PICAYUNE —
Both my grandfather and father were huge supporters of education in Mississippi. My grandfather, Oliver Emmerich, served for years on the state board of higher education. My father, John Emmerich, worked closely with Gov. William Winter to help secure the passage of the education reform act of 1982. John Emmerich sat by Winter’s side in the governor’s office as they called every single legislator in for an individual plea for support. It worked.
Rep. Linda Whittington from Greenwood, one of my dearest friends who for years lived with my mother during the legislative session, was caught in the recent crossfire of the education controversy. Speaker Phillip Gunn removed her from the House education committee because she opposed some of the reforms. Linda and I had spent many late night debates on education reform.
So it is not lightly that I take this position, but I wholeheartedly support the Republican efforts to shake up our educational system and try something new.
“Our public education system is a lie.” Those were the words of James Meredith as he sat in my office a few months ago. I wanted to talk about his days at Ole Miss, but he wanted to talk about reforming public education in Mississippi. It is imperative to the future of our state, he told me.
A tree farmer, Meredith had been able to send his children to private school where they succeeded greatly. But with many grandchildren, some entered the public schools. He has been shocked and disappointed.
One thing I remember about my father, John Emmerich: He was never one to stick to a losing plan. If something wasn’t working, he was willing to try something new. Shortly before his death, we discussed the emerging issue of school choice. His position: “It makes sense. There is no reason to oppose it.”
Things move slowly in Mississippi. Now 17 years later, we are on the precipice of public vouchers, school choice and charter schools. There is one common theme running through all of these innovations: competition.
Where would we be without competition? How good would the Alabama football team be without competition? How good would the best restaurants in Mississippi be without competition? Competition is the missing ingredient in our school system. We are handicapping our children by perpetuating a huge, bloated, inefficient government monopoly to teach our children.
Our neighboring state Louisiana, meanwhile, has been a model of innovative ideas. Louisiana has 90 charter schools. In New Orleans, 71 percent of students are in charter schools.
A recent editorial in the New Orleans Times-Picayune praised the success of these schools, noting that test scores and graduation rates have improved rapidly with the introduction of competition. The editorial concluded with this statement: “The improvement is undeniable. And that could be life-changing for these students, for their families and for our community.”
The supporters of public education’s existing monopoly mean well. Just like the Russian communists, they believe having one big system is more efficient. They believe that central planners can design a better system and push it down the system. But they are wrong.
The best system comes from the bottom up, not the top down. It is the parents and children making personal decisions as to their own best interests that will improve education, not countless education administrators telling parents what they need.
The initial legislative moves are baby steps that will have minimal impact on our huge government bureaucracy. Something is better than nothing.
But to truly transform education - and it needs transforming - much more sweeping changes will be necessary. We need to dismantle the behemoth and replace it with a diverse and competitive system based on competition and parental choice.
Government’s role should be to certify schools so that they meet a reasonable standard. Government should not have a monopoly on the teaching of students using public funds.
With two children in alternative schools, I know. School choice is not about skimming the cream off the top. It is about providing alternative, publicly-funded education environments for the 30 percent of children for whom the mainstream school does not work.
Right now, we are losing these children. Our dropout rate is 40 percent - a horrible figure. One size does not fit all. Let’s create some new sizes.
Columns
Education stance
- Columns
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Hood’s ‘open carry’ ruling strikes important balances
Attorney General Jim Hood’s office issued an opinion this week that went a long way toward establishing some order and applying some common sense to what has become a contentious and confusing debate both for proponents and opponents of free exercise of the Second Amendment.
House Bill 2, which becomes law July 1, was authored and led to passage by state Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton. Gipson has told the press that he believed the legislation was necessary to clearly define what a concealed weapon is under the law and to distinguish between “concealed carry” and “open carry” rights. But many law enforcement officers charged with enforcing the state’s “concealed carry” law and other contradictory statutes, the bill created some confusion and Hood’s AG opinion brought some clarity to the ongoing debate. -
The Loss of Trust
Amid all the heated cross-currents of debate about the National Security Agency’s massive surveillance program, there is a growing distrust of the Obama administration that makes weighing the costs and benefits of the NSA program itself hard to assess. The belated recognition of this administration’s contempt for the truth, for the American people and for the Constitution of the United States, has been long overdue.
- Vocability Words can be both familiar and extremely confusing when taken from their usual context. Ask any wine enthusiast about legs, fat or bricks and they may assume you are speaking “Vinonese.” Ok — I made that word up; but the language of wine does indeed include legs, fat and brix which have entirely different meanings from what you might assume. Working with definitions from http://www.wineschool.com/vocabulary.html, try your basic knowledge of “Vinonese.”
- Vocability Words can set a tone for a situation, alter someone’s perception of an individual or group — in short, there is power in them. The Bible cautions, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue...” — Proverbs in 18:21, ASB. With that in mind, I will be focusing on words, some recently used and some obscure, to test the readers and build on what you already know. There will be theme weeks, for instance next week will focus on words involving wine — for no particular reason! So try your vocabulary skills with the following and see how you score. I’m always open to suggestions for material.
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A hard rain is gonna fall...
By Kathryn Jean Lopez/Syndicated columnist
After disappearing during his term in office and bringing scandal to his family and state, former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford is going to Washington, having won election to Congress. And that’s far from the worst story reflecting the current character of our nation.
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Not your mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal
By Rheta Grimsely Johnson/Syndicated columnist
I haven’t seen the Ladies’ Home Journal in about a million years, except maybe in the dentist’s office when I was trying to avoid a television permanently set on Fox News.
Somebody’s grandchild was selling magazines for a school project, and Ladies’ Home Journal was the only one on the list I recognized. Now it comes to the house.
Let’s just say: It’s not my mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal. This month, right behind a feature called “A Country of People Who Never Stop Eating” is one called “Nice Girls Do Get Tattoos.” -
Health care market needs oversight
By Gene Lyons/Syndicated columnist
Sometimes the best journalism explains what’s right under our noses. In Steven Brill’s exhaustive Time magazine cover article, “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us,” it’s the staggeringly expensive, grotesquely inefficient and inhumane way Americans pay for medical care.
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VA’s appalling failures not recent
By Sid Salter/Syndicated columnist
While recent national press attention to ongoing problems at Mississippi’s G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery Veterans Administration Medical Center in Jackson is welcome and needed, the failures of the overall VA service apparatus in Mississippi are not recent problems.
In short, former U.S. Rep. Sonny Montgomery — Mississippi’s “Mr. Veteran” and author of the modern G.I. Bill that bears his name — must be spinning in his grave. There have been significant failures and poor service to veterans documented by state and local media since 2008. -
Dolley Madison politically savvy
By Cokie and Steven V. Roberts/Syndicated columnists
When Dolley Payne Madison became first lady in 1809, she instituted Wednesday evening gatherings at the White House where political rivals could meet and talk. They were called “squeezes” because so many people showed up and crowded the room. As Cokie wrote in her book “Ladies of Liberty": “All were welcome as long as they were appropriately dressed. And all went — skipping a Wednesday night might mean missing a vital piece of political information or being left out of a crucial deal.”
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Mississippi isn’t immune from national college tuition trends
By Sid Salter/Syndicated columnist
Higher education in Mississippi has not been immune from national trends cited in a recent Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report which concludes that over the last five years, the global economic downturn and a “no new taxes” political climate have increasingly shifted the burden of higher education finance to students and parents at a time when enrollment is increasing and the percentage of state support is decreasing. - More Columns Headlines
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