Education Freedom and Legislative Priorities in Mississippi: Jonathan Williams on The Hugh Hewitt Show
Mississippi is now finding themselves as an island surrounded by school choice, education freedom states.
Hugh Hewitt spoke with ALEC President and Chief Economist Jonathan Williams last week about Mississippi’s schools, legislative priorities, and the growing movement for universal school choice.
“The Southeast is awfully competitive, not just in football, but in policy too,” Williams said. “We have tax cuts, and we’ve got all kinds of good ALEC policies that we’ve been getting some major wins, and Mississippi is now finding themselves as islands surrounded by school choice, education freedom states.”
Williams highlighted Mississippi’s trajectory in comparison to neighboring states.
“Speaker of the House Jason White’s number one legislative priority is to pass universal education choice for Mississippi,” he said. “I know for Governor Tate Reeves, this is a big priority of his. It was a great conversation with one of the heroes of the school choice movement, Senator Patricia Rucker. I’m just glad to play a small part in it.”
Williams noted that a variety of school choice models could succeed in Mississippi.
“Whether that’s an education tax credit scholarship like we saw in Oklahoma, or an ESA plan with savings accounts, lots of different ways to get there. The most important thing is you’ve got a lot of failing school districts in Mississippi where their kids don’t have the upward mobility right now.”
Reflecting on national testing and educational outcomes, Williams cited NAEP scores as a measure of urgency.
“Mississippi is making some good progress because of some of their school reforms, but there’s so much more to be done, especially when all the neighboring states have already gotten there when it comes to the dollars following the children to the schools of their choice.”
For Mississippi lawmakers and families, Hewitt emphasized the importance of freedom of choice in education.
“If President Trump gets involved with this, it’ll help the Republicans in the 2026 midterms, because this is the no-brainer issue of American domestic policy — freedom of choice when it comes to school,” he said.
Hewitt then transitioned to discussing the impact of the government shutdown on federal workers, the economy, and the military.
Williams shared his recent experience at the White House, where efforts are being made to reopen the government with a clean continuing resolution (CR).
“They’re fighting right now to reopen the government, to get this done from a clean CR perspective,” Williams relayed. “I think the important thing is, you know, right now, we still have the far left holding this hostage over $1.5 trillion of new bloated spending that they would like to see. This is what this is all about.”