Parent Power: Local mom, Amanda Kibble, with Douglas Carswell from the
Mississippi Center for Public Policy

Rankin county mom, Amanda Kibble, is celebrating an important win for her family.  Her victory could also help military families throughout the state.

Earlier this year, House Bill 1341 was signed into law by Governor Tate Reeves.  The new law allows families of military personnel to transfer their children to any traditional public school in the state, assuming receiving school has capacity.  It means that military families effectively now have school choice within the public school system.

“When this bill was passed” explains Amanda “it meant that we would be able to keep our little boy in the school we really wanted him to be in”.

“Last year, we were so excited when the bill passed.  It meant our son, who has a dyslexia diagnosis, could get some stability.  As a military kid, he’s already experienced enough difficulties and instability.”

However, the good news did not last.

“At the beginning of the year, we were told that we had misinterpreted the bill” Amanda explained.  “House Bill 1341 was, they said, not for National Guard families. It was only for Active Duty personnel.”

“This was a real blow to our family.  At his current school, my son grew so much in confidence.  I was really anxious that would all be lost if we were forced out of the school of our choice”.

Amanda reached out to local Senator Josh Harkins – and contacting the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, which fights for school choice.

Now the Attorney General has issued a formal opinion stating the National Guard AGR families are included in the legislation after all.  National Guard families can have school choice.

“We are ecstatic to have won and to have the opportunity to let my son stay in his school for the rest of the year.  However, while we have won a huge victory, our family will have to move next year.  We want to see a change so that school choice is a reality for all families”. 

“The Attorney General’s opinion applies specifically for National Guard Active Guard Reserve (AGR) but does not yet apply to Traditional Guard Members or those on Active Duty for Operational Support (ADOS) orders or Title 32 orders.  This needs to change”. 

“Senator Harkins was wonderful and did so much to help” she added. 

“This is good news for Amanda and her family – and its great news for Mississippi military families” explains Douglas Carswell from the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.

“Any families in a similar situation should get in touch with us”, he added. 

“Thanks to HB 1341, which was passed this year, military families – including those in the National Guard – more families can have more school choice from public school to public school.  Anecdotal evidence suggests that demand to take advantage of this scheme is high”, he added.

“But why not let every family have the right to choose?  Provided that schools have capacity, parents should be able to send their kids to a school in a different district, or even a different school within the same district”.

The Mississippi Center for Public Policy, which helped Amanda fight her case, has a legal division, the Mississippi Justice Institute (MJI).  MJI successfully litigated to defend Charter Schools, and has a successful track record of litigating in support of school choice in our state. 

“Parents have a right to expect the best for their child and school choice would give moms like Amanda control over their child’s education”, Douglas added.

The Mississippi State Legislature recommends dissolving the Mississippi Board of Barber Examiners. 

Mississippi should abolish the Board of Barber Examiners, says a new report from the state legislature. Mississippi’s Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Committee – or PEER committee – has proposed that both the Barber Board and the Cosmetology Board be dissolved.

This is great news. It is absurd that Mississippi has more restrictive practices in place limiting the number of barbers than most other states. As the PEER report says, the Barber board is not very good at what it does; "the Board examination practices are not very effective at evaluating a candidate’s effectiveness."

Nor, suggests the report, is the Board particularly well run.

With fewer than four out of 10 applicants approved for a license last year, some might suggest that the barber board exists to limit the number of people able to operate as barbers. This is just to sort of restrictive practice Mississippi needs to do away with.

"But what about the dangers of unlicensed barbers?!" some will shriek. "How will Mississippi manage without a Board of Barber Examiners?"

Curiously, the Barber Examiner Board doesn’t seem to have been that into examining. In 2022, the Board’s inspectors only conducted 191 inspections of the 2,134 barber shops and schools licensed by the Board. If the vast majority of barbers could cope without an inspection, why have an inspection board at all?

Why does this new report matter? Actually, this is about much more than barbers. It is about a new Mississippi mindset.

For years, economic and business activity in our state has been regulated by vested interests entrenched in the local bureaucracy. This latest report is based on a realization that things do not have to be that way.

If we can cope without a Barber board, we might not need dozens of other regulators and boards, such as the Charter School Authorizer board, whose main activity seems to be to say ‘no’.

Interestingly, the report cites Mississippi’s new universal licensing law as a reason for reform. With it now much easier for those that have obtained certification out of state to get permission to practice in Mississippi, our homegrown restrictive practices are all the more evident.

Change is coming, and hopefully, it will sweep away more than just the Barber Board.

Charter Authorization Board failing Mississippi Children 

Today’s announcement that the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board has rejected all but one application to open new Charter Schools in our state is deeply disappointing, said Douglas Carswell, President & CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.

"It is over a decade since the law was changed to allow Charter Schools in Mississippi," Carswell said. "So far we have eight Charter Schools in the entire state. At this rate, it would take a century or so before we get a critical mass of new Charter Schools."

"The Charter School Authorizer Board seems almost determined to reject new applications. Any application that is not deemed perfect gets a thumbs down."

"The fact that not every application is deemed perfect is not an acceptable excuse. The job of the Authorizer Board should be to work with applicants to ensure they are acceptable."

"Rejecting any application that is not 100 percent perfect is absurd. It means that children that might be able to go to a Charter School are forced to remain in their very far from perfect school board run school."

"If the Authorizer Board is not up to approving new Charter Schools, responsibility to overseeing the process needs to be shared with other organizations and agencies that are."

Mississippi’s free-market think tank, the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, won two national awards at the State Policy Network annual conference in Atlanta yesterday. 

• 1ST AWARD - “Biggest win for Freedom” award: Earlier this year, Mississippi passed historic tax reform, with the Mississippi Tax Freedom Act. The change cut the state income tax and gave 1.1 million Mississippians a tax break. In recognition of MCPP’s role in achieving this landmark reform, MCPP was given the “Biggest Win for Freedom” Award, jointly with Empower Mississippi.

"Mississippi has historically had a high tax burden and slow growth," said Douglas Carswell, MCPP’s President & CEO. "Our campaign to cut the state income tax is helping to change that."

"We won this award for the work we did to bring key people and organizations into alignment, found common ground for carefully costed state income tax cuts, and at the same time built popular support for the idea.”

• 2ND AWARD - SPN Network Award: In recognition of our effort to overturn the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate, our litigation division, the Mississippi Justice Institute, won the SPN Network Award. We were given the award jointly with a number of other think tanks, including the Texan Public Policy Foundation and Louisiana’s Pelican Institute.

"We are honored to be recognized alongside so many esteemed constitutional litigation centers," said MJI director, Aaron Rice, who helped lead the fight. "We will continue standing up against government overreach and protecting constitutional rights at every opportunity."

The State Policy Network supports a movement of over 60 independent think tanks across America and has over 90 partners. At this year’s conference, SPN gave out five awards. MCPP was a finalist in three of the five categories, going on to win in two.

"It is wonderful that MCPP was a finalist in three of the five categories," Carswell said. "But we like to win for Mississippi, so it was wonderful to go on to actually win twice.

"Mississippi has been one of the poorest states in America for as long as anyone can remember," Carswell said. "MCPP exists to try to change that, and we believe we will only change that by achieving big, strategic changes that improve decades of public policy failure."

"These awards show that MCPP is an effective vehicle for change," Carswell said. "We are helping to drive the far-reaching change that Mississippi needs. Now we want to try to achieve big, strategic wins in improving education and healthcare in our state, too."

(Jackson, MS): The Mississippi Justice Institute's Director, Aaron Rice, receives an award from the Foundation for Holistic Health Education.

Mississippi Justice Institute Director Aaron Rice received an award from the Foundation for Holistic Health Education for his support and dedication to holistic health and its practitioners. 

Rice received the award in recognition of his role in bringing a lawsuit that successfully ended Mississippi's practice of requiring weight-loss coaches to have a dietician's license or face jail and fines - even if they did not treat medical conditions or claim to be a licensed dieticians.  

"I am honored to receive this recognition on behalf of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy and its legal arm, the Mississippi Justice Institute," Rice said. "We will continue standing up for the right of all Mississippians to earn an honest living in our state." 

After Rice won the case against the bureaucratic law, the state amended its regulations to allow unlicensed people to offer non-medical weight-loss advice as long as they do not claim to be a dietitian, allowing more Mississippians the opportunity to make a living and provide for their families.

"Aaron is a tireless advocate for working Mississippians, and we are proud to see him receive this award," said Douglas Carswell, the CEO & President of MCPP. "Because of Aaron's efforts, regular Mississippians have never felt more confident that their constitutional rights will be protected and, if needed, zealously defended."

The Mississippi Justice Institute is a non-profit, constitutional litigation center and the legal arm of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. It defends the personal, economic and religious liberty of Mississippians in court to ensure that all forms of government are limited to their essential responsibilities as provided by the Constitution and to foster freedom and prosperity in the state.  

(Jackson, MS): The Mississippi Center for Public Policy’s success in helping push through the largest tax cut in Mississippi history has been recognized nationally.

The State Policy Network today shortlisted the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, together with Empower Mississippi, for an Outstanding Policy Achievement Award for their work in securing the passage of the Mississippi Tax Freedom Act 2022. 

Thanks to the Tax Freedom Act:

• $525 million was returned to Mississippi taxpayers.
• Over a million income taxpayers in our state are better off.
• Mississippi will have the fifth lowest marginal income tax rate among states that have an income tax, and one of the lowest top marginal income tax rates in the southeast.

The Mississippi Center for Public Policy was additionally shortlisted for a national Communications Excellence award for building a mass movement that made change possible. Almost 90,000 individual Mississippians read our weekly newsletter each month and thousands watch and listen to our audio-visual output.

The public will now vote to decide if Mississippi will win the Communications Award.

"We face strong competition from some of the larger states” explained Douglas Carswell, MCPP CEO & President. “We really need Mississippians to vote online to make sure that Mississippi wins!"

Please vote to make sure Mississippi wins!
Here is the URL to vote: https://spn.org/2022-communications-award-vote/

"I am over the moon that we have been recognized nationally for both our policy work and for creating a mass movement for change!" said Carswell.

"Mississippi has historically had a high tax burden, and as recently as 2021 not even a majority of Republican lawmakers in the Senate favored the change,” he explained.

"We saw an opportunity in bringing many of the key policymakers in our state together and creating a coalition for change," Carswell said. "We published rigorous research and launched a campaign to popularize the case for change. As a consequence, the Mississippi Tax Freedom Act did not just pass in the legislature where it had previously died. It passed with bipartisan support."Further details about both award nominations can be found here:

• Policy Award: https://spn.org/blog/2022-bob-williams-award-finalists/
• Communications Award: https://spn.org/blog/2022-communications-award-finalists/

Douglas Carswell joins the Governor, Speaker Gunn and others at the signing into law of the Mississippi Tax Freedom Act.

Oxford Rotary Club hosted a lunch meeting with Douglas Carswell, President & CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy on Tuesday.

A former Member of the British Parliament, Carswell talked about American exceptionalism – and why respect for the US Constitution was so important.

The Mississippi Center for Public Policy announced the launch of the Mississippi Leadership Academy today. 

The Mississippi Leadership Academy is a six-step program designed to equip college student leaders with the skills and knowledge necessary to be effective change agents within the state. The program will run out of the MCPP offices, conveniently located in the capital city, beginning in fall 2022 and ending in May 2023. 

The Leadership Academy is a way to inform, educate and connect the rising generation of Mississippians to the free market and the realm of policymaking. It will introduce participants to some of the key institutions and individuals that impact public policy in the state, as well as gain experience and see real-world government action. 

“Mississippi needs change if we are to stop being 50th out of 50,” MCPP CEO & President Douglas Carswell said. “Our Leadership Academy aims to help us achieve policy change by supporting future leaders for our state. We have put together an exciting program that introduces participants to the key challenges we face.”

Students can apply for the academy through the MCPP website at mspolicy.org/leadership-academy. 

We have an impressive lineup of speakers for the program, including State Auditor Shad White, Chip Pickering and several leading academics, opinion formers and policy experts.

Upon graduation, students will have made connections with student peers, as well as our state’s preeminent thought leaders, and will graduate from the program better prepared to defend American principles, enter the workforce and lead. Aside from learning about policymaking in our state, a key aspect of the program is to encourage and inspire young Mississippians to stay, live and work in the Magnolia State.

“Mississippi has had a conservative super majority for a number of years,” Carswell said. “The Leadership Academy aims to foster a shared sense of mission and purpose as to how we might use the majority to deliver real change.”

For media inquiries, please reach out to Tyler B. Jones, [email protected].

(Jackson, MS): The Mississippi Center for Public Policy has hired Michelle Brodsky as its new Investigative Researcher/Journalist 

Michelle Brodsky, a native of Pennsylvania, will serve as the Mississippi Center for Public Policy’s new Investigative Researcher/Journalist. Through this position, she will conduct primary research on energy policy, healthcare and education and works with the Director of Communications to assemble her findings in a cohesive and succinct manner.

Michelle is a graduate of the University of Hartford where she studied history, psychology, and economics, launching her journey in conservative politics. She will be attending Cornell Law School this coming fall and hopes to eventually become a criminal defense attorney or a civil rights attorney.

“Michelle is a first-class writer who will produce in-depth research and analysis," CEO & President Douglas Carswell said. "I am excited to have her as part of our team, taking on the cozy cartels that hold our state back and advancing the cause of liberty.”

Monday was Michelle’s first day on the job. She will primarily be working virtually. Her first research article, published Thursday, can be found here. 

As a first-generation American whose parents escaped the communism of the former USSR, Michelle is particularly passionate about ensuring that the United States does not end up like the former Soviet Union. Along with freedom of speech and gun rights, Michelle's top issues are school choice, education reform and election integrity.

“I am really excited to work for MCPP as an investigative reporter because I will have the opportunity to conduct primary research on issues that deeply affect all Mississippians and Americans,” Brodsky said. “In a world that relies on sound bites, it has become increasingly important to dive into the facts and draw original conclusions.”