Mississippi has among the lowest education spending per pupil of any state, yet over the past decade it has made impressive strides in test scores compared to other states. Look at the difference between Maryland and Mississippi:

Maryland suffered the country’s largest plunge driven by prolonged COVID school lockdowns and over the top wokeness. But almost every state looks bad these days compared to Mississippi:

Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves explained how they did it:

“It is the direct result of passing conservative reforms in our legislature in 2012 and 2013, followed up by a very strong implementation by our Department of Education and a lot of hard work by teachers and students, and parents all over the state… We went back to teaching reading, utilizing phonics. It was the right thing to do for our kids.”