Mississippi Needs Bolder Action For School Choice

Imagine if you were required to shop for groceries in a particular store because of where you happened to live. What if folks living on one side of the Pearl River had to use a particular branch of Kroger’s, and not any other? Consider Eastover residents forced to shop in one store and those from Leftover at another. Such a system would be absurd, yet this is pretty much how the public education system is run in Mississippi.

Unless a family is able to move to a particular Zip Code, or can afford to go private, moms and dads have little choice over where to educate their kids. In fact, most Mississippi families have more choice when it comes to where they buy groceries than they do over their children’s education.

Charter schools were supposed to change this. Paid for with public money, but run independently, charter schools were intended to give everyone opportunities that only rich people previously enjoyed. Charter schools have an extraordinary record of elevating educational standards and ensuring young Americans from every background get a great start in life.

While charter schools in Mississippi have been a remarkable success, there are simply not enough of them yet. To date, there are a mere seven charter schools in the whole state. Given that the Mississippi Charter Schools Act became law in 2013, progress has been slow.

What has gone wrong? There is clearly no shortage of demand for charters. Those that I have visited are buzzing with enthusiastic teachers, cheerful students and supportive parents. Demand for admission to charter schools exceeds the number of places available.

Nor is there a shortage of people wanting to set up charter schools. In June of this year, we were told that applications to establish five new schools were pending in Jackson, Greenville and Natchez.

The problem is that none of these applications got approved. When the Charter Schools Authorizer Board met recently, they failed to approve any new applications.

In the board’s defense, not all of the applications submitted were perfect. But what startup is perfect? A new school ought to be given a chance to improve as it gets going.

And while the legislation does not mandate the board must incubate would-be applicants, surely they could be a little more proactive. They should have a can-do approach. Mississippi and its students deserve a greater sense of urgency.

As one lawmaker told me, the failure to allow more charter schools shows that we need a fundamentally different approach to