CLARKSDALE — Riding around the city where he makes a living as an attorney, businessman and entrepreneur, Bill Luckett mentions the college term paper he wrote about Mississippi’s low educational ranking back in 1968 and laments that the state’s ranking “hasn’t risen much in the 40-year interim.”

In Coahoma County, the Coahoma County School District is rated as “failing” by the state. The Clarksdale Municipal School District is rated as “at risk of failing” along with the Coahoma County Agricultural High School.

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MISSISSIPPI AND ALABMA legislators ought to pay a visit to Chicago’s Urban Prep Academy. Urban Prep Academy for Young Men is a public high school where all the students achieve above-average academic results. But the school isn’t located in a quiet, rural Lake Wobegon-like setting where all the children are above average, socio-economically speaking.

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HATTIESBURG, MS (WDAM) - A bill that would allow for the creation of charter schools in Mississippi and establish a separate program for failing school districts is awaiting the governor’s signature.

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Charter schools are not going to miraculously turn around every failing school in Mississippi.

Certainly, though, they are an innovation worth trying, since very little else has seemed to work in those schools which have proven themselves chronically unable to deliver a basic education to their students.

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Mississippi lawmakers are sending a charter school bill to Gov. Haley Barbour.

But his spokesperson says he hasn’t decided if he’s going to sign it.

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Lawmakers sent a watered-down charter school bill to the governor among a host of legislation and headed home for a short hiatus with plans to return April 20 for budget talks.

The charter school bill would allow those with children in chronically underperforming schools to petition the Department of Education for a restructuring.

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The simple fact is that far too many students in far too many parts of the state desperately need more public education options. We can’t afford to wait any longer.

Fill out the form at publiccharterschools.org.

Nelson Smith, president and CEO, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools today released the following statement:

“President Obama’s ‘Blueprint’ for re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act demonstrates a continuing commitment to supporting strong public charter schools and using the power of choice to spur broader education reform.

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What if your city officials said to you, “As long as you live here, you will only shop at one grocery store — the one we choose for you.”

If you could get past the arrogance and the restriction on your freedom, you might be able to live with that dictate as long as your assigned store had what you need.

But what if that store didn’t have the food or other products you want or need for your children? And what if your city officials — who also owned the store — didn’t accommodate your request?

Change grocery store to school, and you have a picture of our public school system today. As long as you live in a certain area, your child is assigned to a particular school, regardless of whether that school meets your child’s needs. You can choose a different school as long as you can afford to move to another district, send your children to a private school or teach them at home.

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Here’s what I don’t understand about the opponents of school reform, including their most recent convert, pro-reformer turned anti-reformer Diane Ravitch. What do they have against letting poor parents have options, just as all other parents have?

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal this week, Ravitch explains that she has turned against charter schools because their “promise has not been fulfilled. Most studies of charter schools acknowledge that they vary widely in quality.” Given “the weight of studies, evaluations and federal test data,” she concludes that charters and deregulation aren’t the answer.

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