Anytime Mississippi’s state budget gets cut, there are going to be casualties — jobs eliminated, programs and services scaled back or suspended.
Since education accounts for the majority of spending in the state’s general fund, it’s often going to feel the brunt of most cuts. There will be schools, from the elementary through graduate level, complaining about how difficult their mission has become due to reduced or stagnant allocations.
One shining star in the state’s education history, the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, won’t be able to give as many of this state’s best and brightest the chance at a superior public education as a result of the ongoing budget problems.
Recently, the school said that it is projecting to enroll only 220 students for the 2017-18 school year, the latest in a series of funding-related enrollment declines. That would be an all-time low, a drop of 19 percent over six years.
The boarding school on the campus of the Mississippi University for Women serves students in their junior and senior years of high school. It has an exemplary record of academic performance. This year’s graduating class produced an average ACT score of 28.5, nearly 10 points higher than the state average on the college entrance test. Almost all of its graduates go on to college, many of them on academic scholarships, where they also distinguish themselves. One of its alums, Ericka M. Wheeler of Carrollton, recently became the first African-American woman from Mississippi to be named a Rhodes Scholar.
Wheeler is one of many students who found the academic outlet they needed at the Math and Science School. It is a shame that fewer students are getting this chance.
Mississippi should be trying to grow this school, not shrink it.
