More charter schools needed to improve education, Miss. Center for Public Policy says

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - A Mississippi Center for Public Policy report offers three solutions to improving the Magnolia State’s fragile education system.

The Mississippi Center for Public Policy report claims academic standards among public schools are poor and “no significant improvement has been documented with validity.”

MCPP believes the problem in K-12 education is structural, not merely a lack of money.

The group says three bills in the legislature right now would help to reform education:

• HB 874 - Mississippi Scholarship Act, would ensure that every parent had a choice to get the best for their child
• HB 1349 and SB 2177 - would achieve open enrollment
• HB 1194 - which would establish multiple authorizer boards to ensure that we get more charter schools across the state

MCPP says these bills offer three key solutions:

• Capping administration costs: Some school board districts spend too much money on bureaucracy, but there are ways to ensure money goes into the classroom instead.
• Open enrollment: Instead of automatically enrolling children in schools, Mississippi families could be given a new right to choose a school for their child.
• Multiple charter school authorizer boards: Less than half of one percent of Mississippi students attend a charter school. Multiple authorizer boards would ensure more charter schools across the state.

Nancy Loome, Executive Director of The Parent’s Campaign calls the report ‘dubious’, saying Mississippi’s academic standards are “higher now than ever.”

The Parents’ Campaign, founded by public school parents in 2006, holds policy-makers accountable and works to ensure that public school parents, educators, and supporters have a voice in the legislature.

The Parent’s Campaign says the Center for Public Policy’s report, “creates a false narrative of failure around public schools.”

Read the full statement below.

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