Jason White’s poll on vouchers ignores strong test results in Mississippi public schools

By Bobby Harrison | Originally published by Mississippi Today

House Speaker Jason White – or at least the poll he commissioned – does not seem to be embracing what has become known as the “Mississippi miracle” that references the state’s dramatic gains on some national education tests.

While Mississippi still has numerous hills to climb in terms of improving its education system, there is no doubt the state has made impressive strides.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and others often tout those improvements.

The governor has gone across the country touting the state’s education gains, appearing on multiple national news shows. In January 2025, Reeves said in a statement, “This is another massively historic win for education in Mississippi. Mississippi fourth graders aren’t just one of the best in reading and math gains — they’re the best in the nation.”

Did Speaker White and his Republican-leaning Cygnal pollsters not get the memo?

White, perhaps the most forceful elected official pushing to spend public money on private schools, commissioned a recent poll that seemed to dismiss those education gains. By a slim 41.1% to 39.2% margin, with 19.6% having no response, poll participants supported some form of school choice or vouchers.

Apparently not satisfied with that narrow result, the pollster asked a follow-up question: “Supporters point to other states with existing school choice programs, where student test scores have improved in both public and private schools as a result of increased options and competition. Knowing this, do you support or oppose creating a school choice program in Mississippi like the one described in the last question?”

Response to that question was 50.1% to 27.1% in favor of vouchers, with 22.8% having no opinion or not being sure.

The question might influence poll results

The question completely ignored the “Mississippi miracle” that many state education experts say is more aptly described as the “Mississippi marathon,” referring to the decades-long effort to improve the public schools.

Critics of modern polling often say the wording of the question can have a dramatic influence on the outcome of a poll.

What if the question posed by the Republican polling company for White was “in light of the fact that Mississippi has received national praise for its test score improvements that has been described by many as miraculous, should a change be made to take money away from public schools and direct it to private schools?”

What would have been the answer to that very accurate question?

Studies cite negative voucher test results

Research can be found both touting the success of vouchers in terms of student improvement and lamenting the decline in test scores in states with voucher programs. 

But multiple peer-reviewed studies indicate that vouchers harm student achievement.

Research compiled by The Parents’ Campaign, a Mississippi group that supports public education and opposes vouchers, cites multiple studies revealing numerous voucher states have struggled in recent years on test scores.

Based on the analysis of test scores in multiple states, The Parents’ Campaign concluded, “voucher students experience significant losses in achievement.”

The anti-voucher National Coalition of Public Education produced a study saying “vouchers harm student achievement as much as natural disasters.” The study cited test scores declines in multiple places with vouchers, including Louisiana, Indiana, Ohio and the District of Columbia, saying they were comparable to regressions after disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the COVID-19 pandemic.

As stated, studies can be found arguing the opposite. An EdChoice study, for instance, argues that voucher students are much more likely to pursue a college education.

But the fact remains that Mississippi has been cited for making dramatic gains on standardized tests when compared to other states, thanks to efforts in the public schools. That is happening now, even as White tries to divert money from public to private schools.

White’s poll failed to mention that.

The question is: Was that failure intentional?

This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Source: Original Article