The Parents' Campaign

08/31/2026

The Mississippi Department of Education has announced a series of regional literacy meetings to provide families of public school students in kindergarten through grade 3 an overview of assessments and other requirements associated with the Literacy-Based Promotion Act, often referred to as the third-grade reading gate. The meetings will focus on practical strategies families can use to help their students become strong readers, a skill necessary for success in grade 4 and beyond.

Families of K-3 students are encouraged to attend the session that is most convenient for them. No registration is required.

Regional Literacy Meeting Schedule - all sessions are from 6 - 7 p.m.

• Tuesday, Sept. 8 - Cleveland - D.M. Smith Elementary School, 715 S. Martin Luther King Dr., Cleveland

• Thursday, Sept. 10 - Jackson - Shirley Elementary School, 210 Daniel Lake Blvd., Jackson

• Thursday, Sept. 10 - Moss Point - Family Education Center, 3524 Prentiss Ave., Moss Point

• Wednesday, Sept. 16 - Laurel - Nora Davis Elementary School, 1305 Martin Luther King Ave., Laurel

• Thursday, Sept. 17 - Long Beach - Harper McCaughan Elementary School, 19200 Pineville Rd., Long Beach

• Thursday, Sept. 17 - Columbus - Brandon Central Office Boardroom, 263 McArthur Drive, Columbus, MS

• Tuesday, Sept. 22 - Jackson - Boyd Elementary School, 4531 Broadmeadow St., Jackson

• Monday, Sept. 28 - Horn Lake - Horn Lake Intermediate School, 6585 Horn Lake Rd., Horn Lake

Those with questions may contact one of MDE's Regional Literacy Coordinators. Email Aimee Hawkins at [email protected] or Summeral Newman at [email protected].

Additional reading resources can be found on MDE's literacy website: https://strongreadersms.com/. Together, we've got this!

08/24/2026

Changes have been made to upcoming public hearings on redistricting; see updated schedule below. The next event will be held in Southaven this Thursday at 6 p.m.

The Legislature's Joint Committee on Reapportionment and Redistricting is holding hearings to obtain public comments and suggestions about the redrawing of Mississippi's legislative, congressional, and judicial districts. Sen. Dean Kirby, chair of the Joint Committee, emphasized that committee members attending the hearings will be there to listen to the public, and they will not engage in debate or answer questions at these events.

Members of the public are invited to attend the hearings, make comments at the hearings or in writing, and even access (by appointment only) the Joint Committee's redistricting computer system and/or submit their own redistricting proposals.

Revised schedule - all hearings begin at 6 p.m.:

• Thursday, Aug. 27 - Northwest - Northwest Mississippi Community College, Ranger Center Conference Room 107-109, 1210 Church Rd., Southaven, MS

• Tuesday, Sept. 1 - Delta - Delta State University, Bologna Performing Arts Center (BPAC), 1003 West Sunflower Rd., Cleveland, MS

• Tuesday, Sept. 8 - Southwest - Alcorn State University, MBA Building Auditorium, Natchez ASU Campus, 15 Campus Dr., Natchez, MS

• Thursday, Sept. 10 - East Central - Meridian Community College, McCain Theater, 910 Highway 19 North, Meridian, MS

• Thursday, Sept. 17 - Pine Belt - University of Southern Mississippi, Mannoni Performing Arts Center, 3057 Hardy St., Hattiesburg, MS

• Tuesday, Sept. 22 - Gulf Coast - Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Hospitality and Resort Management Center, 420 Debuys Rd., Biloxi, MS

• Thursday, Oct. 1 - Metro - Mississippi Legislature, State Capitol, 400 High St., Jackson, MS

The first hearing was held in Tupelo last week. A recording of that meeting can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRm_H6Jydhc&t=4s.

Written comments may be submitted to the Joint Committee by email to [email protected] or by postal mail to Ted Booth, P.O. Box 1204, Jackson, MS 39215-1204.

Those interested in accessing the Joint Committee's computer system or submitting their own plans for redrawing districts should do so in accordance with the instructions laid out in this Public Access Policy document: https://maris.mississippi.edu/MISC/Redistricting/PublicAccessPolicy.pdf.

All hearings will be available by livestream on the Mississippi Legislature's YouTube channel, and you can find additional information about the redistricting process here: https://www.facebook.com/20531316728/posts/10154009990506729/. We'll be sure to let you know about any further changes to meeting locations, dates, etc. Together, we've got this!

08/20/2026

The Mississippi Department of Education has released the results of the 2025-2026 state assessments. A key takeaway is that school districts across the state have done yeoman's work to maintain the high rates of achievement that were attained post-COVID with the aid of $2.5-billion in federal pandemic relief funding. Our public schools' extraordinarily good use of those funds drove not only recovery, but impressive improvements in proficiency rates in English Language Arts, Math, and Science. Those federal funds are now gone and, because they have not been replaced, so are many of the critical academic support programs they funded.

The 2025-2026 assessment scores show a slight improvement in ELA proficiency compared to 2024-2025, from 47.4% to 47.5%, a marginal drop in Math proficiency from 54.5% to 53.9%, and a significant increase in Science proficiency from 60.9% to 64.1%.

It's worth noting that proficiency, by Mississippi standards, is a tall order. In our state, assessment scores fall into five levels: minimal, basic, passing, proficient, and advanced. A student must score in one of the top two levels to be considered proficient. The percentage of students passing the state assessments this year (scoring in the top three levels) is 77.1% in ELA, 81.7% in Math, and 82.2% in Science. You can see school and district assessment results here:https://tpcref.org/wp-content/uploads/2026-MAAP-Results-ELA-MATH-SCIENCE.pdf

Pass rates on Mississippi's three end-of-course assessments also remained stable, with English II improving from 77.4% in 2024-2025 to 78.2% in 2025-20256, Algebra I dropping slightly from 94.6% to 94.2%, and Biology rising from 78.4% to 80.5%.

For context, Tennessee just released the proficiency rates of students participating in its four-year-old voucher program. Just 17% of Tennessee voucher students met that state's Math proficiency standards, and 24% scored proficient in English.

Kudos to Mississippi's public school teachers and students for their hard work and continued success! We are proud of you.

These assessment results will figure significantly in the accountability ratings expected in October. The grades assigned to schools and districts this year will be based on increased standards that require higher scores to be rated an A, B, C, or D (see https://msparentscampaign.org/mississippi-public-education-raises-academic-bar-again/). Some schools and districts will likely drop a letter grade because the scores needed to achieve those grades have been raised. But a drop in letter grade does not necessarily mean that the quality of education being provided has changed - your schools have to meet a higher overall target this year than they did last year to maintain that A, B, or C.

Please join us in thanking our public school teachers for the hard work they do every day to move our children to success! Remind your legislators that Mississippi needs a meaningful teacher pay raise to keep these strong educators in our classrooms. Together, we've got this!

08/17/2026

The Joint Committee on Reapportionment and Redistricting has announced a series of public hearings beginning Tuesday, August 18, to obtain your comments and suggestions about the redrawing of Mississippi's legislative and congressional districts. Members of the public are invited to attend the hearings, make comments, and even access (by appointment only) the Joint Committee's redistricting computer system and/or submit their own redistricting proposals.

Those interested in accessing the Joint Committee's computer system or submitting their own plans for redrawing districts should do so in accordance with the instructions laid out in this Public Access Policy document: https://maris.mississippi.edu/MISC/Redistricting/PublicAccessPolicy.pdf.

Written comments may be submitted to the Joint Committee by email to [email protected] or by postal mail to Ben Collins, P.O. Box 1204, Jackson, MS 39215-1204.

Following is the schedule for redistricting hearings, all of which begin at 6 p.m.

• Tuesday, Aug. 18 - Northeast - Itawamba Community College, Belden Conference Center, 3200 Adams Farm Rd., Belden, MS

• Thursday, Aug. 27 - Northwest - Northwest Mississippi Community College DeSoto Campus, Ranger Center, 1210 Church Road, Southaven, MS

• Tuesday, Sept. 1 - Delta - Delta State University, Bologna Performing Arts Center (BPAC), 1003 Sunflower Rd., Cleveland, MS

• Tuesday, Sept. 8 - Southwest - Alcorn State University, MBA Building Auditorium, Natchez ASU Campus, 15 Campus Dr., Natchez, MS

• Thursday, Sept. 10 - East Central - Meridian Community College, McCain Theater, 910 Highway 19 North, Meridian, MS

• Thursday, Sept. 17 - Pine Belt - University of Southern Mississippi, Mannoni Performing Arts Center, 3057 Hardy St., Hattiesburg, MS

• Tuesday, Sept. 22 - Gulf Coast - Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Hospitality and Resort Management Center, 420 Debuys Rd., Biloxi, MS

• Thursday, Oct. 1 - Metro - Mississippi Legislature, State Capitol, 400 High St., Jackson, MS

The hearings also will be available by livestream on the Mississippi Legislature's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/MississippiLegislature/featured. We'll be sure to update you as we learn more about opportunities for public input on this important issue. Together, we've got this!

08/13/2026

The House Select Committee on Consolidation met on August 6 to hear from superintendents who led school districts through mergers. Former superintendents Dr. Teresa Jackson and Mr. John Ellison provided insight on the legislatively-mandated consolidations that formed what are now the Winona-Montgomery Consolidated School District (merged Winona Municipal Separate School District and Montgomery County School District) and the Chickasaw County Consolidated School District (merged Houston Separate School District and Chickasaw County School District).

Mr. Will Russell, current superintendent of the Leake County School District, described the challenges associated with voluntary intradistrict consolidations (combining schools) and the difficulties of school closures, a process he also undertook when he served as superintendent in the Jefferson Davis County School District.

Among the insights shared were:
• Consolidation of two or more school districts and mergers of schools within districts are extremely difficult; communities often are opposed to the forced changes, and a successful consolidation requires especially strong and diplomatic leadership at the district level to ensure fair and consistent standards, services, facilities, and opportunities on every campus
• Districts should be given advance notice, with at least a year to plan for a legislatively-mandated consolidation
• Assistance provided by the Mississippi Department of Education in navigating the consolidation process was essential and extremely helpful
• When districts with different accountability ratings consolidate, the merged district should be held harmless from accountability ratings for a year or more to allow leaders to focus on the time-consuming tasks and challenges associated with consolidation
• Taxation was a big issue; the residents of one district had their taxes raised considerably to equalize the local tax support across the combined districts
• Bills mandating consolidation should be focused on giving equal opportunity to all students, and the legislation should be carefully drafted to avoid unintended consequences; one such bill provided that a named district must be abolished, terminating all teacher contracts; those teachers had to apply for any openings available in the newly formed district while teachers in the other district being merged kept their jobs
• Some cost savings were eventually realized at the district level, but initially costs increased due to factors such as:
- the need for additional support staff to assist struggling students
- aligning student handbooks, employee manuals, board policies, curriculum, calendars, lesson plans, etc., across the district
- protracted litigation (defending the district in multiple lawsuits filed by those opposed to the consolidation)
- increased transportation costs (in one case, due to a school closure, a school bus and driver were assigned to a single student to avoid having that student on a school bus for 2 hours each way; one district had to purchase additional buses; additional transportation support was required to ensure equitable access to extracurricular activities and athletics)
- changing uniforms, mascots, logos, and school colors, an expensive undertaking but key to building school camaraderie and support
- significant infrastructure upgrades required to ensure equitable resources and access to technology and sufficient classroom capacity for all students
- changing the district name on all materials and accounts, contracts, etc.
• Cost savings would not have been achieved without closure of school buildings
• Had the consolidation yielded districts that were larger than the 1,200 to 2,200 or so students in these combined districts, additional district-level administrators would have been required to manage the consolidation and the larger district
• Students ultimately benefited from the blended resources of the merged districts or schools; examples given included the availability of additional advanced courses and broader access to extracurricular activities (art, music, sports, etc.)

All three superintendents stressed that aging facilities are a significant issue and urged the Legislature to consider appropriating funds specifically for facilities improvements in districts that undergo consolidation. The legislatively-mandated merger of the Starkville and Oktibbeha County school districts in 2015 was made vastly more appealing by a legislative appropriation to assist in the construction of a new district middle school on the campus of Mississippi State University. In the 2026 Legislative Session, an additional $8-million was appropriated for the building of a new high school in the Starkville-Oktibbeha School District. To our knowledge, the Mississippi Legislature has provided no similar funding for facilities construction in other consolidated districts.

We will keep you posted on further meetings of this committee and any opportunities for public comment or input. Together, we've got this!

08/13/2026

Earlier this week, the House Select Committee on Redistricting heard from Dr. Dallas Breen of the Stennis Institute of Government, who provided data and information about what federal law and the U.S. Constitution dictate regarding redrawing of judicial, congressional, and legislative districts:

• Districts must be as close to exact mathematical equality as possible to satisfy the one person, one vote mandate, intended to ensure that one person's voting power is roughly equivalent to another's within the same state
• Districts must be contiguous (all portions of the district must be physically connected)
• Care should be taken not to divide communities of interest
• Whenever possible, political boundaries should not be disrupted (cities, counties, precincts)
• Redistricting and apportionment must be based on decennial census population data, most recently gathered in 2020 (Mississippi had a poor census survey response rate in 2020, with only 58% of households responding)

We will keep you posted on further meetings related to redistricting and any opportunities for public comment or input. Together, we've got this!

07/27/2026

The Mississippi Department of Education is requesting public comment on its proposed revisions to two sets of guidelines, the Mississippi Kindergarten Guidelines and the Home School Guidelines.

The proposed changes to the Kindergarten Guidelines, which are rather extensive, include significantly more detailed standards for mathematics. You can see a redlined version here: https://tpcref.org/wp-content/uploads/K-Standards-Red-lined_SBE-7-23-26.pdf. Your written comments regarding the Kindergarten Guidelines may be emailed to Ms. Amanda Malone at [email protected]. Alternatively, they can be sent by postal mail to Ms. Amanda Malone, Office of Curriculum & Instruction, Mississippi Department of Education, P.O. Box 771, Jackson, MS 39205-0771, or dropped off in person at the MDE offices at 359 North West Street, Jackson, MS.

The proposed changes to the Home School Guidelines can be seen in a redlined version here: https://tpcref.org/wp-content/uploads/APA_Proposed-Changes-Home-School-Guidelines.pdf. Comments on the Home School Guidelines may be emailed to Dr. Bryan Marshall at [email protected], mailed to Dr. Bryan Marshall, Office of Compulsory School Attendance, Mississippi Department of Education, P.O. Box 771, Jackson, MS 39205-0771, or dropped off in person at 359 North West Street, Jackson, MS.

The deadline for submitting public comments on either proposal is 5 p.m. on August 23, 2026. All comments will be presented to the State Board of Education at its meeting on September 17.

07/23/2026

New voucher report: Most so-called “universal” voucher programs are not truly accessible to all families, particularly families with low and middle incomes who cannot afford to pay for the gap between the value of the voucher and the cost of attending private school, including tuition and associated expenses. Families in rural communities, who are most likely to depend on their public schools, have seen public schools close or reduce services due to financial pressures created by vouchers.

See the report from Arizona State University: https://cep.asu.edu/resources/the-data-and-policy-landscape-of-education-vouchers

06/29/2026

Disturbing news regarding the Winter-Reed Teacher Loan Repayment Program. We will be asking legislators to provide funding for this year's program as soon as they convene in the 2027 session, in time for eligible teachers to be awarded funds at the end of the 2026-2027 school year.

The Mississippi Office of Student Financial Aid needs $7.3 million to meet the demand for programs that help students afford college.

06/25/2026

The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) reports that, for the third year in a row, the Mississippi Legislature has fully funded the Mississippi Student Funding Formula (MSFF). Included in the 2026-2027 school district allocations is a $2,000 pay raise for teachers and assistant teachers. The additional one-time $2,000 salary supplement for special education teachers is not reflected in the allocations spreadsheet provided by the MDE, as the Department awaits clarification from legislative leaders about which teachers are eligible for that supplement. See your school district's funding allocation:https://tpcref.org/wp-content/uploads/FY2027-MSFF-District-Allocations.pdf

When the MSFF was adopted in the 2024 Legislative Session, the new funding law increased the proportion of school district budgets that must come from local taxes in school districts with a strong tax base. In some cases, that meant that school districts would receive less from the state than they had the year prior, despite a healthy increase in formula funding statewide. So the Legislature included in the law a three-year hold harmless provision to give school districts time to adjust to the increased local contribution requirement. Because FY2027 (the 2026-2027 school year) is the final year of the hold harmless provision, a few school districts could see a decrease in funding in the 2027-2028 school year.

Congratulations are due once again to Mississippi's incredible public school educators and students, who have catapulted our state to a ranking of 16th in the nation in public education for the second year in a row by the Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT Data Book. It is notable that this impressive ranking in education is despite Mississippi's overall KIDS COUNT ranking of dead last in child well-being, underscoring the truly remarkable work being done by our public school teachers. See more: https://www.aecf.org/resources/2026-kids-count-data-book

Please remember to thank your legislators for being faithful to their commitment to fully fund the new school funding formula and for making an effort toward better teacher pay. We will need to come through with a much more significant pay raise in the next legislative session to begin to address the teacher shortage crisis that is threatening the nationally-acclaimed student achievement for which Mississippi's public school teachers and students have been recognized. Our children deserve great teachers, and our wonderful teachers deserve a professional salary. Thank goodness they have you in their corner! Together, we've got this.