Mississippi

Mississippi First works to champion transformative policy solutions ensuring educational excellence for every child. They are the lead advocates for the Early Learning Collaborative Act of 2013, Mississippi’s state-funded pre-k law. They conduct research, and support advocacy and implementation efforts for the state pre-k program, including supporting the Mississippi Department of Education-funded pre-k programs and applicant communities.

State Allies:

Top Priorities for 2021

Make the FY21 pre-k rate increase to $5000 per child permanent by passing authorizing legislation to lock in the change.

Expand the pre-k program to reach 25 percent of Mississippi children by 2025.

Mississippi’s 2020 Early Childhood Policy Landscape and Progress:

$5.75B STATE BUDGET
Estimated FY20 State General Fund Expenditures

ALIGNED GOVERNMENT
House (R), Senate (R)
Governor (R)

53% LOW-INCOME
171,419 Young Children (0-8) are Below 200% FPL

Prepandemic, Mississippi First was on track to receive not only a rate increase in pre-k per-pupil funding but also a major program expansion. The pandemic wreaked havoc on the budget, and focus shifted to prioritizing funding for the rate increase.

Mississippi First successfully advocated for an increase in the pre-k per-pupil rate by inserting the language for the rate increase directly into the budget bill.

*Early childhood policy progress in a state is the result of numerous efforts — by those listed on this page and many others — who worked both independently and collaboratively to achieve wins for young children.

More from Mississippi:

Legislative Champions Key to Mississippi Pre-K Victories

September 5, 2018

The story of the 2018 state-funded pre-K expansion in Mississippi is a tale of playing the long game.

Download the full 50-State report.

The Alliance for Early Success 2020 50-State Progress Report on Early Childhood Policy expands state data (disaggregating low-income young children by race) and provides high-level state policy trend analysis for the nation as a whole. Click the icon to download the report.

State Budget Data: National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), “Table 4: Fiscal 2020 State General Fund, Estimated (Millions); The Fiscal Survey of the States.” Spring, 2020

Low-Income Data (including disaggregation by race): National Center for Children in Poverty, “NCCP Analysis of ACS 1-year Estimates—Public Use Microdata Sample, 2019.”

State Action Data: Provided by state advocates, October-November 2020, with analysis and synthesis by Frontera Strategy for Alliance for Early Success, “Protecting Progress and Investing in Scale: The 2020 50-State Progress Report on Early Childhood Education Policy.”

Additional State Actions: Mincic, Melissa, Early Care and Education, State Budget Actions, Fiscal Year 2020. National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), October 2020.