Last week I began a theoretical discourse about what I would say if I were appointed the Mississippi superintendent of education. This week I conclude my thoughts about what I would share with the public about what our state needs to succeed:
“In addition to more accountability and appreciation for the noble profession of teaching, we must invest more in public education. I cannot make the Legislature to do this, but I promise to do everything in my power to show our elected leaders that spending that money will be a wise use of your dollars. My approach will be dogged but not adversarial; I realize legislators are constrained by limited resources and face difficult choices. I will promise them that the funds will go directly to the classroom and that there will be true accountability for the outcomes. I believe if shown this to be the truth, they will provide an adequate amount for our schools, which we can all agree has not been done by the state’s own standards. This can change, and it starts with a will to make it so.
“Finally, I want to plainly and openly state my top goal: To increase the academic achievement among impoverished, black students. If we can do that, every citizen of this state will benefit, and we can be an example for the rest of the nation to follow.
“Like most of you, I’ve heard the whispers in back rooms among business and political leaders: ‘Well, if we didn’t count the Delta, Mississippi’s academic rankings nationally would be just fine.’ And I know exactly what you mean when you say that: If we didn’t have to count black children in the education measurements (because the Delta public schools are almost 100% black), then everything would be great, just like it was in the all-white schools before integration.
“But those black children do count. From a moral perspective, they count as the ‘least of these’ spoken of in that book I mentioned earlier. If you don’t care about that, then remember that they count from an economic perspective, too. If we don’t educate them, they do not go away. Rather they fill up our prisons and welfare rolls, choking growth for all of us. But if we do educate them, they can and will become productive members of our society. If Mississippi could ignite achievement among the poorest-third of its population, our economic growth would soar past every other state.
“How do we do this? It will not be easy or simple; many have tried and failed all over this country to right this wrong that goes back all the way to slavery, and I don’t pretend to know all the answers. But I do know this: First, we must openly state and confront the problem. It might not be comfortable, but we have to acknowledge that there is an achievement gap between black and white students and that because of it our state has been held down for decades. I intend to publish the results on state exams based on race, which has not been done previously, to highlight the problem and help us measure whether what we’re trying to fix it is working or not.
“Then, second, we must value education. Not value the technical skills and job opportunities that it brings, even though those are real benefits of it, but of first importance we must value the idea that when we learn it expands our minds in ways that build new opportunities. No limit exists on what Mississippians can do when pushed to truly learn how to think.
“I invite you to join me as we work together toward that goal of a smarter and more prosperous Mississippi for all of us. I promise you we can do it as long as we’re honest about what we face and serious about the task before us. May God bless you and our state.”
After delivering those words, I would fold up my speech and immediately go to work on a second document: my resume. Because anyone in a position of influence who spoke the truth about what’s needed in Mississippi’s education system would immediately be run out of office.
Charlie Smith is editor and publisher of The Columbian-Progress. Reach him via email at csmith@columbianprogress.com or call (601) 736-2611.
