Did you know that Mississippi is now one of the fastest growing states in America? Only two states saw real GDP rise faster than it did here in the third quarter of 2024.
Were you aware that personal income in our state rose more here than almost anywhere in the US this past year?
New data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis shows that Mississippi is on the up.
For as long as anyone can remember, Mississippi has ranked 50th out of 50. Not for much longer, perhaps. According to this new data, ours’s was one of the top performing states in 2024. If we keep growing for the next few years the way we did in 2024, we won’t be bottom of the class for much longer.
Mississippi’s success is not an accident. It’s a consequence of a number of key free market reforms:
- Labor market deregulation, with an Occupational Licensing law in 2021.
- Tax cuts with legislation to cut the state income tax to a flat 4 percent in 2022.
- Further tax reform to make it more tax efficient for businesses in 2023.
- Education funding reform as a step towards school choice in 2024.
These reforms have begun to energize our state. They make it easier for people to get ahead, for businesses to invest, and for families to spend their income on their priorities. They draw in inward investment, which is changing our state for the better.
If Mississippi is not to lose this momentum, we need to go even further. That is why MCPP has just published a Blueprint for Mississippi – a list of the ten key reforms that would lift our state to the top of the economic table.
The number one reform we need to prosper is school choice. Why? School choice is the only way to be certain of raising standards. The better job we do of educating young people, the greater their chances of leading a prosperous, fulfilling life.
Our Blueprint sets out how we can accomplish school choice, giving every family in our state the choices that today only the very rich enjoy.
To prosper, our state needs less regulation and less government. Our Blueprint sets out proposals to cut taxes further and dismantle the costly, leftist bureaucracy that seems to be in control no matter who you vote for.
Decades of crony cartel politics has stifled innovation in our state. Years of lobbyists cutting cozy deals in the Capitol that commercially advantage their clients has held Mississippi back. A lot of the intentionally restrictive laws that limit health care provision simply need to go. Our Blueprint sets out how to make this happen.
MCPP has been a driving force behind many of the key free market reforms that have helped energize our state. But at every opportunity, crony cartel politics has tried to prevent change.
The crony cartel will try again. It’s what self-serving cartels do. Already they are mobilizing half-baked arguments against school choice. They are lobbying to maintain intentionally restrictive laws that hold back the healthcare economy. Brace yourself for politicians explaining why we can’t afford tax cuts despite a healthy surplus.
In politics, nothing moves unless it is pushed. MCPP won’t just publish our Blueprint. We will push and push hard. Mississippi’s future is too important to let bad politics get in the way.
Mississippi could be on the cusp of transformative changes. If we keep going, we will not only no longer be 50th, but we could become – like Tennessee or Alabama – a state that young people want to move to, not leave.
Download a copy of our blueprint here!
What’s the biggest challenge America faces?
You might think it is $35 trillion of national debt? Or maybe you imagine its uncontrolled immigration? How about inflation, which is still stubbornly high? These are all really important problems, but they are not impossible to solve. If there is the political will, we could cut government spending dramatically to close the deficit. Who says we need to have all those federal agencies and welfare programs?
Immigration laws could actually be enforced if the federal government put its mind to it. What do you think Japan does to illegal migrants who outstay their welcome? Inflation can be tamed. Ronald Reagan showed this was possible back in the early 1980s.
What America cannot do is fix these problems if young Americans grow up thinking the worst about their country.
Over the past generation, the radical left has slowly marched through America’s institutions. They have captured many colleges and classrooms, promoting an extreme intersectional ideology. Young Americans have been taught that their country is always in the wrong. Instead of celebrating this country’s history, they have been invited to judge everyone and everything that happened by the standards of today. This has demoralized America, and is sapping the country’s confidence.
That is why the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, as part of a national movement to push back against the ‘woke’ tide, runs the Mississippi Leadership Academy. This two-part course aimed at high school students is the perfect antidote to ‘woke’ with courses on:
• The moral case for the free market.
• Ethical Leadership.
• Opportunity and our state.
• How the legislative process works.
• American Exceptionalism.
• The Meaning of the Declaration of Independence.
Previous speakers have included Attorney General, Lynn Fitch, State Auditor, Shad White and leading academics. Our Academy is designed to equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary to be effective change agents in our state. Those that take part have the opportunity to meet state leaders, and in previous years, a number of those that graduated went on the intern with state leaders.
Do you have children or grandchildren that would benefit from taking part? Please forward this email to them with details on how to sign up below! The two-part course will take place at our Jackson offices on Saturday October 12th and Saturday November 9th, between 10am and 3pm.
Hurry to apply now before places fill up!
Education is the number one thing we need to improve in Mississippi.
That’s why MCPP just launched “Move Up, Mississippi”, a campaign aimed at changing our education system for the better.
Mississippi education is only going to improve if we accept the truth about how things really are:
- 4 in 10 fourth graders would struggle to read this sentence. That’s right. 4 in 10 fourth graders fail to attain the basic reading standard in 2022.
- 7 in 10 fourth grade kids in Mississippi were not proficient in reading in 2022.
- 8 in 10 eighth grade kids in Mississippi were not proficient in math in 2022.
Rather than getting better, the rate of chronic absenteeism in Mississippi schools has got worse.
In 2022-23, over 100,000 students regularly skipped school, up from 70,000 in 2016-17.
So, what’s the solution?
What we need is school choice. Mississippi is now surrounded by states that have school choice. It is transforming education for the better. Let’s not get left behind…..
School Choice would mean every family gets to decide where their share of the state education budget is spent. It would mean that the values being taught in your child’s classroom would have to align with the values of Mississippi families.
To find out what school choice would mean for you and your family, visit moveupms.com
Arkansas, Louisiana and Alabama have done more to improve education in 12 months than Mississippi has achieved in 12 years. Sign up and join our movement if you believe it is time to change that!