OXFORD, Miss. — Mississippi’s historic 1982 Education
Reform Act was a significant civil rights and economic
development initiative, but the Magnolia State needs to
make continued advances in education.
That was the consensus among the key political and media
figures who came together Friday at the University of
Mississippi’s Overby Center for Southern Journalism and
Politics to discuss the historical ramifications of the
25-year-old landmark legislation.
The nine panelists, all instrumental in the Act’s passage
in 1982, included former Gov. William Winter, who led
efforts to get the act passed, and his former staff members
Dick Molpus, president of the Molpus Woodlands Group, LLC;
Andrew P. Mullins Jr., executive assistant to UM Chancellor
Robert Khayat, and David Crews.
Other panelists were Fred Anklam, formerly of The
Clarion-Ledger staff and now an editor at USA Today; Billy
Crews, who rose to become publisher of the Northeast
Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo; Lloyd Gray, a reporter
for the Sun-Herald in Biloxi in 1982 and now editor of the
Daily Journal; and Tom Wacaster, who recently retired as
head of the Meridian-based Phil Hardin Foundation.
Moderating the event was Charles Overby, president and CEO
of the Freedom Forum in Washington, D.C., for whom the
Overby center is named. Overby was executive editor of The
Clarion-Ledger in 1982, and the newspaper won a Pulitzer
Prize in 1983 for its coverage of the issue and its strong
editorial support of the bill.
“This was Mississippi’s Pulitzer Prize, not just The
Clarion-Ledger’s,” Overby said to the audience of about 50
students, faculty members and residents. “Gov. Winter
inspired a whole generation to be better than we knew how
to be.”
When the Act was passed, Mississippi was the last state in
the nation to not only offer a public kindergarten system
but also to change from voluntary to compulsory school
attendance.
“We get what we pay for,” said Winter regarding education
funding.
Mullins and Winter’s other young staffers worked tirelessly
for three years to counter opposition arguments to the
legislation, which included increased taxes and a reduction
in the workforce available for agriculture.
“A lot of people simply saw a public kindergarten system as
a baby sitter for black people,” Mullins said.
Despite opposition, the legislation ultimately passed due
to Gov. Winter’s efforts to shape public opinion, Gray
said. “Education reform was a noble cause. Gov. Winter
helped us break out of our shackles.”
To offer some insight to students who weren’t yet born in
1982, Wacaster pointed out that one white school district
in the early 1950s was appropriated only $119 to education
for an entire year, while a neighboring black school was
provided a mere $49.
Although tremendous strides have been made in public
education, Gov. Winter warned that more investments are
needed if Mississippi is to compete in a global economy:
“Mississippi is still ranked 49th in education,” he said.
“We have to break through the ceiling. There’s still so
much to do.”