It would be hard to not have heard about several statistics that state a higher education leads to better paying jobs.

It appears that Mississippi’s Governor Phil Bryant has read those statistics, because he has posed an interesting idea for the next fiscal year.

His idea is to take about $7 million in state funding and establish a new program called the Mississippi Works Scholars Program.

It would provide free community college classes to an undetermined amount of people. His idea is that if the state can educate more people, it would lead to more higher paying jobs, providing a booster shot to the state’s economy.

The Mississippi Works Scholars Program is interesting to say the least, and while there is no guarantee other state lawmakers will back it to the degree it becomes reality, if implemented it could very well be the program that helps our state in a number of ways.

By providing a path to a better job to hundreds of thousands of Mississippi residents, there’s no doubt that the increase in jobs will help our state benefit in a number of ways.

Not only would locals be able to find a job that pays a decent wage, it will mean increased income and sales taxes as those people seek out better homes, better cars and purchase other goods and services.  Additionally, when people make more money, they need less financial assistance, in turn lessening the burden on the nation’s public assistance programs.

This move could also be an impetus to bringing our state out of the top of so many rankings, including obesity rates, low graduation rates and so on.  It’s our hope that Bryant’s plan to provide some sort of free educational program to Mississippi residents becomes a reality. Even if his current plan is voted down, some sort of compromise could achieve many of the same benefits.