(Graphic from Heritage Foundation report)
- The Heritage Foundation’s “Education Freedom Report Card” said the state dropped five spots in its education choice rankings and six spots overall.
The Heritage Foundation recently released its “Education Freedom Report Card” showing Mississippi ranked 3rd in Teacher Freedom.
“A solid 47 percent of teachers in the state found their way to the classroom through alternative teacher certification options, and Mississippi has full reciprocity of teacher licensure with other states,” Heritage outlined. “Educators in Mississippi are required to pass the Praxis test, a teacher certification exam administered by the Educational Testing Service. There is little evidence that this assessment predicts teacher quality or effectiveness. No school district in the Magnolia State employs a ‘chief diversity officer,’ and Mississippi does not use Common Core–aligned assessments.”
Heritage said Mississippi can maintain its high teacher freedom ranking by continuing to foster alternative pathways to the classroom for aspiring teachers or by eliminating teacher certification requirements altogether, and by eliminating the requirement for prospective teachers to take the Praxis exam.
However, the report was not all positive for the Magnolia State.
Mississippi fell six spots this year to 17th overall in the assessment that also includes education choice, transparency, civic education and return on investment.
The state ranks 39th in civics education, 29th in transparency, 20th in education choice and 25th for return on investment.
Heritage said America’s “disastrous COVID-19 response” opened the eyes of millions of parents to the need for self-reliance when it comes to the education of their children. Lawmakers have responded to the demands of families, the organization said, by implementing choice in education.
“The 2025 state legislative season featured gains of the education freedom movement on multiple fronts—creating new choice programs, improving existing laws, and liberating the families and educators of new states,” Heritage stated.
Efforts were made in the House of Representatives during the 2025 legislative session to enact three modest measures to increase education options for families but all three died without a vote in the Senate. As previously reported, one measure would have made the process for a child to transfer between public schools easier by removing the veto power of the school the child wants to leave. Another measure sought to expand public charter schools in C-rated school districts while the other was the “Tim Tebow Act” that would have allowed homeschool students to participate in extracurricular activities at the public school where they would be assigned.
House Speaker Jason White (R) has stated education freedom would be the chamber’s number on priority.
“Let me remind you, education freedom is a pillar in our adopted Republican Party Platform and has been highlighted by President Trump in his Make America Great Again agenda entitled ‘America First: Areturn to commonsense,’” White told Neshoba County fairgoers to applause in July.
He also promised the House will get to the core of the state’s issues “rather than passing surface-level policy.”
“The House will continue to focus our efforts on positioning for the next generation, not posturing for the next election,” White said.
The Heritage report card said Mississippi’s 20th rank in education choice, which is down five spots from 2024, could be improved by expanding eligibility for and boosting participation in its existing private education choice policies, making it easier for more charter schools to open and operate, and giving families more choices among traditional public schools beyond their assigned school.
As for return on investment, Heritage stated that Mississippi spends the 42nd-most (meaning the ninth-least) per pupil among states, spending $13,677 in cost-of-living-adjusted terms annually.
“Mississippi ranks 29th in its combined fourth-grade and eighth-grade math and reading average NAEP score. The Magnolia State employs 2.87 teachers for every non-teacher in its public schools,” the report card outlines. “Mississippi’s unfunded teacher pension liability represents 17.2 percent of its state GDP.”
Heritage said Mississippi can improve its return on investment ranking by improving academic outcomes on the NAEP, what is referred to as “The Nation’s Report Card,” stopping growth in non-teaching staff, and addressing its significant unfunded teacher pension liabilities.
