Phil Bryant Admits that Republicans Have Failed to Support Education

In an interview with the Meridian Star Phil Bryant admitted that Republicans have failed to support education saying "We just said we’re not going to do it, we’re not advocates of public education..."

For a while, Republicans abandoned the field of supporting public education. We just said we’re not going to do it, we’re not advocates of public education and it was the worst thing we ever did. It was dumb. Now, when Gov. Haley Barbour said it was the No. 1 priority at the State of the State address and said we are going to fully fund education now and into the future, all of a sudden Republicans are saying, ‘Me too.’ Well there wasn’t a lot of ‘me too’ there for a while when those of us Republicans were supporting public education.

Now his evidence of the turnaround in support is the Governor changing his mind in an election year. I somehow doubt the sincerity of the changed minds of current sitting Republicans. I think instead Haley Barbour saw the political need to not further anger teachers and parent teacher associations. It will be a good day when the Republican wake up and see that a strong public education system is not only helpful, but also necessary for the purpose of bringing quality jobs to this state and in fact building our own.

The Meridian Star Article