State still hugs bottom as education advances

• Columnist Bill Crawford notes that Mississippi still has work to do.

Mississippi still hugs the bottom as the 48^th best state, according to the 2025 U.S. News and World Report “Best States” rankings. The state has come in 48^th or worse since U.S. News started the rankings.

Holding the state down are continued low rankings in components for health care (50^th), economy (49^th), infrastructure (47^th), and fiscal stability (47^th). Other components fare better: crime and corrections (20^th), natural environment (31^st), opportunity (31^st), and education (34^th).

Two components shown notable improvement since 2018. Education moved from 46^th to 34^th and opportunity from 49^th to 31^st.

Rachel Canter, executive director of Mississippi First, which helped start the “Mississippi miracle,” recently touted Mississippi’s education improvements in the Magnolia Tribune. She recalled that when she began lobbying the legislature in 2005, “too many of Mississippi’s leaders at that time did not believe that our children, and our state, could make real progress in education.”

“Today, Mississippi has not only met the national average in math at fourth grade, we have surpassed it in reading,” she boasts. “It is a stunning achievement.”

Yet, this is not enough, she notes. “Even with our comparatively stellar results, a majority of our fourth and eighth graders have not yet reached proficiency in reading and math on the National Assessment to Education Progress (NAEP), our only national measure of achievement.” And, “by eighth grade, our students lose ground in proficiency on both the state assessment and the NAEP.” Plus, “only about 16% of our high school juniors scored high enough on the math section of the ACT to be ‘college ready.’”

The U.S. News report also indicated there is more work to be done. While our fourth and eighth grade reading and math scores improved and our high school graduation rate soared to 8^th nationally, our graduates’ college readiness (based on ACT and SAT scores) remained at 48^th.

Strangely, the IHL board wants students to do less toward their college readiness. Despite championing STEM education, the board in April eliminated science from the ACT composite score universities will consider for admission. This can only diminish high schools’ emphasis on science education. “The science section (will) no longer (be) included in the composite score calculation,” announced Dr. Casey Prestwood, Associate Commissioner for Academic and Student Affairs.

“We still have work to do to ensure an excellent public education for every child in Mississippi,” said Canter, challenging legislators to do more to boost education improvement. She wants them to: 1) adapt the Mississippi’s Literacy-Based Promotion Act to middle school; 2) create a state math initiative; and 3) double down on high quality instructional materials and support for teachers.

“Your education is your life – guard it well” – Proverbs 4:13.