Posted on 05/14/2025 8:25:17 AM PDT by re_tail20
Painting the Deep South as an embarrassing cultural backwater is one of the last socially acceptable forms of prejudice among elites. It’s not just tolerated—it’s venerated.
Mississippi is probably the top target. I don’t have to tell you why. You know about the poor health outcomes. The poverty. The corruption. The obesity. The Confederacy stuff.
Wikipedia has an entry dedicated to the phrase “Thank God for Mississippi,” because its horrible performance on so many metrics saves other states the embarrassment of finishing last. The term has been used since at least 1945.
This has made it awkward in recent years, as Mississippi has become the fastest-improving school system in the country.
You read that right. Mississippi is taking names.
In 2003, only the District of Columbia had more fourth graders in the lowest achievement level on our national reading test (NAEP) than Mississippi. By 2024, only four states had fewer.
When the Urban Institute adjusted national test results for student demographics, this is where Mississippi ranked:
Fourth grade math: 1st Fourth grade reading: 1st Eighth grade math: 1st Eighth grade reading: 4th (Here is a great rundown of how the remarkable turnaround was achieved.)
How about black students? The root of Mississippi’s bad reputation is its historically awful record on civil rights—including its refusal to integrate schools.
That was then.
Now, it has a different story to tell. Black students in Mississippi posted the third-highest fourth grade reading scores in the nation. They walloped their counterparts in better-funded states. The average black student in Mississippi performed about 1.5 grade levels ahead of the average black student in Wisconsin. Just think about that for a moment. Wisconsin spends about 35 percent more per pupil to achieve worse results.
Mississippi has fellow Southern stars. Louisiana was the only state to fully erase...
(Excerpt) Read more at thefp.com ...
Whenever you read about dramatic improvement in test scores for blacks you can be sure a year from now it will be revealed there was organized cheating and fudging numbers by the administrators.
The standard leftist response, which no one questions. Its all about nebulous "civil rights"
It seems black education actually declined very badly during the so-called "civil rights era."
Conversely, look at the black family. It was far stronger during segregation. Can we say "civil rights" actually destroyed the black family?
Is this to argue that segregation was better for blacks? NO. rather, its to point out that destructive leftist/marxist social-engineering is carried out with the fake veneer of "equality."
Go, Mississippi, keep rolling along,
Go, Mississippi, you cannot go wrong,
Go, Mississippi, we’re singing your song,
M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I
>Is this to argue that segregation was better for blacks? NO. rather, its to point out that destructive leftist/marxist social-engineering is carried out with the fake veneer of “equality.”
I taught in Jackson Public schools for years and it’s nice that their scores are going well, but I can see that my old school (Wingfield HS) has dropped from 1,500 kids in 2009 to 600 now and the high school was closed in 2023.
So many of the black families are leaving JPS and moving to suburbs, resulting in high schools thanks to better schools.
I assume that the higher scores are from black flight to the suburbs.
The Dems think they are winning because they get 99% of the Teachers Union contributions. That’s all they care about. Screw the students.
I lived in NE Mississippi for 35 years. If I wished to see poorly educated and socially disturbed blacks I only had to look towards Memphis or Jackson, Tennessee...
“Thank God for Mississippi,”
That used to be the UN-official motto for the state of Arkansas decades ago as it kept Arkansas off the worst of everything list.
60 years ago New Mexico had great jobs and great schools! Arkansas was not a great place to live as there were low wages, poor schools.
Now thanks to Sam Walton, the NW Arkansas schools and jobs are GREAT!
And now New Mexico, thanks to the slow Californication of the State is on bottom of Jobs and Schools. Never thought I would see the day.
https://nmeducation.org/new-mexico-50th-in-education-again/
Go, Mississippi, get up and go,
Go, Mississippi, let the world know,
That our Mississippi is leading the show,
M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I
I’m shuffling through the Texas sand
But my head’s in Mississippi
I’m shuffling through the Texas sand
But my head’s in Mississippi
The blues has got a hold of me
I believe I’m getting dizzy
Mark
Hopefully, Oklahoma education will improve with the great superintendent (who liberals HATE) we now have. Our local school is pathetic; kids can’t read.
As someone who often vacationed in New Mexico, it is my feeling that the wonderful people of that state and tarred by the Albuquerque brush.
According to a recent piece by Grace Brazeale, a policy associate with the advocacy group Mississippi First, the state implemented a series of changes starting with the 2013 Literacy-Based Promotion Act.
That law funded the state department of education to hire, train and deploy literacy coaches to the 50 lowest-performing schools.
It also required schools to administer universal screenings to identify students with reading deficiencies early and to communicate those results to parents, and it required schools to hold back students who were not reaching a certain threshold by third grade.
Now if only they could get their salaries up, they’d be able to have a great quality of life.
The average annual salary in Mississippi is around $47,503. This translates to approximately $22.84 per hour, $913.52 per week, and $3,958.58 per month. Salaries in Mississippi generally range between $33,359 (25th percentile) and $58,227 (75th percentile) annually.
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