Ray Mabus: Some strides made during my governorship are gone, but the path forward remains clear

This essay is part of an ongoing Mississippi Today Ideas series showcasing first-person perspectives of former Mississippi governors. We asked them to write about their successes while in office and perhaps what they wished had gone a little differently during their tenure.

When I ran for governor in 1987, my slogan was “Mississippi Will Never Be Last Again.” For so long Mississippi had been last in the things you want to be first in and first in the things you want to be last in. A common statement from other states was “Thank God for Mississippi.” That had to end. Mississippi needed to lead.

As governor, I, and the folks with me, began working to make that promise a reality, and, in the four years that followed, we got an amazing amount of things done and Mississippi moved out of last place in virtually every category.

We began with education because it is the only sure, long-term way to success. Here are a few of the things that were accomplished:

• Passed the largest teacher pay raise in the U.S.
• Enacted the largest percentage funding increase for higher education in the country for two years.
• Increased the high school graduation rate by 5.7% while the national rate declined.
• Developed the Office for Literacy, which Atlantic Monthly called “the most ambitious initiative in the nation to combat adult illiteracy.”
• In days before computers were everywhere, put a computer lab in every elementary school in the state, teaching a very successful “Writing to Read” program.
• Led the nation in percentage of students taking upper level science courses.
• Used fiber optics to allow students to participate remotely in courses through interactive audiovisual communications long before the ubiquitous internet.
• Passed the most comprehensive education reform act in America.

In jobs and economic development:

• 90,000 net new jobs in four years.
• First in U.S. in new manufacturing plants by population.
• $4 billion in new investments.
• Complete rewrite of economic development laws including tax credits for child care and educational benefits.
• Fifth largest drop in unemployment in country.
• 11th fastest per capita income gain in America.
• 25th in creation of new jobs.
• Unemployment lowest in more than a decade.
• Tourism increased by 41% and exports by 51%.
• Growth in welfare cut by 87%.
• Successful Jobs for Mississippi’s Graduates for highly at-risk youth started.

In health care:

• Largest expansion of health care coverage in state’s history by increasing Medicaid covering more than 100,000 additional Mississippians and keeping the state’s hospitals open and vital.
• The lowest infant mortality rate in state’s history.
• An intense focus on early childhood and child care. 

In government:

• Changed form of county government to reduce cost and corruption, which was part of my legacy as state auditor.
• Largest restructuring of state government in history.
• First governor to propose a budget.
• Appointed first woman to head a Highway Patrol in the U.S.
• Most Black Mississippians appointed to senior roles in state’s history.
• Enacted first capital budget.
• No tax increases.
• Budget always balanced.

But all this is just a far-from-complete list of nearly four-decade old statistics. What this doesn’t capture at all was our goal. It wasn’t just to move Mississippi out of last place and up the list in these categories, it was to try to make lives better and futures brighter for ALL Mississippians. 

All this was done to make Mississippi more competitive and to provide opportunities so that young Mississippians would stay and build their lives here. All this was done to make sure babies were born healthy and had the best educational opportunities starting in early childhood so that they could make the most of their lives. All this was done so that all Mississippians had the right to good health care so that the state didn’t lead the country in preventable diseases and so many other bad categories and so that EVERYONE could fulfill their potential. 

But for all that we — the people of Mississippi — did at that time to make our state the positive exception and example, looking at today and to the future, so many of those gains are gone. Mississippi is one of only three states which lost population between 2010-2020. People are voting with their feet and moving out, and others are not moving in. The needs in Mississippi are the same as they were in the late 1980s. We know what we need to do to address those needs, and we know it will work.

A much better job has to be done in public education. Education for everyone is the only way to a better future and a better state. Public education has to be better supported both financially and culturally. Tax money should go to public education and none to private schools, which is just a way to help the well-to-do and a cruel hoax on everyone else.

Health care has to be a right and not a privilege. Do whatever is necessary to cover every Mississippian, starting with expanding Medicaid to the maximum extent possible. This will also keep rural hospitals open so that people can get care close to where they live. And women must have full autonomy on all their health care decisions.

There is a saying that “the only way to keep a person down in a ditch is to get down in the ditch with them.” Because of our history, Mississippi bears a special burden on race. As I said in my 1988 inaugural address: “… a new day depends fundamentally on our resolve to banish racism forever from the state of Mississippi. We know in our hearts that the chains of prejudice have bound more than one group; they have held all of us back. A society divided against itself cannot prosper. And we know from history and our own lives the anguish and frustration of racial injustice — and we can be proud that so many among us have given so much in the belief that we shall overcome. We share the faith that we are each God’s children. After all the years, let us hear anew His truth that we are all brothers and sisters. That idea is written into our laws; now it must be woven into the fabric of our lives.”

Ray Mabus served as Mississippi governor from 1988 until 1992. He had previously served as state auditor. On the federal level, he served as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia in the 1990s and as U.S. Secretary of the Navy from 2009 until 2017. Mabus, an Ackerman native, resides in West Virginia with his wife Lynne. He has three children.

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