Coming off his final session as Mississippi’s House speaker, Philip Gunn is touting the state’s strides in education as the highlight of his tenure.
Gunn, R-Clinton, became the state’s first Republican speaker since Reconstruction when he took the oath in January 2012. Under his leadership, the Magnolia State has seen improvements in education, specifically at the third and fourth-grade levels.
In 2013, state lawmakers passed the Literacy-Based Promotion Act, which would not allow a third-grade student to advance to the fourth grade if the student scored at the lowest achievement level in reading on the established state-wide assessment.
During a recent appearance on The Gallo Show, Gunn noted that prior to the legislation’s passage, just over half of the state’s third-grade students were reading at an acceptable level for their age. Now, those numbers are nearing 100 percent.
“It said, ‘If you’re a third-grader, you have to read like a third-grader.’ What a novel idea. How dare we expect a third-grader to read like a third-grader? There was wailing and gnashing of teeth — you would have thought the world was coming to an end because we dared expect a third-grader to read like a third-grader,” Gunn said sarcastically. “Before we passed that bill, only 64 percent of third-graders could read on a third-grade level. Today, it’s over 90 percent.”
Gunn attributes the seismic shift in third-grade literacy to the 2019 achievement in which Mississippi’s fourth-graders achieved the No. 1 spot in the nation for gains in reading and mathematics — a feat that had never been accomplished in state history.
Another educational victory claimed by Gunn was the passage of Mississippi’s largest-ever teacher pay raise. The bill served to distribute over $246 million to public school teachers and raised the base salary by an average of $5,140.
“With the passage of the largest teacher pay raise last year, we now not only exceed the southeastern average in starting pay, but the national average in starting pay,” Gunn added. “All of these things are working together to move Mississippi up the charts.”
The full interview with Gunn can be watched below.
