Mississippi’s rising generation will inherit a state brimming with potential but mired at the bottom of nearly every national ranking in education, health, and economic opportunity. Those committed to the state's future will have the chance to rethink our approach to its most entrenched challenges. Rethink Mississippi offers a space for Mississippi’s emerging leaders and thinkers to be heard, and
-- more importantly -- to hear from each other. Our day-to-day focus is providing well-researched insight, analysis, and commentary about Missisippi's critical issues. Our hope is that the ideas produced at Rethink Mississippi today will shape the public policy of tomorrow. All of our published content generally adheres to the following editorial convictions:
- Every Mississippian deserves the chance for a quality education, a job that pays a livable wage, decent housing on a safe street, affordable and accessible healthcare, and the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
- Persistent poverty, particularly among children, is morally abhorrent and fiscally inefficient. Stopping the intergenerational transmission of poverty must be an economic and humanitarian imperative.
- Mississippi must end all discrimination based on difference and commit to dismantling systems of oppression and exploitation. We aspire for an equitable society in which race is no longer a reliable predictor of a Mississippian's economic, educational, or health outcomes.
- All children must have access to free, high-quality early childhood and K-12 education that prepares them for gainful employment and active citizenship.
- Mississippi's future is jeopardized by its inability retain or attract people who have the option to live elsewhere. Many young people leave to find professional, educational, or social opportunities that Mississippi does not offer. It is critical to examine the causes of outmigration and reverse them.
- Mississippi's success is dependent on Jackson's success. The state needs a vibrant urban center to accelerate economic growth and attract people and capital to the state.
- A healthy policymaking process demands wider engagement in vigorous, data-driven, and constructive public discourse about these and other critical issues facing Mississippians.
