Archive for February 2022
Parents win again, this time in San Francisco
A special election in San Francisco yesterday saw three members of the school board get booted. The issue? Parental dissatisfaction over local school policies in response to COVID. It seems like we’ve seen this before. Because this isn’t much different than the story in light-blue Virginia where Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe infamously said parents…
Read MoreLegislative update: Deadlines and missed opportunities
The legislature is a creature of deadlines. Last Thursday was an important one. Any general bill that had been voted out of a House or Senate committee had to be passed off of the floor of that chamber or die for the session. In recent weeks, we’ve highlighted many bills working their way through the…
Read More“The students of the State of Mississippi are starving for innovation”
“The students of the State of Mississippi are starving for innovation.” That’s what Dr. Todd English, Superintendent of the Booneville School District sees as his district plans for the future of education. Booneville is one of 11 school districts that hold a District of Innovation status with the state. “We’ve applied for renewal of our…
Read MoreMississippi can open the door to home-based businesses
As Mississippi continues to grapple with a declining population and stagnant economic prospects, the state needs to look at the overall business environment and what is helping or hurting economic growth and job creation. One of the biggest problems is that government is often slow to adapt to the changing economy. Or the immediate reaction…
Read MoreTalking House and Senate tax proposals
Empower President Russ Latino recently provided an in-depth look at the tax proposals from the House and Senate, and what each plan would mean for Mississippians on SuperTalk. “Do we believe that people need relief? I would argue that there is clear evidence that they do. Do we believe that the money people earned belongs…
Read MoreMississippi legislature: Week 6 recap
We are now six weeks into the 2022 legislative session, and the focus will soon turn to appropriations and revenue bills. This week, lawmakers faced their latest deadline: to pass bills originating in their own chamber. The prior week, most bills introduced this year died when they weren’t taken up by the committee they were…
Read MoreLegislation to ensure students can engage in political activity clears House
Legislation that will ensure students in Mississippi are free to engage in political activity cleared the House of Representatives today. House Bill 1416, sponsored by Rep. Kent McCarty, is known as the Student Protected Equal Access Rights Act. The bill would allow for Students to organize partisan or nonpartisan political groups, political clubs, political rallies,…
Read MoreSenate adopts District of Innovation task force
The Senate adopted a commonsense first step to ensuring local schools have the freedom and support they need to be innovative in the classroom yesterday. Senate Bill 2428, sponsored by Sen. Dennis DeBar, would create a District of Innovation task force. School districts that are part of the District of Innovation program are available to…
Read MoreMississippi’s digital learning opportunity is here
As every school in the state was shut down at the beginning of the pandemic, we quickly realized the state did not have the infrastructure in place for online learning. To their credit, schools tried to adopt and provide students with the necessary educational materials to finish out the spring of 2020, but we did…
Read MoreThe future is now for education
Before COVID-19 darkened the schoolhouse door, Mississippi’s students and teachers had a lot to be proud of in the classroom. Between 2009-2019, Mississippi’s growth on National Assessment of Educational Progress testing led the nation, our graduation rates surpassed the national average, and our innovative strides in literacy drew national praise. Credit for these laudable gains belongs to Mississippi’s students, their families, and their teachers. While…
Read MoreComparing House and Senate tax proposals
For the last year or so, the state of Mississippi has been abuzz with the idea of eliminating the income tax. Gov. Tate Reeves has named it a top priority. The Mississippi House of Representatives has twice passed a proposal to do so and we have explained and evaluated the impact of the most recent…
Read MoreMississippi legislature: Week 5 recap
The legislature completed the fifth week of the 2022 session and both chambers were busy passing mostly non-controversial bills off the floor after Tuesday’s deadline for bills to advance. The biggest story of the week is probably Gov. Tate Reeves signing the medical marijuana program, which he outlined several problems with it in the lead…
Read More