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for Mississippi Happenings podcast.

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Joining me each week is my friend and co-host, Jim Newman.

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Hello, Jim.

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Good morning, how are you?

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Good.

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Each week we discuss the kitchen table issues that all of us face in Mississippi.

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Not only will we discuss those issues, but offer information from experts in the field and
offer solutions and a plan of actions.

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This week we want to discuss public education in Mississippi.

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Our guest this week is Nancy Loom.

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Nancy is the executive director of the Mississippi Parents Campaign.

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She's held this position for the past 19 years.

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The mission of the Mississippi Parents Campaign is to ensure that public school parents,
educators, and supporters have a voice in the legislative and policy decisions.

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that affect our children's education at a means by which they can hold legislators and
policymakers accountable.

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Nancy, thank you so much for joining us today, for joining us today in Mississippi and
frankly around our nation.

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Public education is being attacked and it appears to be on the verge of being

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dismantled.

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Please tell us about the Mississippi Parents Campaign.

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Well, good morning, David, and thank you for having me.

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Yes, so we were organized almost 20 years ago because of frustration with how legislators
were voting at that time on the funding issue, public school funding.

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And so we organized to engage parents, moms, dads, grandparents, concerned citizens,
educators in the conversation about legislation and policy.

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that affects their schools.

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And so what we do is we read every single education bill that is introduced in the state
legislature.

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And we also stay up to date on policy changes that are proposed at the Department of
Education.

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And for those bills that we think and policies that we think are most critical to student
achievement, we notify parents about those pending changes and let them know when

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important.

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Votes are coming up.

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We tell them who their own legislators are and how to contact them.

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So our job is to make it really easy for busy moms and dads and citizens to be engaged in
this process, which is how our democracy is supposed to work.

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You know, we elect these folks to represent us, but they can't read our minds.

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And so it's important, we have an obligation to be engaged and to

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talk to them, let them know how we feel about important issues that affect us in all kinds
of ways, but the Parents Campaign's focus is on public education.

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Fantastic, let me ask you this.

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I just read recently.

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Where Mississippi is ranked?

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38th in the nation with pre K through 12 and that's according to the US News and World
Report.

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Would you like to talk about that?

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I am so proud of our teachers and students in our public schools.

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Those types of ratings that are put out by media outlets and that sort of thing consider
all sorts of things and they

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They go beyond the performance of our teachers and students in the classroom.

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So they are not really an accurate reflection of what's happening in the classroom.

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They consider things like, how well is the legislature doing in funding our schools and
providing access to pre-K and that sort of thing.

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And so they are very much skewed by things that our educators have no control over.

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If you look at our national test scores, what's called the nation's report card, the
national assessment of educational progress, and those results just came out a week ago.

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And what they showed is that Mississippi students and teachers are really knocking it out
of the park.

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Not only has Mississippi shown more improvement than any other state over time, but

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actual average test scores of our students now we are now outscoring most other states.

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For example, in fourth grade reading we are ninth in the country in fourth grade reading
scores.

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Our math, fourth grade math scores are 16th in the country.

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So our students and teachers are really doing an amazing job.

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And that's not really very well reflected in the sorts of ratings and rankings that you
mentioned.

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Gotcha.

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You mentioned the NAEP, the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

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Recently, Press Secretary Caroline Levitt talked about the poor efficiency statistics.

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And that was in an effort to justify the dismantling of the Department of Education.

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Let me ask you this.

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How would

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If it comes to about, and it probably will, Trump will eliminate the Department of
Education.

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How will that affect those in Mississippi?

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I would say it depends.

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A lot of it depends on what Congress does.

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So it would be possible for the US Department of Education to be eliminated.

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It would be possible for that to happen and for not much to change.

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The biggest dangers are really with oversight.

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The funds could continue to flow through the appropriations process.

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The Department of Education isn't absolutely necessary for funds to be able to flow.

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But the primary benefit to parents of the U.S.

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Department of Education is oversight.

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We have very important laws and regulations that protect students that

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the Department of Education is directed to oversee.

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For example, special education, rules and regulations governing special education and
making sure that those students are getting the accommodations that they need and

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everything that they need in order to be successful in the classroom.

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So those are the primary ways I think, Title I,

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regulations that make sure that additional resources flow to schools with very high levels
of poverty so that those students are getting the resources that they need.

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So there are some regulations that are very important and I'm not sure who would be tasked
with that sort of oversight.

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It might fall to the State Department of Education, but without additional resources it
would be difficult for them to take on that function.

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Understood.

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Thank you.

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I understand that part of the funding for the Department of Education, and you hit on it
briefly, was funded for like the Head Start programs.

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And I know those are so vital and perhaps help us increase the reading levels that you
talked about at the fourth level.

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at that level.

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Now, what about as far as, he also talked about children with learning disabilities.

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How is the Mississippi Parents Campaign involved in that and are there some issues with
our lawmakers concerning children with learning disabilities?

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Well, if you're talking about federal funding, to be honest, if you're talking about
federal legislation and funding, the parents campaign really only follows state level

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legislation and policy.

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So that is not something that I'm an expert in or that we have followed in the past.

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If we get to the point where we believe there is a real threat to those children, that
might be something that we need to...

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to take on, but when we are relying on parents and busy people to be the ones to reach out
to their legislators and have conversations with them about all of these issues, it

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complicates that work to have them

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trying to keep track of state versus federal legislation and state legislators versus
their U.S.

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congressmen and senators and so that's why we have focused largely on state level policy
and legislation.

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The federal piece is not something that we've covered.

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In terms of our students with special needs, we've made a lot of progress with those
children as well and

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really started closing that gap between proficiency rates of children with special needs
and their more typically developing peers.

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So that their scores are improving right along with everyone else's which is really good
news.

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Great, thank you.

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One of the things that I think that I wanted to also talk about and it's so important is
funding.

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How do our schools get that funding to operate?

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So our public schools are funded based on a school funding formula that is in the law.

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The legislature passed a new school funding law and formula in the 2024 legislative
session.

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Like the old law, it funds students on a per student basis.

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The good news is that the new law actually funds our schools

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based on enrollment.

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So they are funded for every student that is enrolled in their schools, whereas they,
under the old law, they were funded based on average daily attendance, which of course is

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somewhat lower than actual enrollment, total enrollment.

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So that's positive.

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And the new law considers things like the characteristics and special

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the different needs of the students enrolled in a given school district, the percent of
students who live in poverty, and we know that they have fewer resources at home and so

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they need more resources at school, the special education students and the type of special
needs in a given school district, what percent of students have very severe needs that are

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more costly to address versus less severe needs, that sort of thing.

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So there are a variety of additional circumstances for which school districts get
additional funding for the students enrolled in those programs.

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And last year the legislature did fully fund that new school funding formula and that met
an additional $216 million statewide for public schools, which was a very good thing.

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School districts tell us it did shift the burden a little in some school districts, not
all.

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In the school districts with a stronger ad valorem tax base, where it's easier to raise
local taxes, some of the burden for school funding was shifted to more toward the local

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tax base.

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And so local taxpayers are having

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to assume more of the burden for funding their schools than they did under the old
formula.

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That is not the case in the lower wealth school districts.

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Gotcha.

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The old formula was the MAEP, which Mississippi Adequate Education Program.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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Thanks.

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And what is the new system of the funding?

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What is it called?

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It's called the Mississippi Student Funding Formula.

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MSFF.

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Gotcha, thank you.

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Now, how does the, let's talk about school choice and school vouchers a bit.

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How does that affect the funding or the public education?

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How does that affect public education?

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Well, I'm glad you brought that up because school choice is the biggest threat to our
public school system currently.

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And let me say, I think we can all agree that strong public schools are very, very
important to having strong communities.

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Where we have thriving public schools, we have thriving communities.

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And where we have struggling public schools,

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we have struggling communities.

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So strong public schools benefit everyone, all of us.

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Whether or not we have children enrolled in the public schools, having strong public
schools benefits all of us.

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It affects our property values, it affects our crime rates, it affects our average income
and our ability to attract employers.

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So I think we can all agree that everyone, all taxpayers benefit when we have

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strong public schools.

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So with school choice, this is really not a question of whether or not parents have
choices.

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Parents do have choices.

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Parents can choose public schools, they can choose charter schools, they can choose
private schools, they can choose home schools.

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So there are lots of choices out there for parents.

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This is a question of what taxpayers will fund.

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What are we going to ask taxpayers to foot the bill for?

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And tax dollars are intended to benefit the public good.

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They are intended to fund things that are open to all of us and that have some impact on
the public as a whole, not an individual.

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want or an individual benefit, the public good.

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Public schools are public good.

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We just talked about why that is.

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They're open to all children.

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Everybody can participate.

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a better educated citizenry benefits all of us.

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our public school teachers are doing a great job of that right now.

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We talked about that with our really remarkable improvement in student achievement over
the last 10 years.

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Private schools are not, they're not designed to be a public good.

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And let me just say right up front, I have nothing against private schools.

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But it is a fact that private schools are not designed, they're not intended to be a
public good.

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They're not open to all students.

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They are designed to be selective in their admission process and to serve the children
that they believe are

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good fit for their schools.

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That is not a public good.

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We also know that when, for example, when we're thinking about economic development, if a
corporation is thinking about coming into a new community or relocating a plant or

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expanding a plant, almost always they are going to ask how the public schools are doing in
that community.

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They're not going to ask how the private schools are doing.

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They wanna know the quality of the public schools.

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So the school choice legislation that you talked about, even though the school choice
lobby wants people to believe that it is all about parent choice, the truth is that that

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legislation really isn't written that way.

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It is not written to give the ultimate choice to parents.

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It is written to give the final say

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to private schools.

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It is all written from the perspective of the private schools.

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It says that they are not required to disclose to these parents any data about the quality
of the education that they provide, how they spend their funds, how they make their

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decisions, the proficiency rates or...

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absenteeism of the students that they serve, the legislation says that all of that is
private information and they do not need to share it with taxpayers or with parents who

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are considering enrolling their students.

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And so we aren't even talking about giving parents information that they need to make good
choices, let alone any kind of accountability for these schools and yet

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The school choice lobby wants us to use our taxpayer dollars to fund those schools.

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It also says that those schools are not required to admit any student that they don't want
to serve.

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So they are allowed to pick and choose the students that they enroll.

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And so again, it's really not a question of parent choice.

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It's a question of what we want taxpayers to pay for.

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Private schools actually have several means by which they limit the choices of parents.

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For example, we mentioned denying admission.

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They raise tuition beyond what the voucher will cover.

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And certainly that limits the families that would be able to take advantage of a school
choice program.

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Typically private schools do not provide transportation.

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That limits the families that would be able to participate in such a program.

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And many private schools do not offer specific services that families rely on, like
special education services, interventions for struggling students, all those things that

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public schools do provide.

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They're required by law to provide those things.

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And so it's a very unlevel playing field, if you will.

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We believe at the Parents Campaign that any

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school that is going to receive taxpayer dollars ought to operate under the same set of
rules.

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I think most of us would agree that if we were going to start from scratch and craft a
brand new public education system or taxpayer funded education system, very few of us

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would suggest that we should have

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two separate and unequal systems both funded by taxpayers, one held to very high
standards, have a lot of very stringent accountability to make sure they're meeting those

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standards that is publicly available, it's open to all children, and then the other, no
standards required at all.

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no accountability to taxpayers, pick and choose the students that you want, but get the
same funding as the other system.

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Why would we have two systems like that?

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It just doesn't make any sense.

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But that is exactly what the school choice lobby is proposing.

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Fantastic.

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That's some great information.

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know that our viewers really appreciate that because that's lot of that's information, you
know, that we did not know, you know, no accountability.

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They can pick and choose and, you know, the tuition and the funds.

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Okay, all right good.

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Yes.

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Yes, please do.

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Yes, please do.

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school choice states, the states that have embraced the school choice idea and passed this
legislation, overwhelmingly the data show that overwhelmingly those vouchers have gone to

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families whose children already were enrolled in private schools before the voucher laws
were passed.

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We are not talking about

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new choices that new families are making.

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Overwhelmingly, these are parents whose children already were enrolled, they were already
paying that tuition, had the means to pay that tuition, and so all of a sudden these

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states are saddled with a new financial burden to pay the tuition of children who were
already enrolled in private schools to begin with.

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And in some states it is bankrupting them.

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Arizona is a

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example of that where they have had their voucher program is costing them close to a
billion dollars a year.

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all of that, like 75 % of those vouchers are going to parents whose kids were already
enrolled in private schools and they are having to cut other programs and underfund their

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public schools to pay for that.

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And the taxpayers are unhappy about that and a good follow-up to that is to say

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that in every single state that has put that question before their voters, there have been
13 states over the years that have actually had ballot initiatives to ask the voters if

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they want a school choice program.

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Do you want your tax dollars to go to private schools?

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And most recently, there were three states that had that on the ballot in November, this
past November.

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Every single time that question has been on the ballot,

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It has lost overwhelmingly so, including in November when Kentucky, Nebraska, and Colorado
defeated initiatives, school choice initiatives on their ballots.

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Wow, that's interesting.

231
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Thank you.

232
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So is it, read once, I read somewhere where it's unconstitutional, well, in the
Mississippi Constitution, all of those public funds should go to, or are designated for

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public education.

234
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And would that mean that if we take those funds and we give it to private or charter
schools, that's kind of breaking the law?

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Is that fair?

236
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Or how do they get around that if that's been done?

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It's a violation of the Constitution.

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Our state Constitution does prohibit any appropriation of public funds to private schools.

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Unfortunately, you know, it is the legislature does sometimes pass laws that are
unconstitutional and they are allowed to remain in effect until there is a ruling, until

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there's a lawsuit filed and a ruling by the courts that it is in fact unconstitutional.

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There was such a lawsuit filed about some federal ARPA funds, the pandemic funds that were
appropriated for infrastructure and private schools, Parents for Public Schools, which is

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a different organization.

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It is not ours, but they do great work also for public schools, filed a lawsuit about
that.

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The lower courts,

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agreed with Parents for Public Schools that that was a violation of the Constitution.

246
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It went to the State Supreme Court and the State Supreme Court ruled that parents for
public schools did not have standing to bring the lawsuit, that they didn't show that

247
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there was actually harm to their families from that appropriation and therefore they
didn't have standing.

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And so the State Supreme

249
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throughout the lawsuit and refused to rule on it.

250
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Is that the incident where Attorney General Lynn Fitch gave $10 million to charter
schools?

251
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Is that the same thing or different?

252
00:27:01,909 --> 00:27:02,578
Okay.

253
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to private schools, not charter schools.

254
00:27:04,906 --> 00:27:13,684
Okay, for our viewers, what's the difference between a charter school and a private
school?

255
00:27:14,606 --> 00:27:18,670
So the difference in Mississippi, and it varies from one state to the next.

256
00:27:18,670 --> 00:27:24,166
Mississippi actually has probably the strongest charter school law in the country right
now.

257
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Let me say that this is important.

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00:27:25,938 --> 00:27:38,350
There is a bill that is pending in the House, the Mississippi House, that would
substantially weaken our charter school law and make it much easier for

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weak charter schools to be established and weaken the oversight and accountability.

260
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So we hope that that law is defeated because right now our charter school law has pretty
stringent standards for who can open a charter school.

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They have to provide some evidence that they have not only a good plan in place but also a
team in place that has experience serving well.

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children who are coming from a low-performing school or are struggling in some way.

263
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So our current authorizer, the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board, has done a
very good job of adhering to those standards.

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So our current situation is that in Mississippi, our charter schools are held to the same
academic standards as children in our

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traditional public schools.

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They are relieved of a few of the restrictions that public schools must abide by, like
teacher certification and that sort of thing, but they are held to the same academic

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standards and rated the same way through the same accountability program.

268
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So that's important.

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They are allowed to be run by privately selected boards.

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So their boards are not appointed by public officials or elected by the local school
district, the folks who live in the school district.

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They are privately run in that way.

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So that's the primary difference.

273
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Gotcha.

274
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One of the things that I hear from parents who have their kids in private schools, they
say, wait a minute, know, my tax dollars are going to, you know, my tax dollars are going

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to the schools.

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00:29:45,616 --> 00:29:50,458
Why can't I take my money and put it

277
00:29:50,804 --> 00:29:56,886
you know, and why can't I have that money and take that money and put my child into a
private school?

278
00:29:56,886 --> 00:30:01,554
How do you answer that question?

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00:30:02,180 --> 00:30:15,361
that goes back to the public good versus the individual benefit and that our tax dollars
are intended for the public good and that's what public schools provide and those parents

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do benefit from strong public schools.

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00:30:18,343 --> 00:30:27,810
Whether or not we have children enrolled in the public schools, we all benefit from strong
public schools and so even if we don't and you know we

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I probably don't drive on every public road in Mississippi, but my tax dollars go to fund
those roads.

283
00:30:33,598 --> 00:30:41,523
I haven't visited every single state park in Mississippi, but my tax dollars go to benefit
those state parks.

284
00:30:41,523 --> 00:30:51,110
We invest in all sorts of things that we may or may not take advantage of, but they
provide, they are open to all of us and they serve a public good.

285
00:30:51,210 --> 00:30:57,496
And private school vouchers just don't fit that, that

286
00:30:57,496 --> 00:31:02,227
definition, they are not providing a public good, they are not held to the same standards.

287
00:31:02,227 --> 00:31:13,371
If those schools want to meet the same accountability guidelines and be open to every
student and operate under the same rules that our public schools operate under, then let's

288
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have that conversation.

289
00:31:14,991 --> 00:31:25,228
But if they want to close their doors to a majority of students in our state and operate
privately and not disclose,

290
00:31:25,228 --> 00:31:31,066
any accountability data to taxpayers, then they shouldn't be receiving taxpayer dollars.

291
00:31:31,414 --> 00:31:45,703
Gotcha, that's a great answer and I'm happy to say that's an answer that I've also given
to my friends who have kids in private schools.

292
00:31:46,224 --> 00:31:49,885
Let me talk about homeschoolers.

293
00:31:50,951 --> 00:31:52,051
for a minute.

294
00:31:52,051 --> 00:32:04,180
think there was something come up recently maybe in the house that would allow
homeschoolers participating in extracurricular activities.

295
00:32:04,180 --> 00:32:07,061
Tell me about that and tell me about your thoughts.

296
00:32:07,876 --> 00:32:17,109
So there is a bill that would allow homeschool students to participate on sports teams and
other activities in their public schools.

297
00:32:17,109 --> 00:32:19,689
And here is the problem with that.

298
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Again, it just creates a very unlevel playing field.

299
00:32:24,281 --> 00:32:33,853
It puts public school students at a significant disadvantage because of the way that the
bill is written.

300
00:32:34,113 --> 00:32:36,474
So public school students...

301
00:32:36,598 --> 00:32:38,519
are required by law.

302
00:32:38,519 --> 00:32:49,915
This is a law that the legislature, state legislature passed that students must maintain a
2.0 grade point average to be able to participate in public school activities.

303
00:32:49,915 --> 00:33:00,091
And they said that it was very important for the quality of education to be the top
priority for our students.

304
00:33:00,091 --> 00:33:05,518
And so they wanted to make sure that students weren't just going to school and having fun.

305
00:33:05,518 --> 00:33:16,747
with inactivities that they were actually coming to school and being present and learning
well and maintaining that 2.0 grade point average.

306
00:33:16,868 --> 00:33:29,089
Well, the bill says that homeschoolers, so this bill basically says kids could drop out of
school, stay home, and that to meet that grade point average stipulation that their

307
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parents could submit a portfolio of work.

308
00:33:33,778 --> 00:33:42,426
to demonstrate that their children were maintaining a 2.0 grade point average.

309
00:33:42,426 --> 00:33:57,078
you know, you don't have to think very far down that road to know that it wouldn't take
long at all for folks to start shopping around portfolios that these parents could use and

310
00:33:57,078 --> 00:33:58,579
give their kids.

311
00:33:58,579 --> 00:34:02,196
Mom and Dad are in charge of the grades and so give their kids.

312
00:34:02,196 --> 00:34:07,527
A's and B's on all their work and turn that in and say, look how great my child is doing.

313
00:34:07,527 --> 00:34:09,628
He should be able to participate.

314
00:34:09,628 --> 00:34:21,711
It also puts the burden on the principal in the school to evaluate every one of those
portfolios, determine the integrity of it, whether or not it is actually the work of the

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00:34:21,711 --> 00:34:31,722
child being homeschooled and whether or not it meets the same level, the same academic
standards and rigor.

316
00:34:31,722 --> 00:34:33,313
of the public school students.

317
00:34:33,313 --> 00:34:38,926
So it's a tremendous administrative burden on public schools.

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then additionally, creates, the law itself creates a new class of discrimination for
homeschoolers.

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00:34:50,732 --> 00:35:01,338
It says homeschool students may not be discriminated against in the selection of
interscholastic teams.

320
00:35:01,496 --> 00:35:08,650
So our athletic teams would be giving preferential treatment to the children at home.

321
00:35:08,650 --> 00:35:22,278
And one of our superintendents gave a great example of how it puts public school students
at a disadvantage when you have that sort of situation.

322
00:35:22,278 --> 00:35:30,626
He said, this was a metro area superintendent, he said, we went and played in a
tournament.

323
00:35:30,626 --> 00:35:32,367
in Tupelo the other night.

324
00:35:32,367 --> 00:35:41,655
And so our kids didn't get home until one o'clock in the morning because they were playing
basketball hours at a school hours away.

325
00:35:41,655 --> 00:35:44,697
But they had to be in school the next morning.

326
00:35:45,258 --> 00:35:50,502
And the homeschool kids, you know, they could stay home and sleep all day long if they
wanted to.

327
00:35:50,502 --> 00:35:58,969
So it is just, again, creating different rules for different kids.

328
00:36:01,454 --> 00:36:09,371
giving the preferential treatment to children who are not enrolled in our public school
system.

329
00:36:09,371 --> 00:36:20,871
you know, obviously those kids would be more than welcome to enroll in our public school
and participate in all of the wonderful things that our public schools have to offer them.

330
00:36:20,871 --> 00:36:29,856
But to create special treatment for them, to operate under a completely different set of
rules, just isn't fair.

331
00:36:29,856 --> 00:36:37,311
Yeah, I would think it'd also be a tremendous disadvantage for a coach.

332
00:36:37,451 --> 00:36:41,154
You know, a coach, you know, he's he's in the public schools.

333
00:36:41,154 --> 00:36:42,295
He's teaching.

334
00:36:42,295 --> 00:36:48,899
He has that interaction and he knows those particular public school students.

335
00:36:48,959 --> 00:36:59,346
And then all of a sudden there's these other kids and he's got to build that relationship
and build that trust and.

336
00:36:59,922 --> 00:37:05,795
I would think that that would be a burden on the coaches.

337
00:37:05,795 --> 00:37:11,267
And as you said, you brought up the issues with the principals.

338
00:37:11,267 --> 00:37:16,749
that's great information and thank you for sharing that.

339
00:37:17,490 --> 00:37:19,410
Let me ask you this.

340
00:37:20,111 --> 00:37:27,234
What would you like to see from our Mississippi lawmakers?

341
00:37:29,795 --> 00:37:31,406
Well, let me say this too.

342
00:37:31,406 --> 00:37:34,959
I think sometimes our lawmakers get a little bit of a bad rap.

343
00:37:35,099 --> 00:37:46,288
Overwhelmingly, we are seeing strong support for public schools from lawmakers on both
sides of the aisle in both chambers.

344
00:37:46,288 --> 00:37:51,812
We know that we have great support from lawmakers for public schools.

345
00:37:51,813 --> 00:37:58,094
Sometimes they get a lot of pressure from just a couple of individuals.

346
00:37:58,094 --> 00:38:00,425
you know, to vote one way or another on these bills.

347
00:38:00,425 --> 00:38:15,041
And that is why it is so important that we speak up, that the parents and the citizens and
voters in our communities speak up and let these folks know what is important to us.

348
00:38:15,041 --> 00:38:27,776
Because if we don't speak up, you can bet that that school choice lobby has established a
very strong presence in Mississippi, and they are well funded.

349
00:38:27,962 --> 00:38:32,902
And so you can bet that they've got folks speaking up.

350
00:38:32,902 --> 00:38:43,282
And if we don't, then it gives the false impression that there are more people who would
side with the school choice lobby than with public schools.

351
00:38:43,282 --> 00:38:46,782
And that is absolutely false.

352
00:38:47,562 --> 00:38:55,342
Overwhelmingly, the majority, I mean, we've got like close to 90 % of Mississippi's
children who are enrolled in our public schools.

353
00:38:55,622 --> 00:38:57,882
And those people,

354
00:38:59,034 --> 00:39:03,896
Parents don't want their children going to school somewhere in another community.

355
00:39:03,896 --> 00:39:07,408
They want strong public schools in their own communities.

356
00:39:07,408 --> 00:39:11,179
They want their communities to be strong.

357
00:39:11,279 --> 00:39:19,863
And so what we want is for legislators to hear from us and then to vote in alignment with
that.

358
00:39:20,523 --> 00:39:25,074
I think we're going to get there in most cases.

359
00:39:25,074 --> 00:39:27,366
I feel good about that.

360
00:39:27,406 --> 00:39:36,342
But it is incumbent upon us to make those phone calls and to make sure that our
legislators know how we feel about those things.

361
00:39:36,342 --> 00:39:36,732
Got it.

362
00:39:36,732 --> 00:39:49,679
That's a great segue to, and you kind of answered that question, is what would you like to
see from parents and supporters of public education?

363
00:39:49,679 --> 00:39:51,390
We talked about the lawmakers.

364
00:39:51,390 --> 00:39:58,114
And so what do we as parents and grandparents, what can we do?

365
00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:08,518
You know, it is so important that we help lawmakers understand what things actually will
help.

366
00:40:08,518 --> 00:40:09,954
We do have some struggling schools.

367
00:40:09,954 --> 00:40:14,763
mean, Mississippi, have very few struggling school districts overall.

368
00:40:14,763 --> 00:40:18,986
We have, I think, two F-rated school districts in the state now out of 140.

369
00:40:18,986 --> 00:40:25,572
And so, you know, most of our school districts really are doing very, very well.

370
00:40:25,572 --> 00:40:28,974
But we do have a few, some struggling schools.

371
00:40:28,974 --> 00:40:41,647
And it is incumbent upon the legislature to improve those schools, help those schools get
what they need to improve so that all of those students can have great schools.

372
00:40:41,647 --> 00:40:53,628
mean, rather than crafting some school choice legislation that will allow two or three of
them to leave, why wouldn't we just do the things that we know will improve the school for

373
00:40:53,628 --> 00:40:54,789
all children?

374
00:40:54,789 --> 00:40:57,089
And here are some of those things that would help.

375
00:40:58,118 --> 00:41:11,765
Every student deserves a great facility to learn in, but we know that some communities do
not have the kind of local tax base to be able to build or repair their school facilities.

376
00:41:12,866 --> 00:41:17,979
But right now, we have no state funding at all going to facilities.

377
00:41:17,979 --> 00:41:24,032
That is completely up to the local taxpayers to provide school facilities for their
children.

378
00:41:24,032 --> 00:41:27,694
So let's, if we've got extra money to spend,

379
00:41:28,166 --> 00:41:42,440
let in the state or to reduce our revenue by cutting income taxes, then if you think we've
got too much money, then the state should be ensuring that every single child has a great

380
00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:44,130
facility to learn in.

381
00:41:44,130 --> 00:41:48,993
We should make sure that struggling schools have dedicated literacy and math coaches.

382
00:41:48,993 --> 00:41:54,266
We have absolutely proven in Mississippi that that is a way to improve literacy and math.

383
00:41:54,266 --> 00:41:56,106
And so we know it works.

384
00:41:56,106 --> 00:41:59,166
Let's invest more in literacy and math coaches.

385
00:42:00,066 --> 00:42:07,086
The teacher shortage is real, especially in some of our very, very rural school districts.

386
00:42:07,086 --> 00:42:15,046
So where we have struggling schools, let's pay teachers more to go teach in those
struggling schools.

387
00:42:15,046 --> 00:42:23,098
And I'm not talking about $2,000 a year more because nobody is going to move to a
different community for $2,000 a year.

388
00:42:23,098 --> 00:42:28,578
We're talking about a $10,000 a year supplement for teaching in a struggling school.

389
00:42:28,578 --> 00:42:35,398
High quality after school programs for children to go after school and mom and dad are
working two or three jobs.

390
00:42:35,398 --> 00:42:41,698
Let's have a great safe place for kids to go to get help with homework, tutoring, that
sort of thing.

391
00:42:41,698 --> 00:42:45,798
These are all things that are proven to work.

392
00:42:45,798 --> 00:42:48,498
Here's what is proven not to work.

393
00:42:48,578 --> 00:42:49,838
School choice.

394
00:42:50,318 --> 00:42:52,558
I mentioned earlier,

395
00:42:52,886 --> 00:42:57,830
Mississippi's recent test scores and how well we're doing.

396
00:42:58,891 --> 00:43:05,616
What your listeners need to understand is how poorly school choice states are doing.

397
00:43:06,137 --> 00:43:08,319
All of them are moving backward.

398
00:43:08,319 --> 00:43:17,105
Why would we think that we can improve our states by implementing policies that are taking
other states backward?

399
00:43:17,206 --> 00:43:22,914
So what we want moms and dads and concerned citizens to do

400
00:43:22,914 --> 00:43:31,339
is to help legislators understand the things that really will help all children in
Mississippi.

401
00:43:31,560 --> 00:43:41,427
Great facilities, dedicated literacy and math coaches, high quality teachers in every
single classroom, and that's probably going to take some significant supplements for

402
00:43:41,427 --> 00:43:46,650
teaching in struggling schools, and high quality after school programs.

403
00:43:46,650 --> 00:43:48,692
Let's invest in those things.

404
00:43:48,692 --> 00:43:52,354
And I think if we help to plant those seeds,

405
00:43:52,354 --> 00:44:06,840
and they keep hearing that from their voters back home, we can get there and just imagine
where Mississippi will end up in our national rankings if we do those things.

406
00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:09,581
We can be first in everything.

407
00:44:10,242 --> 00:44:11,572
That's what we want.

408
00:44:11,720 --> 00:44:13,391
Absolutely, absolutely.

409
00:44:13,391 --> 00:44:28,943
Nancy, this has been such a pleasure to talk to you and to let, we share your passion, and
I, and we share your passion for public education.

410
00:44:28,943 --> 00:44:32,926
And we thank you so much for being with us today.

411
00:44:32,926 --> 00:44:37,789
Now, remind me, what is your website?

412
00:44:38,690 --> 00:44:48,137
So people can find us either by Googling the Parents Campaign or by going to
msparentscampaign.org.

413
00:44:49,174 --> 00:44:50,393
Fantastic, thank you.

414
00:44:50,393 --> 00:44:52,450
Thank you so much for that.

415
00:44:52,450 --> 00:44:57,250
I also want to thank our subscribers and our supporters.

416
00:44:57,870 --> 00:45:04,610
Today I wanted to talk about Alley Ejlali He is with Alpha Insurance in Olive Branch.

417
00:45:04,610 --> 00:45:08,970
He can help you for all types of your insurance coverage.

418
00:45:08,970 --> 00:45:14,150
He is headquartered in Islet Branch but can help you throughout the state.

419
00:45:14,170 --> 00:45:19,390
And he can be reached at 662-893-0928.

420
00:45:19,390 --> 00:45:22,436
If you would like a contact list of the Mississippi

421
00:45:22,436 --> 00:45:31,143
lawmakers, you can email me at mshappenings1 at gmail.com.

422
00:45:31,143 --> 00:45:37,798
That's Mississippi Happenings and the number one at gmail.com.

423
00:45:37,798 --> 00:45:46,094
And also if you've got some questions, comments, and some ideas for discussions that you
would like to talk about.

424
00:45:46,220 --> 00:45:49,516
Please send me an email.

425
00:45:49,879 --> 00:45:52,383
As usual, we want to...

426
00:45:52,946 --> 00:45:56,433
Jim, have you got anything you want to say in closing?

427
00:45:57,483 --> 00:46:00,129
I don't think so, think Nancy's covered it all.

428
00:46:01,182 --> 00:46:02,424
Okay, good.

429
00:46:02,424 --> 00:46:06,929
Okay, as usual, we want to leave you with this message.

430
00:46:07,431 --> 00:46:13,237
May we never be indifferent to the suffering of others.

431
00:46:13,418 --> 00:46:13,929
Thank you.