JACKSON, Miss. – Your five-year-old is not required to go to school but lawmakers may want to change that. Several legislators plan to introduce bills this legislative session that would require five year olds to attend schools.
 
According to the Mississippi Business Journal, Senate Education Committee Chairman Greg Tollison plans to include mandatory kindergarten in a bill intended to strengthen reading instruction in grades K-3. Governor Phil Bryant is also pushing for legislature that would provide funding to train teachers at child care centers for kids younger than five years old.
 
If mandatory kindergarten is enacted, it would make Mississippi the fifteenth state to require mandatory attendance. The push for mandatory kindergarten has failed in the past. Opponents argue the state should not interfere with how individuals choose to raise their kids.