Dear Friend,

My daughter started her new school this week, and so like many Mississippians at this time of year, education is at the forefront of my mind.
 
For as long as anyone can remember, unequal education outcomes in Mississippi were blamed on underfunding. If only more money was spent in underperforming areas, we were told, things would improve.

This simply isn’t so. The federal government is currently hosing money at the education system, and if anything the gap between the best and the worst schools is growing.
 
When State Auditor, Shad White, and I discussed this last week, he mentioned how a great deal of additional education funding in some school districts is being spent not in the classroom, but on administration costs. Almost 10,000 Mississippians have watched our conversation here.
 
Instead of pretending that the well-run school districts are somehow liable for the inadequacies of the failing school districts, we need to recognize that the problem is a chronic lack of public accountability. Instead of making endless excuses for those that run poorly performing school districts, they need to be held to account.
 
Charter schools are a great way of giving local parents more choice. But sadly, right now there just aren’t enough charter schools in Mississippi.
 
Besides increasing the number of charter schools, big, bold action is needed to extend school choice – without which there simply won’t be the kind of improvement in education outcomes that Mississippi so desperately needs.