It’s time for public school supporters to act! The voucher lobby is targeting Mississippi, putting our public schools and our local communities at risk.
Mississippi has been spared the devastating effect of the “school choice” debacle because our legislators have for years bravely resisted the intimidation tactics of voucher proponents. Now, the antics of the “school choice” crowd are ramping up, and our legislators need to know they are not alone in this fight – we are standing with them!
Multiple sources say Gov. Reeves wants to call a special session in October with a plan to force vouchers into our state by packaging “school choice” with a teacher pay raise and PERS legislation, in essence holding public school teachers and state employees hostage and demanding a “school choice” ransom payment. Mississippians aren’t buying it. They know that legislators can (and voters expect them to) pass a teacher pay raise and a fix for PERS without undermining public schools with the school choice fiasco.
The out-of-state voucher lobby has called in its billionaires to back the school choice game plan. I’m told our legislators are being threatened with well-funded opponents in the next election if they oppose the scheme and offered state-funded projects for their legislative districts for a yes-vote on vouchers. We cannot be silent. It’s time to rally public education supporters across the state to stand up and speak out in support of our pro-public school legislators and against school choice.
Pearl Superintendent Chris Chism has a plan to do just that – a 5 for 5 strategy to ensure that Mississippians who love the public schools that are the heart of their communities (the overwhelming majority of our citizens!) understand the threat and how to help.
The idea is to share with people across Mississippi – 5 people at a time – the dangers of vouchers and threats against our own legislators, our public schools, and our local communities. Imagine the impact we can have if we each talk to: 5 PEOPLE who talk to 5 PEOPLE who talk to 5 MORE PEOPLE for 5 WEEKS.
Here’s how you can do your part:
- Share a “school choice” fact with 5 friends today (see facts below)
- Ask that each of those 5 friends reach out to 5 of their own friends to share the dangers of school choice
- Repeat with 5 more friends next week and so on for 5 weeks
- Post the 5 for 5 graphic on your own social media and challenge others to join the effort
Momentum is on our side! Municipal boards have begun to weigh in. The Clinton and Pearl Boards of Aldermen have passed resolutions opposing public and private school choice and urging their own legislative delegations, the Mississippi Legislature, and Governor Reeves to oppose school choice and to invest in strengthening public schools. Other cities are considering resolutions, as well. Ask your municipal and county boards to do the same! You can see Clinton’s resolution here and Pearl’s resolution here.
Our positions are based on the answer to one simple question: Will this help or harm more children? With “school choice,” it isn’t even close: far, far more children would be harmed. What a blessing it is that so many Mississippi moms, dads, grandparents, teachers – even municipal boards – are fighting so hard to stop the assault on our public schools. Thank you, a million times thank you, for your part in that most worthy cause. Together, we’ve got this!
Share these “school choice” facts as you talk to others:
- School choice gives the choice to private schools, not parents – private schools can take state funding and keep denying admission to kids they don’t want
- Private voucher schools keep low-income kids out by charging tuition beyond what the voucher covers – non-public school leaders say privately they plan to raise tuition if voucher legislation passes
- Mississippi, saying no to vouchers, has seen our national reading scores grow by the equivalent of a full academic year in the last decade, while every single one of the states named by EdChoice as a “Top 10 School Choice” state has seen its national test scores decline (see that graph)
- Vouchers have been shown to have a worse negative impact on student achievement than natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the COVID pandemic (see graph and report)
- In states with broad voucher programs, the vast majority of vouchers go to students who already were enrolled in private schools; Speaker White says he plans to start small, then expand vouchers to all Mississippi children, costing taxpayers more than $350-million just for vouchers for the 10% of Mississippi children already enrolled in private schools
- School choice is highly unpopular across the country; every time vouchers have been on a statewide ballot in any state, they have been defeated, most recently last November in Colorado, Kentucky, and Nebraska
