Education

Federal Aid for Mississippi Delta Is Urged

By Peter West — August 03, 1988 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

A proposed federal study of economic hardship in the Mississippi Delta should focus on ways to improve education, two Southern governors have advised federal lawmakers.

“If we don’t do something about the educational system and the economic system in our depressed areas, we’re going to have a very curious paradox,’' Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas warned members of the Small Business and Environment and Public Works committees at a joint hearing on June 28.

“We could be paying for people to be on welfare and importing workers because too many of our people simply don’t know enough to work in today’s economy.’'

Mr. Clinton was joined at the hearing by Gov. Raymond Mabus of Mississippi in a show of support for the proposed “lower Mississippi Delta development commission act.’'

The bill would provide $3 million for a year-long study of ways to improve the social and economic climate in the cluster of seven states that stretches from southernmost Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico.

Drafted by Senator Dale Bumpers, Democrat of Arkansas, the measure would establish a nine-member commission to report to the Congress on steps to be taken over the next decade to improve conditions in the region.

Supporters of the bill say the approach should be similar to that taken by the Appalachian Development Commission, which, since its inception in 1965, has dispensed $4.5 billion in federal funds--including $509 million in aid to education--to local authorities in the mountainous 13-state region that stretches from Mississippi to New York State.

Representative Mike Espy, a Mississippi Democrat who is co-sponsoring a companion bill in the House, told the Senate committees that ignorance and poverty are now more widespread in the Delta region than in Appalachia.

Governor Mabus added that in Mississippi’s Tunica County, “the epicenter of the crisis area’’ and the nation’s poorest county, the 1980 census revealed that per-capita income among wage earners was slightly more than half the national average.

“In many ways, this Delta region has Third World status, economically speaking,’' Senator Bumpers said.

The Small Business Committee was expected to mark up the bill this week; the Agriculture Committee already has allocated $2 million for the measure, according to a spokesman for Senator Bumpers.

A version of this article appeared in the August 03, 1988 edition of Education Week as Federal Aid for Mississippi Delta Is Urged

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Briefly Stated: March 13, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read
Education Briefly Stated: February 21, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read
Education Briefly Stated: February 7, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read
Education Briefly Stated: January 31, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read