Education freedom opponents are worried. They should be

• State Rep. Jansen Owen says while school choice opponents fight tooth and nail to protect the current system, freedom is coming in Mississippi.

The government bureaucrats and teacher union-allied advocacy groups fighting against education freedom – or school choice – are losing.

Educational freedom lies at the very foundation of conservatism. The government requires that parents send their children to be educated. And unless you’re financially well-off enough to send your children to a private school or keep them home to home school them, you as a parent are confined to a government-run school that lacks competition and often educates children in a one-size-fits-all approach – and, as we’ve seen in recent years, in a manner that sometimes doesn’t reflect your values.

Education freedom recognizes that parents know what’s best for their children – not the government. It empowers parents with the tools they need to provide their children with the education that they believe meets their children’s individual needs. It creates competition in a system that currently lacks competition. Conservatives believe in a capitalist system that encourages freedom and competition in the marketplace – not a socialist system that suppresses individual freedoms and relies on government control. Education freedom brings conservative principles into our education system. With freedom comes competition, with competition comes innovation and improvement, and with innovation comes real accountability to the consumers: Mississippi’s parents.

Recognizing the importance of education freedom, President Donald J. Trump carried on the tradition of President Ronald Reagan, making education freedom a signature policy position during his 2024 re-election campaign. Since returning to the White House, his administration has made education freedom a top priority. In July, President Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill, which included the largest federal school choice program ever passed. Each of our neighboring states has now enacted universal school choice programs. Recent polling shows that 64% of Mississippi voters, including 78% of Republicans and 52% of Democrats, support giving parents more choice. The opposition is watching this tidal wave of momentum crash down on Mississippi, and they’re growing more desperate every day.

It’s evident in the false and misleading information they’re putting out. They intentionally obfuscate issues, misrepresent facts, and in some cases, outright lie. Maybe they think Mississippians are gullible enough to buy it, or maybe they don’t know any better – but either way, it’s strategic. They stir just enough jargon into their “school choice stinks” soup to make it sound serious and difficult to untangle. But the truth is simple: they are wrong, and their arguments collapse under scrutiny.

Every concern they raise has practical policy solutions. Many of these solutions have already been discussed by state leaders or implemented successfully in other states. Studies consistently show that education freedom brings improved outcomes for students participating in the programs and those students in the public school system. Of course, the opposition hides this reality, just like they fear-mongered against the 3rd-grade reading gate reforms that proved instrumental to Mississippi’s academic gains over the last decade.

Take, for example, their favorite claim that “public money shouldn’t go to private schools.” They conveniently forget that public money has supported private education for decades through Pell Grants and state aid to private colleges and universities.

Or consider another area where their hypocrisy is even clearer: public school transfers. Under current law, if a parent wants to move their child to another public school district, that child must be accepted by the new district – but the home district can veto the move. That means a government bureaucrat can tell a parent, “No, we know better than you and we’re not letting your child go.” And why do they say no? Because when your child leaves, so does their money.

Last year, the Mississippi House of Representatives passed House Bill 1435, which would have eliminated the home district’s ability to block transfers. The bill didn’t force any district to accept more students than it had room for. No district would have to build new schools or raise taxes. But you won’t hear any of that from the Parents’ Campaign. They couldn’t say out loud, “We think school districts should control parents’ decisions.” That would expose them. So, they resorted to fearmongering, even pushing rhetoric with racist undertones – warning that allowing parents to transfer their kids might threaten “school culture” or “district identity.” Those phrases sound eerily similar to the worn and raggedy excuses segregationists used in 1960s Mississippi.

This desperation is unsurprising. The opposition is watching the last vestiges of their monopolistic control over families and children slip away. And how will they raise money once parents finally have the freedom to choose and the world doesn’t end?

What is surprising, though, is that some Mississippi politicians have chosen to align themselves with Randi Weingarten and the far-left unions instead of President Trump and Mississippi families. In a state that went 62% for Trump in 2024, that’s a bold – and politically foolish – strategy.

Speaker Jason White and other conservatives in the House remain focused on one thing: helping bring freedom to Mississippi families so their kids can succeed. Instead of working with us toward solutions, the opposition fights tooth and nail to protect the current system – a system that benefits them with money, power, and control but too often fails Mississippi families.

Keep in mind, these same groups opposed nearly every reform that made up the “Mississippi Miracle.” They fought our new public education funding formula, which provided historic funding for districts and students who need additional resources. They fought against giving students with special needs more options and then kept hundreds of those same students stuck on waiting lists for years. When Mississippi passed its first school choice program for students with special needs in 2015, you’d have thought the sky was falling. Nearly a decade later, the sky is still there – and so is Jackson.

The truth is simple: those who fight most fiercely against school choice do not have your best interest, or the best interest of Mississippi children, at heart. They have a documented history of being wrong – and, fortunately, a decorated history of losing. This time will be no different.

At the end of the day, I stand with Mississippi’s parents. And I’ll stand with them over liberal advocacy groups every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Parents deserve the freedom to direct their children’s education. So keep fighting for your kids. Keep fighting for freedom. Keep fighting for a brighter future for Mississippi. President Trump, Governor Reeves, Speaker White, and conservatives across our state and nation are with us.

Education freedom opponents are scared – and they should be. Freedom is coming. 

And together, we’ve got this.