Some 67 years ago, three years before the historic Brown vs. Board ruling desegregating public schools in America, the Franciscan Friars of the Assumption BVM Province, Franklin, Wisconsin in collaboration with the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis, Garfield Heights, Ohio opened a Catholic school in Greenwood, Mississippi. The mission?…

100 miles. Each day. That’s the drive for Kim Bolan every weekday to the 3-D School in Petal from her home in northern Wayne County near the Desoto National Forest. It’s not an easy drive. It’s not a drive most parents would like to make each day. But Kim does it so her son with…

Amanda Felder has always wanted the best for her son Max. When he was younger, that meant paying for private school tuition at Magnolia Speech School. It also meant a yearlong transition in a smaller private school. And today, it means attending his local district school. We visited with Amanda two years ago. At the…

Because of the Education Scholarship Account program, Scott and Monique Pietrowski were able to choose the right school and education tools for their child. Their son Logan, who is now 14 years old, was diagnosed with autism in 2010. As you would imagine, their seven-year journey since then has been one of highs and lows,…

Erica Howard lives less than a mile from her local district school in the school zone she intentionally moved into. In the city that she is paying higher taxes to live in. For a house she dipped into her retirement savings to afford. This was the right thing to do. After all, in a part…

“We were not going be those people” was how Tracy Craig summed up her thoughts on homeschooling when her oldest child first entered school. The Craigs weren’t sure what school or schools their children would attend, they just knew homeschooling was off the table. But as it often does, life has a way of interfering…

As you leave Cleveland and head toward the Mississippi River, you will go through the town of Pace. The expression, “Blink and you’ll miss it,” often gets overused when talking about small towns but it will certainly suffice when talking about this town in Bolivar County. Pace is small in size, less than a quarter…

In October, 15 school districts across the state celebrated the release of the latest accountability system ratings with an “A” rating. And for good reason. Across the country, families move into specific neighborhoods for specific district schools. Families are generally willing to pay higher housing prices or higher taxes for these coveted “free” schools. And…

As you approach Bolivar County, driving past the fields that produce cotton, soybeans, rice, corn, and catfish, you enter the city of Cleveland, a college town that doesn’t really feel like a college town. Cleveland is in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, a region that introduced America to blues music and served as a…

This week I had the privilege of attending parent orientation for the inaugural class at the 3-D School in Ocean Springs. The school, which is entering its tenth year at its original location in Petal, is growing (and expanding) because of demand from parents and school choice policies enacted by the legislature. The 3-D School…