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Op-Ed: When will Mississippi expand school choice programs? | Opinion

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Douglas Carswell | Mississippi Center for Public Policy – 2024-06-24 16:27:00

Mississippi is almost surrounded by states that have expanded school choice. Why don’t we?

Last week Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana signed into law the LA GATOR Scholarship program. Starting in 2025, Louisiana families can receive state funds to pay for educational expenses to meet their child’s individual needs.

Alabama passed similar legislation a few months ago. Arkansas did something similar in 2023.

In Mississippi, nothing. Why?

Mississippi does not lack a conservative majority. Conservatives have been in charge of the Mississippi House, Senate and Governor’s mansion since 2012.

Conservatives in Alabama and Arkansas have had control for about the same length of time as in our state. Somehow, they seem to have done something with it.

Louisiana conservatives have achieved more school choice in 12 months than Mississippi conservatives have in 12 years. Landry only won back the governor’s mansion last year and he signed school choice into law last week.

A major part of the problem is that many Mississippi leaders refuse to see the need for reform. They want to believe that education standards are improving and that there’s not much need to change. 

Here’s why they are wrong:

  • One in four school children in our state are chronically absent. That’s 108,310 children in 2022-23, up dramatically from 70,275 in 2016-17. If Mississippi education is as good as they say it is, why are so many kids not showing up?
  • Eight out of 10 eighth grade kids in Mississippi were not proficient in math in 2022.
  • Almost seven in 10 fourth grade kids in Mississippi were not proficient in reading in 2022.

How many Mississippi politicians would be willing to send their kids to a school with those standards?

Almost four in 10 fourth graders in 2022 did not even reach the basic reading standard. Let’s quit pretending things are fine when our current system is unable to teach 10 year olds the basics of reading.

Reform is difficult. If you are a conservative, overhauling anything involving the public sector means stirring up a hornet’s nest of opposition. It’s easier to buddy up to the absurdly misnamed Parents’ Campaign and defend the status quo. I get all that.

Here’s why Mississippi conservatives absolutely have to use the majority they have to achieve school choice.

Over the past 30 years, we have seen the ideological takeover of much of America by the far left. If you had told me at the time of the Iraq war or even when Obama was in the White House that American students would be protesting in support of Hamas in 2024, I would not have believed you. Today it happens frequently.

A generation ago, corporate America did not demand to know your preferred pronouns. Today you can hardly apply for a job at a big firm without doing so.

Where do you think this ideological extremism came from? It has been made possible by the influence of critical theory ideologues on our education system.

Of course, not every school is a hotbed of woke intersectional ideology. But the only way to stop the advance of woke ideology in America is to give parents back control over their children’s education.

The lesson of the past 30 years is that unless conservative America has a plan to take back control of the education system, the left will win. It is not enough to run for office as a conservative because you happen to hunt or have the right bumper stickers on your truck.

 Conservatives in office who do nothing to advance school choice are assisting, however unwittingly, the radical left in their capture of this country.

We cannot afford another decade of wasted opportunities to achieve school choice.

Douglas Carswell is the President & CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.

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News from the South - Louisiana News Feed

Carbon capture hearings will hear from concerned residents, industry | Louisiana

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Nolan McKendry | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-25 16:45:00

(The Center Square) − Louisiana Rep. Joseph Orgeron, R-Jefferson, is taking a less cautious position on carbon capture — acknowledging local concerns while defending the role the technology can play in reducing industrial emissions.

Orgeron will vice chair a high-stakes showdown over the future of carbon capture in Louisiana at the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee on Tuesday, where lawmakers are set to hear a sweeping package of bills aimed at reining in the state’s growing carbon sequestration industry.

“I sympathize with those constituents who are looking for the opt-out option—to not have it in their parish,” Orgeron told The Center Square in an interview. “But I represent an area basically awash in hydrocarbon harvesting from the early ’50s, ’60s. We’ve had our environment kind of shared with the hydrocarbon harvesting industry, so we’re a little bit more open to it.”

Orgeron chairs the state’s Clean Hydrogen Task Force and has positioned himself as an advocate for low-carbon technologies that can reduce emissions without sidelining Louisiana’s traditional energy sector.

“In Louisiana, we have the hydrocarbons, like natural gas, that can then be cracked to make the hydrogen feedstock that’s needed,” Orgeron said. “And rather than release [the carbon] into the environment… basically capture that carbon and sequester it safely in underground pore space that we also have a large amount of.”

Still, he acknowledged the desire of some parishes to block carbon capture developments and said he would support local opt-outs — though not without consequence.

“They would have to relinquish any and all benefits, monetary benefits, that they may receive from the added space, the added industry… that may come from carbon sequestration in the state,” Orgeron said.

The legislation, driven largely by Republican lawmakers from western and central Louisiana, targets everything from eminent domain powers to public notice requirements, with an emphasis on strengthening landowner rights and local control.

Rep. Rodney Schamerhorn, R-Beauregard, said in a previous interview that past land seizures for projects like Fort Polk and the Toledo Bend Reservoir have left lasting scars in his region, fueling deep mistrust of new carbon capture initiatives. While many residents initially supported the technology, he said they now feel misled about its purpose and risks.

The committee will also take up House Bill 4 by Rep. Charles Owen, HB353 by Rep. Shane Mack, HB522 by Rep. Danny McCormick, HB568 by Rep. R. Dewith Carrier, and Senate Bill 73 by Sen. Mike Reese.

The wave of proposals comes amid mounting scrutiny of carbon infrastructure, particularly in light of a 2020 pipeline rupture in Satartia, Miss. that released a cloud of CO2 into a nearby town when a landslide hit, causing residents to collapse or suffer seizures from oxygen deprivation.

Industry leaders are pushing back.

“This is a business opportunity,” said Tommy Faucheux, president of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association. “If we lose that, the investments — and the jobs — will go elsewhere.”

“These CCS projects and the associated development could transform communities in ways they’ve never seen,” Faucheux said. “We’re talking about economic development in parts of Louisiana that haven’t traditionally benefited from the oil and gas footprint.”

“The industry has been spending a lot of time engaging with communities, with land owners,” he added. “The companies want to work and come to agreements with all the landowners. They want to have conversations about pipeline routes, for instance. The use of eminent domain has not been something we’ve prioritized or really led with. I think it has been really more the exception than the standard.”

 

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News from the South - North Carolina News Feed

Eradication of divisive medical education policies applauded | North Carolina

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-25 15:59:00

(The Center Square) – Eliminating policies in higher education that U.S. Rep. Dr. Greg Murphy believes are detrimental to the best in health care is a step in the right direction, the North Carolina Republican says.



U.S. Rep. Dr. Greg Murphy, R-N.C.




“I applaud the Trump administration for rooting out the discriminatory and demeaning requirements of DEI in medication education,” Murphy said, referring to diversity, equity and inclusion. “These practices reward political activism and not merit. Patients deserve better.

“Liberal apologists played with patient’s lives to push a progressive discriminatory agenda. Doctors need to be selected as the brightest and hardest working, not on identity politics.”

Murphy’s assessment came a day after President Donald Trump’s executive order entitled Reforming Accreditation to Strengthen Higher Education.

The third graph of Section 2 reads in part, “The attorney general and the secretary of Education, in consultation with the secretary of Health and Human Services, shall investigate and take appropriate action to terminate unlawful discrimination by American medical schools or graduate medical education entities that is advanced by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education or the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education or other accreditors of graduate medical education, including unlawful ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ requirements under the guise of accreditation standards.”

Murphy, a practicing urologist, has repeatedly chastised the medical schools promoting diversity policies over merit.

Earlier this month, he responded to a writing in the New England Journal of Medicine entitled “Advancing health equity in the climate crisis – A climate justice curriculum for resident physicians.” He said it was “yet another example of irresponsible leadership in medical education.”

Murphy opined, “Instead of learning to take care of patients, medical residents are studying this nonsense. No wonder the questions about NIH funding are being asked.”

The National Institutes of Health operates with a budget of $47 billion. For worldwide biomedical research, it is the largest public funder.

Murphy believes the American health care system “is killing the patient” with the middlemen, including the education component.

He’s also spoken out on the Association of American Medical Colleges, saying it has been “exposed for their racially divisive lies.” A significant infant-mortality study, The National Review reported, was edited to preserve racial perspective. The story says “researchers deliberately obscured a data point about white babies under the care of Black physicians because ‘it undermines the narrative.’”

“Falsifying research,” Murphy said, “is why Americans have lost trust in medical education. All those involved in this scandal need to resign.”

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The Center Square

Feds launch investigation into UC Berkeley for not reporting CCP funding | California

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www.thecentersquare.com – Kenneth Schrupp – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-25 14:45:00

(The Center Square) – The United States Department of Education announced it is investigating the University of California, Berkeley for not reporting significant funding from the Chinese government.

“The Biden-Harris Administration turned a blind eye to colleges and universities’ legal obligations by deprioritizing oversight and allowing foreign gifts to pour onto American campuses,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “I have great confidence in my Office of General Counsel to investigate these matters fully, and they will begin by thoroughly examining U.C. Berkeley’s apparent failure to fully and accurately disclose significant funding received from foreign sources.” 

A 2023 House of Representatives investigation found Berkeley violated Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, which requires disclosure of foreign funding over $250,000, saying Chinese funding of American research institutions facilitates transfer of American-funded technology with military applications to the Chinese government.

“U.S.-Chinese joint education institutes like U.C. Berkeley’s partnership with Tsinghua University, and the University of Pittsburgh’s partnership with Sichuan University, serve as conduits for transferring critical U.S. technologies and expertise to China, including to entities linked to China’s defense machine and the security apparatus it uses to facilitate human rights abuses,” said Select Committee on the CCP in a report. 

At the time, Berkeley told the committee that it is “relinquishing all ownership” in the Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute. 

It also cited a Trump administration executive order directing the DOE to launch Section 117 investigations to secure compliance with reporting requirements that must be followed to continue receiving federal grant funding. 

In its announcement last week of a similar Section 117 investigation into Harvard University, DOE noted, “Noncompliance risks Department of Justice enforcement, including civil actions, or loss of federal funding eligibility.” 

The Department of Education says that “Berkeley’s responses revealed a fundamental misunderstanding regarding its Section 117 reporting obligations” in justifying its renewed investigation.

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