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Gentlemen and Ladies:
Recently school board members received the attached “Legislative Survey,” from the Mississippi School Boards Association, with instructions from the same MSBA (also attached). You will see that the wording of the questions in the survey are very vague, ambiguous, and confusing. I don’t know who at the MSBA Headquarters actually reads these surveys and how they go about lobbying you in the legislature with a pretense of speaking for all the school boards in Mississippi, but I strongly suspect the wording of this survey is intentionally vague so the people at headquarters can make up their own lobbying agenda.
I am also attaching my own response to the survey and will point out:
Questions 1 and 17 both address the issue of freedom of choice within the public system. I strongly support this. It amazes me to hear some of the flimsy arguments the education-industrial-complex offers in opposing parental rights. One of their most ludicrous arguments is that there would be competition for the best athletes and so result in a few schools who could compete for state championships! That some students would likely get a better education if we allowed public to public freedom of choice is apparently not important to these people. What the education establishment fears most is parental rights to direct the education of their own children. I often hear these people in meetings refer to the children of Mississippi as “our” children. For myself I do not consider that my grandchildren and great-grand children belong to the State. They belong to God Who has entrusted them for a time to their parents. If a parent believes their child can receive a better education in another public school, they should be allowed that choice with the receiving school’s approval. I ask you to support public to public freedom of choice.
Question 3 is actually confusing. It asks if we would support legislation that would restrict local control of school boards. Of course most everyone wants to keep local control of school boards, but when you read the instruction, what they are really asking is would you support ending a local school board’s power to veto the transfer of students to another school. So it is a back-handed question. Please oppose any efforts to restrict local control of school boards, but in such a way as to allow freedom of choice in the public system.
Note well, questions 5,6,and 7 all deal with the same thing- removing school board members who will not “go along to get along,” but rather choose to think for themselves. There are already plenty of statutes to deal with board members who break the law, and Mississippi has very clear ethics statutes and an Ethics Commission to deal with ethics violations. I can tell you that I am very unpopular with the education establishment and there are some of these folks who would like to over-ride the will of the electorate and remove their chosen school board representatives. Please oppose any efforts to enact any stricter statutes than we already have dealing with school board member conduct. Very interestingly on this point, I heard one of the main lawyers for MSBA say in a recent “training” session that one of the big issues facing school administrators in the future would be “dysfunctional board members”! I cannot help but believe this gentlemen was probably thinking of me since I have made great efforts to be transparent with the public and I often depart from the establishment’s agenda.
Question 12 should actually have been at least two questions, if not four. For the record, I oppose public money going to private schools, and if I were young again and homeschooling again I would not accept public money if offered. Accepting government money always includes accepting government control. This is the main reason I would oppose public money going to private educators. But the education establishment has a completely different reason for their opposition to giving any relief to private educators. They know that if every parent had the means to choose a Christian school or other private school or home school, there would be a mass exodus from the public schools. The education establishment rightly sees this as a threat to their jobs.
However Question 12 also asks if we would favour tax credits for parents who choose private education. I would support this vigorously. As long as Mississippi has an income tax, we should let private educators take 100% of tuition and other expenses directly off their tax bill. We should also exempt all educational materials for private education from sales tax. Private educators save the state and local districts millions of dollars each year and still pay taxes for the public schools, so we should give them as much tax relief as possible.
Concerning question 10 I would oppose any more “early education” programs. In a school board training session I attended I learned that many of these “pre-K teachers” are having to potty train many of the four year olds. I cannot imagine any parent so sorry that they would not potty train a child by age four, but apparently there are many of them out there. It appears to me these “pre-K” programs are actually tax supported daycare centers. Dr Raymond Moore in his book, Better Late Than Early, gives a good case for delaying formal education until at least age six, or even seven or eight. Please read it before you vote for any expansion of State funded “pre-K” programs.
Question 20 asks what are your top priorities for the 2027 legislative session. Here are mine:
1) Return to elected superintendents. I had one former state senator who voted to change to an appointed superintendent tell me that he now sees that was a mistake. I find it more than coincidental that public school enrollment has been steadily declining since we started appointing superintendents. I admit I have no data that says that changing to appointed superintendents has been a direct cause of the decline in public school enrollment, and I know there are many other factors, but think of this- when people have no direct voice in choosing who will lead their schools it does affect their attitudes about the system. The last three appointed superintendents we have had here in Simpson County could never have been elected by the people. We have come to a point that the local people have less and less voice in their schools and returning to an elected superintendent would help.
2) Allow freedom of choice within the public school system so that parents can choose the public school of their choice. Discontinue the practice of allowing local school boards to veto transfers. Let parents have the freedom to transfer to another district with the approval of the receiving district. Parents know what is best for their children and three people on the school board should not be able to block a student from being able to transfer. Let parents decide what is best. If force is the only way a school district can keep students in their schools, then there is something bad wrong.
3) End the monopoly of the Mississippi School Boards Association in training school board members. The MSBA is a private organization funded by tax dollars and they should not be the only source of training for school board members. The MSBA is affiliated with the far-left National School Boards Association, and you can be sure the Marxist agenda of the NSBA has an influence on the state organization and through their “training,” on local school boards also. I would encourage you to introduce legislation like the Texas legislature recently passed to allow other school board organizations like School Boards for Academic Excellence to provide training for school board members. Give school board members a choice!
Please know I pray for you and will continue so to do.
Sincerely,
Thomas Ray Floyd
601-862-3919
MageeNews.com is the source of news and views for Simpson and surrounding counties as well as the State of Mississippi
