Please take 2 minutes out of your day to read this short message.

Public education in Mississippi is under an all-out assault.

What’s coming out of the state Legislature to undermine our public school systems and diminish their capability to educate, is beyond denial now. We would like to briefly address a couple of issues, then give you 3 easy ways to help advocate for the 90% of Mississippi’s children who attend public schools.

In the coming days, undoubtedly we’ll address the many, many faces of the pro-privatization push that is taking place, but the one we want to focus on tonight is the ongoing movement to silence educators. Three bills in the House have been advanced to limit the ability of professional educators to express what they see going on in your taxpayer-funded schools. These measures are so draconian that if passed, school superintendents- the people who perhaps have the best vantage points on what’s really happening- will be prohibited from saying a single word about it.

We see this as an egregious violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution.  Further, this issue is near and dear to our hearts at MSEDBLOG, since this website itself started out as the Show and Tell Blog. We began as an effort to encourage educators to tell the public what they see happening, themselves, in the schools. Now our government wants to make it a crime for educators to “show and tell.” They don’t want the truth getting out.

So we’d like you to please get involved. There are other bills in committees now that would hurt public schools- voucher expansion, charter school free reign, etc. But right now, it is vitally important to the survival of our public schools that our educators be treated as U.S. Citizens with speaking rights, and as members of the democratic process who have valuable information to share.

Please do 3 things on behalf of Mississippi’s public school children and educators:

1. Contact your representatives.

Tell the Legislature that the “Teacher Silencer Bills”- HB49, HB944, and HB 958- must not pass.

The members of the House Education Committee are as follows:

John L. Moore, Chairman; jmoore@house.ms.gov
Rob Roberson, Vice-Chairman; [email protected]
Toby Barker; [email protected]
Richard Bennett; [email protected]
Joel Bomgar; [email protected]
Randy P. Boyd; [email protected]
Charles Busby; [email protected]
Credell Calhoun; [email protected]
Gary Chism; [email protected]
Alyce G. Clarke; [email protected]
Carolyn Crawford; [email protected]
Dana Criswell; [email protected]
Becky Currie; [email protected]
Scott DeLano; [email protected]
Jarvis Dortch; [email protected]
Bob Evans; [email protected]
Mark Formby; [email protected]
Herb Frierson; [email protected]
Jeffrey S. Guice; [email protected]
Ashley Henley; [email protected]
Gregory Holloway, Sr.; [email protected]
Steve Hopkins; [email protected]
Chris Johnson; [email protected]
Vince Mangold; [email protected]
Carl Mickens; [email protected]
Orlando Paden; [email protected]
Rufus Straughter; [email protected]
Sara R. Thomas; [email protected]
Brad Touchstone; [email protected]
Kenneth Walker; [email protected]
Sonya Williams-Barnes [email protected]

In addition, the Parents Campaign has great information on how to find the legislators who represent your county and school.

2. Share.

Share this message. Share the article your read that got you fired up and ready for change.

Share your passion for this with the friends on your feed.

3. Join the movement.

Show your support for Pro-Public Ed legislators like Jay Hughes of Oxford, who is working hard to make sure we stay informed about the movements in Jackson.

Connect with groups like the Parents Campaign and Fed Up With 50th to start talking to like-minded Mississippians who want to support public education.

Thank you for your support.

Together, we can keep teachers’ voices in the education conversation.

The MSEDBLOG Team