Mississippi

Mississippi's public schools have been underfunded and under-performing for years. Their students, especially in the state's poorer districts, face inequitable learning environments and lack the real opportunity to learn that could help encourage their future successes. Despite these very real problems, however, Tuesday's election failed in passing Proposition 42, a proposed constitutional amendment that would have required adequate and efficient funding of the state's public schools. Yet while the parents, students, educators, and advocates who led the campaign for the amendment are disappointed, they aren't giving up on Mississippi and the educational future of its children.

Thena Robinson-Mock, project director for the Advancement Project, provides an important update to the school discipline crisis in Mississippi in her recent op-ed for The Clarion-Ledger. Two years ago the Advancement Project, the ACLU, and the Mississippi NAACP jointly released a report exposing the state's extreme school-to-prison pipeline, and the discriminatory impact it had in particular on students of color. Unfortunately, Robinson-Mock writes that although some progress has been made, much still needs to be done to solve this problem.

In the past seven years, public schools in Mississippi have been shortchanged by more than $1.5 billion in funding. Now, state legislators are trying to cripple a voter initiative aimed at fixing that disparity. 

After collecting more than 188,000 signatures, organizers in Mississippi have won a place on the state's November 2015 ballot for a fair school funding initiative.

As part of the 50th Anniversary Freedom Summer conference, organizers in Mississippi are collecting signatures for a ballot initiative that would put the right to education and fair school funding in the state's constitution.

Every revolution needs a declaration. Against a backdrop of surging grassroots discontent with how the nation's K-12 public schools are currently governed, a diverse coalition of leaders from across the country have joined in support of "An Education Declaration to Rebuild America."

In an inspiring display of cross-sector collaboration, the New York City School-Justice Partnership Task Force has released an action plan for NYC officials to reduce the use of suspensions, summonses, and arrests by building common cause between different agencies and communities and implementing positive discipline strategies.

Proponents of charter schools and charter expansion consistently overlook serious issues with how these schools can selectively shape their student enrollment. A report from the National Education Policy Center describes 12 practices that charter schools use to push out or discourage enrollment of students with special needs, those with low test scores, English learners, or students in poverty.

May 17th is the 59th anniversary of the historic Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. Decades later, students, parents, teacher and advocates are still fighting against education policies that leave students of color and low-income students deprived of the resources and opportunities they need to succeed. But a grassroots revolution is brewing, what blogger Jeff Bryant has been calling an "education spring," and this past week has seen headline-grabbing victories and inspiring actions.