Jackson Free Press

With evidence everywhere that good public education is key to our city and our state's economic future, not to mention public safety, it is time that to slay the dinosaurs of the past who don't want to fund or reform education in a way that makes sense for the most children. OK, we don't mean to literally slay them, but it is time for legislators and votes to get unstuck from the time warp that says that tax dollars should not help "the other."

In his posthumously published book "My Mississippi," Willie Morris warned in no uncertain terms that the biggest challenge facing the state is that, due to our ugly history, too many Mississippians do not understand that we sink or swim together. He specifically talked about the unequal public-education system, a leftover from the days of segregated schools and counties, and the tragedy that is the people who don't want their taxes to help pay for others to have a good education. (Many of the same people, or their grandparents, were fine with this tax expenditure back when the schools were segregated, remember.)

Morris quoted his friend, the historian Patti Carr-Black: "It's curious," she said, "but Mississippi lacks a sense of community. We have a deep sense of place, but no sense of 'we're in this together, let's make life better for everyone." Then Morris continued: "Segregation dominated the 20th century, and, although it was outlawed 30 years ago, it lives in our spirit. White society has been in power throughout our history, and it has lacked the will to deal with social problems because it has wrongly perceived the main beneficiaries to be black. We've not comprehended that we sink or swim together."

And even if you don't give a damn about your neighbor, the truth is that the selfish thing to do is to support quality public education for all. If we don't, then the entire community suffers—from crime, from shrinking tax bases, brain drain to other state of our smartest young people, increasing health-care costs, bad roads (because all that tax base moved elsewhere), and so on.

We "bleeding hearts" aren't the only bearers of these facts these days. We are happy to see the business community join us on this podium. Read Blake Wilson's interview (on page 19) about why Mississippi's work force (and thus all of our economic futures) depends on a good education system. And he's not talking about passing out vouchers; he means funding public education as well as early childhood education.

The next-generation business community in Mississippi is starting to wise up about education and how it affects all of us. Wilson's point that you can't run public schools like businesses. But you sure can run them in a way that benefits businesses and, thus, our economic strength.

No matter your ethnicity or economic situation, please join the widening chorus in our state calling for strong, fully funded public education that benefits us all. Playing politics on the backs of children, and our future, must end here.