Mississippi Ballot Initiative 42
Dear Friends,
We are on the eve of one of the most significant votes in Mississippi history. Today, citizens all over the state turn out to the polls with a chance to change our state constitution into one that holds young people in high regard and invests fully in quality education experiences for both teachers and students. They will have a chance to vote to pass Initiative 42, a ballot initiative to fully fund public education by amending the state constitution to require the legislature to do so. This is a chance to right a wrong and to partially atone for the longstanding pillaging of the state's education budget.
I remember Ms. Ann Johnson of Lanier high school in Jackson, MS running a program called My Mississippi Eyes. I can say that my Mississippi eyes have seen a lot. They've seen atrocities unimaginable in what we envision as the best of our state and of our world but yet they exist right at our front door. These eyes have seen billions of dollars stripped from schools and classrooms and invested in wasteful contracts and gargantuan salaries for department heads and other overpriced administrative costs.
And now my Mississippi eyes are fortunate enough to see Mississippians stepping up to the plate to do what's best and right for and by our children. The effort to pass this initiative was born out of lessons learned from Freedom Summer and the larger Mississippi civil rights movement, designed as a living and active tribute to the work done in the movement that helped set the stage for today's demand to fully fund public schools for all K-12 students in the state. I'm most proud that this story is a Mississippi story. When the annals of history reflect on this time they won't mirror some story of one leader or one hero. This history will be remembered as the story of everyday folk coming together to lift our children to their highest of heights. Parents, grandparents, high school students and college students are working around the clock in front of and behind the scenes to push this policy offering across the finish line.
Initiative 42 is sound policy that has been decades in the making. From working the phones to hitting the doors, this operation has shown that when it's about our children the right people will show up to do the heavy lifting. It has been beautiful to watch the growth and leadership of young people like Charles Taylor and Amber Thomas. It has been just as beautiful to watch others like our own Crystal Mattison and countless college students and city council persons and others of varying professions hold the responsibility of making the hard push to get our state up and rallying around pushing 42 home. I was with SNCC legend Bob Moses in the early 2000's when he first began to peddle the idea of education as a constitutional right at the federal level and my heart swells with pride to see it happening at the state level and what it may mean in regards to the possibility of making a federal push to ensure that all children have a quality education. My Mississippi eyes have seen Derrick Johnson, one of the brightest minds in our state, birth the movement for Initiative 42 and build a team of competent and capable young hands, hearts and minds to provide the infrastructure for getting the job done.
There have been many scare and confuse tactics facilitated by the state and others to deter this opportunity to improve our schools and and our system of public education including making the ballot itself as disorienting as possible. None of those things have proven to be effective because as hard as the state and others have pushed against 42 the people have pushed even harder for it. At the end of the day Initiative 42 isn't about money, it's about our children. Please keep your eyes, ears and hearts trained on Mississippi as people have hit the voting booth as early as 7 a.m. today. Initiative 42 is another action that makes all the sacrifices of the giants who came before us worth it and not in vain. Support our friends in Mississippi and send them love and light as the homestretch is run. Go Mississippi!!
Yours In Victory,
Albert Sykes
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