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.
That approach had been the standard for early reading instruction for decades. But in many districts nationwide, progressive education activists have replaced tried-and-tested phonics instruction with confusing methods such as “look-see,” where students are supposed to connect words with images of the word beneath them. The decline of phonics-based reading instruction has directly coincided with declining reading scores nationwide.
Mississippi also invested in training kindergarten through third grade teachers and made each school publicly accountable for its results. The state placed literacy coaches in struggling schools and provided students with intensive support.
This is politically devastating for the Left because Mississippi accomplished this without endless spending hikes or by lowering standards in the name of “equity.” Instead, Mississippi focused on results. While reading scores fell across much of the country between 2013 and 2024, Mississippi was one of the rare states that improved.
The contrast with high spending blue-state governance is stark.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, California spends about 1.5 times more per pupil than Mississippi. Yet Mississippi now outperforms California in the share of fourth graders reading at the “proficient” and “basic” levels.
That reality recently burst into the political conversation in dramatic fashion. Mississippi Republican Governor Tate Reeves publicly needled California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom last month on X by pointing out that an African American fourth grader is “2.5 [times] more likely to read proficiently” in Mississippi than in California.
Even The New York Times can’t ignore Mississippi’s accomplishment. It published a front-page deep dive into “how Mississippi transformed its schools to become the nation’s envy.”
Although Democrats like to claim moral superiority for passing enormous education budgets, the Times references a left-leaning think tank to point out that Mississippi is one of the best in helping poor or disadvantaged students: “If you want to ask the question, ‘Which states are helping kids coming from difficult circumstances learn as much as they can?’ Mississippi is now doing much better than many other states, including wealthier states in affluent progressive areas.”
The Times also acknowledged that Mississippi’s success is built on teacher accountability, a policy the Left despises.
However, what the Times and many other voices on the Left still miss is that Mississippi is pulling off its “miracle” because state leaders rejected the poisonous liberal lie that disadvantaged children cannot meet high standards.
While liberal states are lowering standards, conservatives continue to operate under the belief that every child can and should be expected to read at their grade level. Schools also must be responsible for students meeting their potential. What has often held students back is not their socioeconomic background, but the “soft bigotry of low expectations” that President George W. Bush warned about years ago – combined with teachers’ unions that too often shield underperforming educators from accountability.
Now other states, like Democrat-led Michigan, are attempting to replicate Mississippi’s success. Michigan Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer used her 2026 State of the State address to review the progress of their literacy program aimed to improve the state’s abysmal fourth grade reading performance, which currently ranks 44th in the nation.
The new program mirrors Mississippi with a phonics focus and teacher training. But critics are concerned that this won’t be enough because Democrat leaders are not willing to hold schools and teachers accountable.
Despite the incontrovertible evidence coming out of Mississippi, Whitmer repealed laws at the behest of the Michigan Education Association that would hold teachers accountable. Michigan students are therefore unlikely to see anything close to Mississippi’s results, despite all the extra money thrown at the problem.
In light of these different approaches and results, voters in this midterm election should force Democrats to answer some simple questions:
If progressive governance is so enlightened, why then are children in deep-blue states still falling behind while lower-spending Republican states are surging ahead?
Are Democrats more beholden to their teachers’ union donors than families and students in need?
Why do Democrat politicians so often sound more excited about pronouns and installing diversity officers than about whether a nine-year-old can decode a sentence, summarize a paragraph, or read a history text?
Mississippi has given Republican candidates across the country a golden opportunity to show voters that conservative principles in education will produce results. Republican reform works when it sets clear goals, respects taxpayers, measures outcomes, and holds systems accountable.
The Mississippi Miracle is really no miracle at all. It is simply what happens when state leaders stop serving the system and start serving students.
W.J. Lee has served in the White House, NASA, on multiple campaigns, and in nearly all levels of government.
