Meanwhile, Mississippi’s Reforms Improved Student Performance
By Steve Levy
If you want to know what’s best for our children here in New York, let’s look at the state of Mississippi.
Deep south states such as Mississippi were once held in ridicule for their educational outcomes. They had underpaid teachers, shoddy supplies, and dismal test scores.
Northeast schools, however, paid a fortune for their schools and, for a time, had the highest test outcomes.
But that was a long time ago.
Over the last few decades, state aid to local education in New York tripled, whereas the cost per pupil in our state is now the highest in the nation at well over $36,000. That’s twice the national average.
And about three times that spent in Mississippi.
Yet, test scores continue to drop to the point where New York scores rank in the middle of the pack among the 50 states.
Meanwhile, the reforms implemented by Mississippi starting in 2014 have revolutionized the learning process.
They didn’t need to increase taxes on their residents. They simply employed common-sense solutions that would play through our educational system in America: Make sure kids show up to school and enforce standards that they will have to live up to.
Third graders were required to pass a comprehensive exam before they would be promoted to fourth grade. Social promotions have ended. It didn’t mean you were automatically left back, because help would be provided for those who were struggling. Summer school became in vogue again.
Miraculously, Mississippi jumped from the bottom of the pack to number one in reading comprehension for fourth graders and number one in math for both fourth and eighth graders.
They also went back to the proven practice of using phonics to help kids read. The policy wonks of the last few decades ditched phonics for their new glitzy programs that didn’t work, but made them rich. Thankfully, our state is finally reversing this failure.
Instead of New York following Mississippi’s lead on higher standards and more competition, teachers unions in the Empire State are trying to keep us in the abyss.
While many New York public schools continue to show dismal results, with the exception of some of the better schools on Long Island and Westchester, charter schools have shown great success.
That’s why there are lines around the block as minority parents are trying to get their children into these better schools that spend less, but impose discipline and higher standards and provide better outcomes.
But when the charter schools were finally allowed during the Pataki administration, as part of a deal to get lawmakers a pay raise, there was a cap placed on their number.
Despite their marvelous success, elected officials beholden to the unions have kept those caps in place. Just recently, two more charters were approved for Long Island. This is a godsend for many of these parents. However, instead of embracing these successful schools, the teachers unions have tried to shut them down.
When they couldn’t win through the legislative process, they are now trying to shut them down through the courts.
In trying to pass inflated school budgets in the past, the unions would constantly say it’s for the kids. It never was. It was always about higher wages, benefits, and perks.
And now we see their attempts to block the charter schools are simply an attempt to prevent their membership from shrinking, thereby strengthening their power.
If the unions really were concerned about the welfare of the kids, they would drop this awful lawsuit and allow parents, especially those of minority children, to have a choice, just like those in Mississippi do.
Mississippi went from last to best, just as Florida went from the bottom to the top of the list in student achievement after it allowed school choice and privately funded scholarships to flow to students for the school they preferred.
These states have reduced absenteeism with good old-fashioned discipline, but in nearby woke New York City, they dramatically reduced discipline, ridiculously claiming that it was discriminatory against minority students.
We can once again be the best if the unions would just get out of the way.