An in-depth exploration of education in the 21st century South.
In Mississippi, the average school district spends roughly $9,500 per student annually. That money, which comes from state, federal and local sources, is less than the national average.
There will be no new charter schools opening in Mississippi next year. Mississippi Charter School Authorizers rejected a plan by Ohio-based I Can Schools to open a number of new charters in Jackson. The state authorizer board voted against the charter operator, four to two yesterday, citing concerns over mixed [...]
More Mississippi students are graduating from high school than ever before. The national graduation rate last year was roughly 82 percent, and while Mississippi has yet to reach that national average, it is making steady ground.
For the second year in a row, nearly 40,000 Mississippi kindergartners took a state assessment known as the STAR Early Literacy Exam. It tests whether a student understands the building blocks of reading, do they know the alphabet, that you read left to right on the page, is this a story for fun or for learning and so on and so forth.
This week, officials with the school announced that they are cutting the number of students who will be admitted next year. The cuts aren’t new, MSMS has reduced enrollment by 12 percent over the past five years from 271 in 2011-2012 to 220 next year.
Parents of public school students in Mississippi could soon be able to use taxpayer money to send their children to private schools. Lawmakers believe the “Equal Opportunity for All Students Act” would give many children across the state a shot at a quality education.
The Mississippi Department of Education will have to cut more than four million dollars from its budget after Governor Phil Bryant ordered state agencies to slash budgets by 1.5 percent to offset a shortfall in revenues.
In Mississippi, the Civil War still stirs emotions. It’s not so much that teachers disagree on how it should be taught, but that ongoing attempts by the University of Mississippi and several cities across the South to shed Confederate symbols have called up old ghosts.
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