSoto 61%, and Lafayette 60%. The other, Warren County, voted 51% for Trump.

The 10 Republican senators and the 17 Republican house members generally voted in line with their constituents’ wishes, e.g., committee member Sen. Nicole Boyd told the Magnolia Tribune she received a tremendous number of emails and phone calls from her constituents who opposed the house bill. Others feared the omnibus bill reached too far.



Legislators representing their constituents’ preferences used to be a core conservative principle. 

No longer for Gov. Tate Reeves. After the Senate action, he called out Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Education Committee Chair Sen. Dennis Debar. “I’ve never been more disappointed in elected officials,” he posted on Facebook. 

The Speaker's name-calling tactics and other high-handed maneuvers have caused some unrest in his Republican caucus. Several frustrated members have chosen not to seek re-election next year. Rumblings have also started that White might not win re-election as speaker. 

“Jason White is yelping to the high heavens because he just got UNANIMOUSLY spanked by a Senate Committee,” wrote an anonymous commenter on the Jackson Jambalaya blog. “Many other issues that Mississippi needs rectifying NOW, this ain't one of them. Jason may not get re-elected if he keeps up this ‘I'm really important’ act.”

"The mocker seeks wisdom and finds none” – Proverbs 14:6.

Crawford is an author and syndicated columnist from Jackson.


24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile Madison, Clinton, Oxford and Ocean Springs and other high performing schools breathe a sigh of relief. Prep and MRA also.

Anonymous said...

The only people pushing for this are the opportunists who will immediately start charter schools in order to soak up some of this money. Conservative graft at its best.

Anonymous said...

Paging Auditor White.....follow the money.....right into Tater's and Jackass Jason's pockets. Offshore.

Anonymous said...

I just want my children to get an education without my son being physically assaulted and bullied by thugs and my daughter sexually harassed and physically assaulted by thugs. I don’t want their teachers and classrooms to be disrupted by thugs. I just don’t want them going to school with thugs period. I want them to go to school with people who talk like them and have the same culture and values as them. Why is that so wrong?

Anonymous said...

Mmmm, conservative tears

Anonymous said...

Winning the state wide republican primary requires some combination of majority votes in Rankin, DeSoto, Jackson (county), and Madison. I guess Republican leadership didn’t do well in math.

Anonymous said...

There are again way more school districts than needed. The overstaffed administration in these school districts is a joke. Teachers are needed but good teachers paid well. Take the money saved cutting administrators and pay the teachers with it.

The State of Mississippi needs to make the schools that are not performing well hold administrators accountable.
The state needs to cut funding to school districts and cut number of districts that are over staffed with administrators that add no value to the district.

Last but not least prayer, punishment and respect for fellow man needs to be instilled in the children.

I bet you look at the schools that are performing well have great principals that protect their teachers and children so they can teach. You will find discipline and respected leadership. One could argue a well run school does not need another layer of unproductive management on top of it.

School Choice solves none of the above problems just tries to distribute money to what is perceived as improving education. My suggestion is to consolidate districts, make school districts accountable for performance through regular testing and put discipline back in school. Where are the “Coach Carters” of the world. PS you can’t eat a football, basketball or baseball the last time I checked. Team sports are good for building character but not building a life long success for the average child.

This from a Republican that grew up in Jackson. Went to public school. Not convinced “School Choice” helps anybody especially the child which is what this should be about.

Anonymous said...

@8:39am - Nobody is stopping you. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and pony up for the private school of your choice, cowboy. You already have school choice, you don’t need taxpayer handout (or maybe you do).

Kingfish said...

The ones from Madison and Rankin are voting the way their constituents want them to. Remember what happened when Johnny Black made the mistake of discussing maybe Canton and Madison schools should merge? Don't think those politicians didn't pay attention to those results.

Anonymous said...

My kids are already in private school. I don’t want the school flooded with poors and thugs.

Anonymous said...

Let's just keep the poor kids that cant afford to move to better school districts trapped. Let's keep them dumb and stupid so they continue to vote Democrat.

Anonymous said...

Nice strawman but Chokwe was educated. Plenty of braindead dumb Marxist democrats are well educated. No school in America is going to teach a young mind full of mush what it takes to be a good American.

That would be the influencers out there like the Charlie Kirk. As much as people don’t like it, the only voices that young people are listening to are going to be exaggerated and extreme. They are going to be people working the algorithms for views. Young people aren’t interested in boomer echo chambers of the past.

Anonymous said...

Kingfish:

As a Rankin County voter, I can tell you my representative did not vote the way his constituents wanted him to. RCSD is an A-rated district and one of the largest employers in the county. The three Rankin County dopes who voted against their local schools are about to learn a hard lesson come Election Day.

Personally, I can’t wait to vote for anyone but Brent Powell and I am not alone in that sentiment. Yancy and Hurst, you’ve got some ticked off voters in your districts as well. Hope that infusion of campaign cash gets eaten up in ads justifying your vote.

Rankin County is officially wide open and the voters are ready to give the bird to the incumbents.

Anonymous said...

How about fixing the referendum?

Anonymous said...

Pay attention everyone. There were three Rankin County reps that voted against their constituents and successful school district. Exactly the number needed to pass this garbage in the House. Funny how that works.

Bob Boteler said...

Did most of those republications voting against the bill represent districts with high performing schools?

Anonymous said...

I am no fan of the Speaker, but it is pure comedy for the Whiner-in-Chief Bill Crawford to call someone a whiner.

Anonymous said...

11:27 obviously doesn’t understand the legislative process. Unfortunately, Crawford doesn’t understand the process any better either. The House and Senate don’t like each other and that is what is really holding up progress. There is no question the House is much more conservative than the Senate. However, this is really just the two Chambers not wanting the other to get any credit.

Kingfish said...

Had Ford and Newman in mind when I wrote that comment. Stand corrected.

Anonymous said...

As much as I hate liberals, I despise RHINOs like Billy ten times more. They have caused far more damage than the democrats.

Anonymous said...

I would truly like to know what DJT has done or said that makes Billy the RHINO hate him so much.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, sir. You are point on. Mississippi is a poor state with a small population, which means there are limited funds to be distributed to education.

The merging of school districts, and the reduction of administrative staff is absolutely essential to the change that is needed to make our education system what our children need.

Anonymous said...

@11:08am Well said!! Lotta idiot Boomers in the Legislature.

Anonymous said...

Billy sure does take an abnormal amount of pleasure seeing Republicans fail, I wonder why?


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