A big education revolution is headed toward Mississippi.
Imagine if you could send your children to any school you wanted to, public or private. The state would give you $9,000 a year per child to do so.
If you liked the public school, you could use your $9,000 to send your child there. If not, you could send them to another school, public or private.
It’s called “education freedom,” or “education vouchers,” or “universal school choice.” It’s been a long time coming but it’s finally here. Nine states have already adopted it including Arkansas, Florida, Arizona, Indiana, Iowa, Oklahoma, Utah, Montana and Idaho. Louisiana is on the cusp of joining the education freedom states. Dozens of other states are actively in the process of passing similar legislation. It’s a landslide.
So what happened? Vouchers and charter schools have been around for decades with dozens of states experimenting with pilot programs.
In a word, Covid 19. Public schools and teachers’ unions took a huge hit during Covid 19 when they shut down and refused to open well beyond reasonability. Children fell behind. Parents were infuriated. Meanwhile, private schools stayed open.
The genie is out of the bottle now. This watershed is coming fast. Given Mississippi’s Republican dominated government, expect Mississippi to be right behind Arkansas in adopting universal school choice.
This will be transformative in many ways, spurring economic development in the Delta and Jackson — two areas where public schools have performed poorly.
It’s well known that young parents move to Madison and Rankin counties for the free tuition offered by public schools. Many of these parents would rather save money than to spend it on private schools. They won’t live in Jackson because of the bad schools. So Jackson loses population.
If these parents were given $9,000 a year and allowed to use it for Jackson Prep, Jackson Academy, St. Andrew’s and many other good private schools, they would be far more likely to live in Jackson.
The same is true in the Delta, which once had a strong middle class. But as the schools failed, families migrated to Madison, Rankin, DeSoto counties and other areas that offered better public schools. They had no choice.
But if parents could send their children to a charter school or a private school and not be trapped in a bad school, then the Delta population might stabilize or even recover.
Education freedom could also promote greater racial diversity in our schools. Currently, our schools are as segregated as they were back in the 1950s, despite a huge government effort to forcefully integrate our public schools. The only difference now is that a huge number of parents have had to move or pay for private schools out of their own pocket. This is not fair.
It would be one thing if these public schools were excellent with great teachers, high academic standards, strict discipline and safe halls. But this is not the case. It’s hard to call a parent a racist just because they want their children to be safe and properly educated.
The desire for good safe schools is not exclusive to one race or the other. Black and white parents are going to want what’s best for their children. If they were free to do so without financially devastating the family, you would see a lot more integration in private and charter schools.
The centuries old concept of a government school monopoly is obsolete. Times have changed. Our economy is strong enough to support a diversity of schools, customized to the needs of the specific child. One size does not fit all.
For instance, there has been a huge rise in autism and ADHD. These disabilities require specialized education techniques. With education freedom parents could find the best fit for their child.
Another reason, way back when, for government schools was to homogenize young people into the American culture, the English language in particular. This too is obsolete. Modern media far exceeds the ability of schools to institutionalize American culture into young people.
Competition is the key to any success. Imagine how good a football team would be without competition. Our public schools need to compete and get better. The teachers’ unions may not like it at first, but in the long run it will improve our public schools.
A good public school has nothing to fear from education freedom. There is no reason for a parent to leave a good public school. But the bad ones will have to improve or lose their funding. That’s the way it should be. No parent or child should be trapped in a bad public school.
In fact, education freedom will actually help public schools that lose students by increasing their per pupil funding. The $9,000 per pupil voucher amount that will follow students doesn’t include local millage funding nor federal funding. That will stay with the public schools, so if a school loses students, its money per student will actually increase which will help the school turn around.
There are some who say our state constitution prohibits education freedom. Legal experts dispute that. The money is not going to private schools but to parents. That’s a crucial distinction that will allow education freedom to pass legal muster in Mississippi. Existing state case law reinforces this view.
And with all deference to my friend Luther Munford who opposes school choice, parents won’t be sending their children to wiccan schools. There will be standards and regulations for eligible schools. There is very little in our free market that is not subject to government regulation.
My father, John O. Emmerich Jr. was a huge proponent of better education. He wrote hundreds of editorials on this subject. When Governor William Winter passed the historic Education Reform Act in Mississippi in 1982, my father sat by his side in the governor’s mansion as they brought every single state legislator in for a persuasion session.
I remember discussing school choice with my father shortly before he passed away in 1995. His viewpoint: It’s probably a good idea and will ultimately improve education in Mississippi. That was 28 years ago. It’s been a long time coming.
