Recent editorials from Mississippi newspapers:
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Oct. 15
The (Tupelo) Daily Journal on high absentee rates in schools:
Across Mississippi in October and November, school districts are emphasizing the importance of attendance. Beyond the basic concept of showing up in order to learn, the state provides per-pupil funding based on the attendance during these two months.
These attendance numbers can result in a loss of funding for school districts, but they also expose a serious issue that impacts a student’s education. One of the most significant challenges educators throughout Northeast Mississippi face every day is student absences - students can’t learn if they aren’t at school.
Chronic absence is defined as any student absent 10% or more of the time that he was enrolled in any school and any student who misses 50% or more of a school day.
In Mississippi, the absentee rate stood at 10.3% in 2011 and increased to 14.15% in 2017, according to data provided by the Kids Count organization.
All school districts in Northeast Mississippi saw an increase in absenteeism from the 2010-2011 school year compared to numbers in 2016-2017. Benton County had the highest jump from 7.8% in 2011 compared to 20.3% in 2017. Pontotoc County was 7.1% in 2011 and 17.5% in 2017, followed closely by Monroe County with 9.9% in 2011 and 24.3% in 2017. New Albany had the lowest absenteeism rate of 9.25% in 2017, compared to 7.4% in 2011.
Each day missed potentially weakens what a student learns and how a student performs on tests measuring academic achievement and progress. Student absences lead to lower levels of literacy by third grade and higher likelihood of high school dropout and lower rates of college completion.
A sound, basic education is only possible when we work to ensure that students are in school every day and receive the support they need to learn and thrive.
When schools, communities and policymakers recognize and address factors leading to chronic absenteeism, trends to failure can be reversed. Schooling and jobs require high attendance standards, and it must start in school.
Online: https://www.djournal.com
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Oct. 12
The Greenwood Commonwealth on Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves’ proposal to raise teacher’s pay:
This past week’s detailed proposal from Tate Reeves to sharply raise teacher pay and recruiting efforts makes you wonder if the candidate for governor actually read it before announcing it.
That’s because the plan flies in the face of the austerity program that Reeves played a major role in crafting as lieutenant governor, as well as what he said less than three months ago in a debate with two Republican challengers.
Both Bill Waller Jr. and Robert Foster, who lost to Reeves for the GOP nomination, said at the July debate that the state needs to pay teachers more. Reeves would not commit, saying raises would depend on state tax revenues.
Apparently a lot of extra money is about to roll in, because Reeves has found religion on education. He said his proposals are based on months of research to figure out what the state can afford, “with an eye toward aggressive investment in our educators.” Such as:
- Raise starting salaries for public school teachers within two years from the current $35,890 to the Southeastern average, which is around $37,500.
- Get Mississippi’s average teacher salary to the Southeastern average in four years. The regional average is about $51,000, and the state trails that figure by some $4,000.
- Pay a $10,000 recruiting bonus to new teachers to address shortages in certain subjects and in geographic locations of the state.
- Increase the state supplement to National Board Certified Teachers from the current $6,000 per year to $10,000. Reeves also proposes paying teachers extra who complete components of the certification process.
- “Significantly increase” state funding for “early learning collaboratives” - which used to be called pre-kindergarten.
- Double to $24 million the amount of money the state allocates for teacher supplies.
- Raise community college professor pay across the board, find incentives for professors to teach critical subjects at high schools and reward colleges that produce education majors who stay in Mississippi to teach.
Frankly, it all sounds pretty good. But there are a number of obvious questions.
First, where does Mississippi get the money for all this? In four years, if the state gets average pay to the regional average, it will be spending at least $224 million more per year.
Add in the other proposals, and it’s easy to see that the total annual price tag could be $275 million or even $300 million. This is coming from somebody who for years whacked school budgets by underfunding the Mississippi Adequate Education Program?
Also, why now? Obviously because there’s an election coming up, and Reeves’ opponent, Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood, has advocated better pay for teachers.
To frame the question a different way: Reeves, as leader of the Senate, has long had the clout to provide more aggressive investment in educators. Why didn’t that happen?
Finally, what about Mississippi’s other needs, such as highway funding and prison staffing? Will the state find money to deal with those, too?
Reeves is a very successful politician, and he sounded supremely confident in presenting his numbers. He said his proposals would not require a tax increase because the state economy is growing and tax collections are exceeding expectations.
“I don’t traffic in false promises of unlimited free money,” he added.
But as lieutenant governor, he surely has learned that when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. And his proposal for teacher pay sounds awfully good.
Online: https://www.gwcommonwealth.com
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Oct. 12
The (Columbus) Dispatch on “hype videos” produced by East Mississippi Community College’s football team:
In medicine, it is important to distinguish the symptom from the cause.
In this edition, we present a story on the use of “hype videos” produced for East Mississippi Community College’s football team. The videos, some produced by EMCC staff and others produced by outside sources at a cost of thousands of taxpayer dollars, contain what would probably be considered as objectionable content — graphic images of violence, sexuality, drugs, gang activity, all generously sprinkled with inappropriate language, including crude sexual and racial terms. Furthermore, music and video clips were used in violation of copyright laws, according to the school president. Additionally, the videos were in violation of EMCC’s own “acceptable use” policy.
The videos in question were not used for promotional or marketing purposes. Their sole purpose was to motivate the team the night before each game.
The propriety of the content of the videos is possibly debatable. Some will be offended by the content and question whether tax dollars should be spent on that sort of thing. EMCC’s own policy states that answer is “no.”
Others will argue the content of the video is simply a reflection of youth culture and ask, reasonably, if the audience — i.e. the 100 or so people affiliated with the team — was not offended, what real offense has occurred?
Beyond content, there is the matter of how taxpayer money is being used. Over the past 10 years, EMCC has all but exhausted what was $11-million in its primary operating account. A lot of that budget-busting appears to be attributed to EMCC’s highly-successful football team. Last year, the EMCC athletic department spent $2 million while budgeted for just $1.2 million.
While failure to obtain proper licensing and avoid copyright violations aren’t likely to result in severe consequences — the violations were not committed as a means of generating profits and were exposed to a small audience — those lapses suggest a cavalier attitude toward following the rules.
That the content of the videos violates the school’s own “acceptable use” policy also suggests an attitude of indifference, if not defiance.
Readers may draw their own conclusions to how serious any one of these issues may be.
Yet when taken together, we are convinced that each is a symptom of an illness that must be taken seriously.
Together, they paint a picture of a football program that has been left to its own devices without appropriate oversight from school administration.
It’s easy to understand that dynamic. Since the arrival of Buddy Stephens as football coach in 2008, EMCC has won an unprecedented five national championships and seven state titles.
There is a saying: Nothing exceeds like excess. In this situation, that can be amended: Nothing exceeds like success.
It seems clear that the success of the team has given Stephens broad, perhaps unquestioned, power.
That power, when so concentrated in one person, can be a dangerous thing.
We fear that until now, the EMCC administration has failed to exercise its oversight responsibilities.
That is the illness. The symptoms are these videos and the lapses of judgment that accompanied them.
EMCC President Scott Alsobrooks, who arrived in January and had no prior knowledge of the videos, seems to understand this. Upon learning of the existence of the videos, he has initiated an investigation and appears to be addressing the illness: a lack of administrative oversight.
Online: https://www.cdispatch.com
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