Mississippi Celebrates 30 Years Of Education Reform

JACKSON, Miss. -- Mississippi celebrates 30 years of the Mississippi Education Reform Act of 1982. The act mandated public kindergarten, mandatory attendance, raised performance standards and created a lay state board of education.

“We were absorbing the dislocation that came with a massive desegregation of schools from the 1970s. Moral was low, moral among appropriations were minimum, and there was not a good feeling about education,” says former Mississippi Govenor William Winter.

It was one of the most sweeping education reform acts in the history of the country. After Mississippi passed this act eleven states came looking for us to help correct them.”

The open forum was at Millsaps College and featured the men responsible for the act. They were known as the boys of spring featuring: Andy Mullins, Dick Molpus, David Crews, Bill Gartin,
John Henegan, Governor Winter, and Ray Mabus.

Mississippi Celebrates 30 Years of Education Reform