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The “Mississippi Miracle” Has Democrats Panicking

By W J Lee April 8, 2026

Mississippi, long derided as among the worst states for K-12 education outcomes in the country, has now executed one of the most astonishing performance turnarounds ever seen – and it has done so by rejecting progressive dogma and spending smarter rather than throwing good money after bad.

In what experts have dubbed the “Mississippi Miracle,” the Magnolia State has gone from 49th in the nation in fourth grade reading in 2013 to ninth in 2024, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as “the nation’s report card.” According to the Urban Institute, “Adjusted for demographics and poverty, Mississippi fourth graders ranked first nationally in reading and math” in 2024.

But perhaps even more noteworthy than the test results themselves were how they were achieved. Rather than surrender to union pressure to pour more money into the same failed structure, Republican lawmakers passed the Literacy-Based Promotion Act. That legislation rejected the progressive dogmas that have crippled schools in blue states and returned to the fundamentals of phonics-based instruction, serious teacher training, literacy coaches in struggling schools, early intervention, and real accountability for results.

The payoff was extraordinary. The share of fourth graders reading at or above the “proficient” level nearly doubled from 17 percent in 1998 to 32 percent in 2024. The share scoring at or above the “basic” level rose from 47 percent to 65 percent.

Those are not marginal gains. They are proof that reform rooted in common sense and accountability can succeed even with limited funds.

Mississippi’s conservative leaders did not guess their way into this success. They drew on research from the Institute of Education Sciences showing that children need explicit, carefully sequenced phonics instruction, where students are taught to identify letters and their pronunciation to construct words and sentences.

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THE MISSISSIPPI MIRACLE

The “Mississippi Miracle” Has Democrats Panicking

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