The Urban Institute, a centrist think tank focused on societal data, has noted that when inclusion of outside factors such as economic strata transpires, the state boasting of the highest test scores in 2024 for fourth graders in both math and reading is ... drum roll, please ...

... Mississippi. //

The Mississippi Department of Education seeks to create a world-class educational system that gives students the knowledge and skills to be successful in college and in the workforce, and to flourish as parents and citizens. To make this vision a reality, all students must be given multiple pathways to success, and teachers and administrators must continue to meet the challenges of this ever-changing landscape of public education. //

This demands self-discipline and the ability to understand that there are absolute, automatic answers to many life situations, which leads to math. The math-trained mind has the capacity to approach the complex, multi-layered factors inherent in functions required for successful adulthood, such as logically running a business. Balancing the need to control expenses while taking on the calculated risks needed for a company to expand requires a firm grasp of the absolutes learned through no other method than applying time-honored and time-tested mathematical principles. As the truism says, if your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall.

Additionally (no pun intended), the math-trained mind understands that the colorblind, genderless world of numbers and calculations demonstrates true equality in a manner no puffed-up imagined realm of pseudo-intellectual superiority can evoke. The “progressive” mentality secretly abhors equality, as it shows that when provided equal resources and instruction in life’s mechanics, the artificial barriers of race and gender melt away. It also demonstrates the logical next step of uncovering the soft bigotry of low expectations combined with laying bare the thin veneer of deep racism held by those who, in their self-righteousness and desire to play God, act as though they are the living embodiment of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation by behaving as the betters of those they claim to uplift.