Here’s an idea: Let’s just turn over all education responsibility in the Jackson metro-area to the Jackson City Council. Or, to add gravitas, to a lot of smart people in Washington, DC? Are there really benevolent angels to help carry it off? The Left thinks so. Always will. Or, is it a foul swamp as President Donald Trump believes? And many of us.
Amazingly, Mr. Bobby Harrison still believes they can do it, “What If the Government Gave You Money to Spend at Disneyland?” (Northside Sun, 8/17/25.) “Ya just gotta believe.” must be his motto.
Nowadays, it’s almost laughable to think that government is good at anything. Let them do it in Washington? Let’s see—Farming? Medicine? Health? Trains? Roads (surely can’t prove that in Mississippi—deficient in funding or skill)? Or, in Jackson— water, sanitation, etc.? Angels? Solutions?
Or the reverse extreme—as a US citizen, try renewing US passport to travel abroad, even if you’ve had one for 40 years. Be so bold. Got a clean record? Let’s go back—Any demerits in Middle School? A few. Wait, not so fast. How many? Actually, that persnickety even about the picture.
Now, look at the composition of our legislature. No, no experts there. Maybe a few former administrators and teachers set on reform. Solution? Put it in a bureau then, with a state superintendent. In Mississippi, can the legislature carry it off in any of the areas mentioned above? Ineffective and not improving. Everybody says so.
Where does Harrison come from? He’s like a Rip van Winkle missing the last 70 years. Missed the evolution in morals, lifestyles, diversity—all impact student life, conduct, discipline, etc. And he’s back to the 1950s.
Why not get the government out of education. Think of the closing of the US Department of Education. If that didn’t teach you that government should get out, nothing will. Best funded agency in the world for education on a per capita basis and pretense and it failed. Give it up. Poor quality: 8th in world by some research. Why is government always the answer? “Government is not the solution to the problem; government is the problem.” President Ronald Reagan.
The Mississippi department, alarmingly, can’t keep a superintendent. Every time I look up, there’s a new search and interviews open to parents. (Sacrifice another good soldier at the front?) What’s the problem? That’s a better idea than “school choice?” Or call it “Parental Choice.” Or Education Vouchers. Don’t parents know best?
At least for now, until we can get government out of education, let the parents’ tax money stay with the citizens in a special personal fund preserved in a tax exempt IRA-kind of fund.
After all, where did revenue for education come from— government? Who makes up the government? Who pays taxes? Some parents will make mistakes but you’ll have a hard time convincing them. Why not let the funding follow the student?
Robert Penny is a Northsider.
