14 Cents To The Promised Land

By Donna Ladd Wednesday, November 1, 2006 5:55 p.m. CST

"We must not let anything interfere with the ability of the youth of this region to secure here in the region as good an education as is available anywhere in the country, and this opportunity must be available to all of the bright young men and women and not just to the chosen few. Only in this way can the South be true to its promise."
— William Winter, March 27, 1963

I believe in giving credit where it is due, so here it is: If it weren't for public-school teachers who believed that a scraggly little Mississippi girl with bad grammar could be more, you would not be reading these words today.

That is the honest-to-God truth. I would likely be living in a trailer park still, trying to support too many kids, crying at night because I hadn't had the chance to use my brain or be something more than one would expect from the daughter of sharecroppers who couldn't (mother) or could barely (father) read.

Public education changed my life and my future. I owe everything I am, or can ever be, to a system set up to give me the same opportunities as kids who ate their catfish and banana pudding with silver forks and spoons every night. It is a debt to my fellow citizens that I can never fully repay. But I will keep trying.

There is nothing more American than a public-school system that enables any child a chance at the American dream. There is nothing more genius than the public investing in the children of tomorrow. There is nothing more brilliant or far-thinking than sharing a bit of our blessings so that our communities become safer, stronger places where businesses thrive—and create more jobs for all.

It's a delicious and glorious cycle. But it's a cycle that must be supported, or it falls apart. When children go to schools we let crumble and decay, it is hard to tell them that we believe in them and their potential. Holes in school roofs symbolize sloppiness and dishonesty in our attempts to tell them to do what is right for everyone around them. Educating kids in trailers makes it hard to convince them that we want them to be the best and the brightest, and to stay in the state and give back.

We need to walk our talk. We must do unto others as we would have them do unto us—or as they have done unto us to help us get where we are today. That means respecting children's right to learn, so that they will grow up and afford the community and the country the respect and responsibility that good citizens learn from a good education.

It's a cycle that, when supported, will not fail us—paying us back in a safer city, rich with pride, good jobs and young people with a debt to pay. And they will repay it; when we teach our children well, they know intrinsically that they have to give back. They know that each one must teach one. They pass it on.

It is not only the physical buildings and the students we must support—we must be there for the real American heroes, the ones who slog and scrape and make a difference in times of war and peace. We must support our teachers. They are literally shaping our future.

A couple weeks ago, I attended a heartstring-tugging ceremony at Boyd Elementary School on Northside Drive. Attending were a rainbow coalition of people who care about Jackson and our future—from Dr. Helen Barnes to Camp Best of the Fondren Renaissance Foundation to businessman Joel Brown to City Councilman Leslie McLemore. After Tony climbed a ladder to hang his painting of Medgar Evers, given that day to the children of Boyd, the young people responded with songs, poems and odes to Medgar Evers. That room was filled with future state leaders—surrounded by teachers who are helping them locate the bootstraps that will get them to the top.

But at the reception afterward, I heard one of the teachers talking about old carpet smells that were literally making her and other teachers sick to their stomachs.

Making our teachers sick is not an investment in our future, folks. Neither is making them teach in trailers or without sufficient materials to get the job done well. We will lose our best and brightest teachers to richer districts and other states if we don't invest a minimal amount in our future—the school bond issue on the ballot Tuesday will cost the average taxpayer $50 per year. That's $4.17 a month, 96 cents a week, 14 cents a day.

We need to award our teaching heroes 14 cents a day simply for staying the course. Jackson Public Schools have shown remarkable progress in recent years—despite a serious under-commitment by taxpayers. ACT scores are going up, which means better college educations, better jobs and, ultimately, more tax dollars in the city and state. More JPS students are graduating than ever before. More students are taking advanced placement courses.

This is a cycle to love and encourage and nurture. We can do that next week by supporting the bond issue that will, in turn, help plug holes in our city's schools—literally and figuratively. As former Gov. William Winter—the father of education reform in the state—said in a 1985 WJTV commentary published in a new and wonderful book of his writings: "Money alone may not guarantee better schools, but we are not going to get better schools and better teachers without it. The truth of the matter is that for a long time we have been getting some rare bargains in so many of our teachers."

Rare bargains, indeed. It is vital for Jacksonians to understand that those bargains will be rarer and rarer if the community does not support teachers' work, and that of the schools and their mission to educate and prepare more young people for the local work force. Gov. Winter talked in 1992 about the need for "caring, conscientious and competent teachers." He said then: "Attracting more of them into the classroom is the most effective school reform policy that I can think of."

We've been through a lot in Mississippi, and we are seeing the daylight on the other end of our darkness. But it is vital to remember that we will never get to that promised land if we do not join hands, and share 14 cents a day to educate our young people.

We sink or swim together, folks. On behalf of public-school alumni everywhere and wonderful teachers who change lives—like my personal saviors, Mrs. Hodges and Mrs. Salter at Neshoba Central—please leave your house Tuesday, Nov. 7, go to the polling place and vote "yes" on the JPS school bond issue.

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