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JACKSON, Miss. -- The 2013 Mississippi Legislative session gets underway noon Tuesday, but Lt. Gov Tate Reeves has already laid out some of his top priorities.
Among them is education and what he calls a good strong public charter school bill. “And I think that’s not a pipe panacea to fix all of our education woes, but it is an additional tool in the toolbox,” said Reeves during his noon address at the Stennis Capital Press Forum today.
In addition to a charter school bill, Reeves said he’ll again push for a bill mandating school superintendents be appointed and not elected after 2015.
The republican also said he would work hard to pass a 3rd grade reading bill. Based on numbers from last year, Reeves pointed out that 53% of the state’s 3rd graders read at proficient levels. “And that’s just not good enough,” he said. “We need to move beyond the idea of social promotion; and we need to ensure that the kids that move on to the 4th grade are able to read at proficient levels.”
Reeves said children who do not read well after leaving the 3rd grade, are more likely to struggle in other grades and that increases their likelihood of dropping out.
