The View
August 23, 2010
When one has been in the education field for a while it is natural to wax nostalgic as the school bells toll the end to yet another summer. I was absolutely mortified the other day as I found myself relating one of those tales of woe about how rough we had it during our seemingly pre-historic days in school.
You know the stories that we baby boomers had to listen to about how our depression-era parents had to trudge five miles in the snow to school in shoes lined with cardboard to keep out some of the dampness and cold. I didn’t try to get away with that, but I caught myself trying to elicit sobs of sympathy by telling some youngster that when I was in school the buildings were not even air-conditioned, and that notebook paper stuck to your sweat-drenched arm in class. I further horrified my young listener by telling him that when I came to college the dormitories were not air-conditioned. How could we have been so abused? It is indeed the beginning of the school year. I know so when in my University haven the sounds of the marching band’s drum line begin pounding above the drone of the modern air-conditioner that sets right by my ear in my office.
At this time of the year I invariably think back to my late father’s stories of his arrival and subsequent exploits on this same college campus. He hitchhiked here in the mid-1930’s from his childhood home on the Tippah/Union County line. If you did not know where he decided to go to college his chosen academic major of Animal Husbandry would be a dead give away as to his college of choice. More than a few times I kidded my father that if he had simply stuck his thumb out and stayed in the road two or three more hours across to Tuscaloosa, Alabama all of our Saturdays would have been more interesting.
Apparently, rather than winning football he must have had his sites set on Old Main dormitory and more specifically the political domination of the infamous section called “Pole Cat Alley.” All I know is that he and his fellow henchmen, whether democratically elected or otherwise, had my father installed as the official (or unofficial) “Mayor of Pole Cat Alley,” and he ruled with an iron hand until he was ousted in old fashioned coup d’état perpetrated by a rival group. While the unembellished facts are probably lost to history, it is clear that the time spent in Old Main made its mark on my father. This was made abundantly clear when, at the age of eight, I rode with him from our little central Mississippi hometown to watch firemen spray water on the dying embers after the great hall famously burned to the ground.
It is that time of year, and it is indeed a joy to hear the stories of the old days emanating from all of our universities and community colleges. It is evident in every case that success stories throughout Mississippi were shaped by activities nurtured on these hallowed grounds and much of this shaping took place far beyond the classroom.
Once again this year, as in the recent past, higher education enrollment figures appear poised to break records all across the state. This is perhaps a sign that things are looking up. In Mississippi’s past, on far too many occasions, students didn’t make it across the high school finish line to be able to enter college or they became distracted or otherwise fell short of the necessary requirements to enter job training programs.
The State of Mississippi can ill afford to lose even one set of hands pulling on the economic development rope. Just last week we were given a reprieve of sorts when Congress rescued a number of kindergarten through 12th grade teaching positions with a supplemental federal appropriation. Such an eleventh hour rescue is not likely to be repeated, but even so Mississippi can not afford to lose any more ground to the relentless international push for education. As we continue to wrestle with a recession-ridden budget the sacrifice must be made to guard education at all costs.
Perhaps we should first drop the title we have placed on our marquis education funding effort, the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, and replace it with the Mississippi Superior Education Program. For sure, we need to gather all who value education from the womb to graduate school under the same tent in a show of unity. For it is true that the vocabularies learned by our two-year-olds will be rewarded 16 or so years later by our universities, community colleges and job training programs.
Never should we view a dollar spent at one level as being a dollar lost at another. A dollar invested in education at any level should redound to the benefit of the taxpayer in the form of enhanced economic prosperity for all Mississippians. Former Governor William Winter hit the nail squarely on the head when he said, “The road to prosperity invariably must lead past the school house door.” The task is ours to build that road. No state in the nation and no country on the globe are going to wait on Mississippi.
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Archives
Conservative Republicans and Judicial Activism? August 9, 2010
The November Mid-Term Elections and Beyond July 26, 2010
The Dog Days of Summer: Political “What IfS?” July 12, 2010
Maybe It's Time to Throw Some Money at Education June 28, 2010
Where Have All The Parties Gone? June 14, 2010
The Government vs. The Free Market: Back on Center Stage May 31, 2010
Political Pollsters Headed Back to Center Stage May 17, 2010
Mission Mississippi: Traveling the Last Mile in Race Relations May 3, 2010
The Return of the Representative Government Debate April 19, 2010
The 10th Amendment, The Commerce Clause, The Spuremacy Clause: An Old Fashion Constitutional Debate April 5, 2010
Talk of Public Options and the Nanny State March 22, 2010
Two Weeks In Washingto Proves Instructive March 8, 2010
Education Funding: A Case of Mississippi Exceptionalism February 22, 2010
Debating the Role of Government February 8, 2010
The Coming Era of Goverment by Filibuster January 25, 2010
Government and the Private Sector: We're All in This Together January 11, 2010
A Decade's Swing of the Political Pendulum December 28, 2009
The 2010 Legislature: The Calm Before the Storm December 14, 2009
The Never Ending Saga of Heath Care Reform November 30, 2009
Preview of Coming Attractions November 16, 2009
What Does It Mean To Be Defined As Rural? November 2, 2009
Are We Splitting the Philosophical Sheets? October 16, 2009
Is Health Care Headed to the States? October 5, 2009
No State Left Behind? September 21, 2009
Federalism: A Solution or a Perfect Storm September 8, 2009
A Last Deep Breath Before Congress Returns August 24, 2009
Outrage Then and Now August 14, 2009
#15 - A Whole Lot of Government Going On July 27, 2009
#14 - The Governor Doesn't Walk or Quack Like a Lame Duck July 14, 2009
#13 - Governing for a Free People is Hard Work June 29, 2009
#12 - Summer Entertainment: A Look at the Census Numbers June 15, 2009
#11 - It's Time to Dust Off the Language of Judicial Philosophy June 1, 2009
#10 - Campaign Time in Small Town Mississippi May 19, 2009
#9 - The Season of Deja Vu May 4, 2009
#8 - Grassroots, Tea Parties, and Local Government April 24, 2009
#7 - Church and State: Church or State April 6, 2009
#6 - A Season of Lesson in Fiscal Federalism March 23, 2009
#5 - Here We Go Again: Earmarks Revisited March 9, 2009
#61 - Drawing Battle Lines in the Rural/Urban Divide February 23, 2009
#60 - When Does Obama Become the Owner? February 9, 2009
#59 - The Morning After and Other Thoughts on the Presidential Inauguration January 26, 2009
#58 - Washington and the Inauguration: Sometimes you just have to be there January 14, 2009
#57 - Policy Vs. Politics: The Differences Are Often Big August 11, 2008
#56 - A Mid-Summer's Check-Up on the Presidential Race July 28, 2008
#55 - We're Here: Focusing Attention on the Plight of our Rural Areas July 12, 2008
#54 - Habeas Corpus 101 June 30, 2008
#53 - Obama V McCain: The Shape of the Court to Come June 16, 2008
#52 - A Timely Good-bye from William F. Buckley, Jr. June 2, 2008
#51 - The Vindication of Howard Dean. May 19, 2008
#50 - As the Presidential Campaign World Turns. May 5, 2008
#49 - Preparing to Score the Presidential Campaign on the Constitution. April 21, 2008
#48 - DeSoto Countians and Democrats in the First District: We Are Here! April 7, 2008
#47 - We May No Longer Avoid the Race Issue March 24, 2008
#46 - Waiting for the Main Event March 10, 2008
#45 - The Good Old First Amendment February 18, 2008
#44 - Limited Vision of the Political Pundits February 6, 2008
#43 - Living Proof That Every Vote Counts January 21, 2008
#42 - The Wild, Wild First Congressional District January 8, 2008
#41 - Throwing Another Log on The Political Fire December 28, 2007
#40 - Congressional Earmark: A Different View December 10, 2007
#39 - Shift the Election Gears November 22, 2007
#38B - Finding Our Way Through Post-Election Landscape November 14, 2007
#38A - Special Elections Edition, October 29, 2007. On the Eve of the Election: One More Round of the "72 Hour Blitz" October 29, 2007
#37 - Two Years of Celebrating Democracy October 22, 2007
#36 - If It's Factual Is It Negative? October 9, 2007
#35 - Repairing House Divided. September 25, 2007
#34 - The Mysterious Disappearance of Political Discourse. September 10, 2007
#32 - The First Primary: Clarifying The Questions August 14, 2007
#33 - Have Legislative Elections Ever Been More Important? August 14, 2007
#31 - What Would the Founding Fathers Think Now? July 30, 2007
#30 - It's Time to Cut Senator Lott Some Slack July 16, 2007
#29 - Is Something Missing in Politics? July 2, 2007
#28 - One Fine Mess June 18, 2007
#27 - Setting the Historical Record Straight June 4, 2007
#26 - Population Changes and Politics May 21, 2007
#25 - New Debate Over the Subject of Regionalism May 8, 2007
#24 - Thanks Once Again to Our Constitutional Ancestors April 23, 2007
#23 - The 2007 Elections: Taking the Long View April 3, 2007
#22 - Has The Past Really Passed? March 26, 2007
#21 - A Tale of Two Parties. March 12, 2007
#20 - Careers and Home and Hearth: A growing "Angst". February 26, 2007
#19 - A Periodic Check on the Political Landscape. February 12, 2007
#18- Reflections on "The Measure of Our Days". January 29, 2007
#17 - Elections - Celebrations of Democracy. January 17, 2007
#16 - Earmark Bashing is Premature. January 4, 2007
#15 - The Subtleties of Two-Party Politics in Mississippi. December 18, 2006
#14 - This Time We Were the Leaders. December 4, 2006
#11 - We've Only Just Begun: Now It's Mississippi's Turn. November 18, 2006
#10 - November 7: The Biggest Test Yet of The Rove System? November 6, 2006
#9 - The 2006 Showdown: Only The Beginning of The Journey to 2008. October 23, 2006
#8 - Can Rural Life Remain Viable? October 9, 2006
#7 - President George Bush, Mayor Frank Melton and Due Process. September 25, 2006
#6 - Is the Pendulum Swinging toward "Big Government Republicans?" September 12, 2006
#5 - The Winding Road to Two-Party Politics in Mississippi. August 18, 2006
#4 - We're All in This Together. August 8, 2006
#3 - Local Government and Local Democracy. July 31, 2006
#2 - Katrina Gave Government No Time to Rehearse. July 17, 2006
#1 - The View From The Stennis Institute of Government. July 3, 2006
