Before being sworn in as the new District 3 representative to the Simpson County School Board on January 8, Thomas Ray Floyd was interviewed about his goals for his term of service.
He said, “My first goal will be to withdraw the lawsuit the school district has against the Board of Supervisors. This is a frivolous lawsuit. The people of Simpson County are having to pay the District's attorneys to sue the County, and we are having to pay the Board of Supervisors' attorneys to defend us against the suit! Our State Constitution makes the Board of Supervisors the sole levying authority for the county, and the school board must respect that. While one side of me would like to see the lawsuit work its way through the courts to get a final ruling from the State Supreme Court on Statute 37-57-104, and the other relevant statutes, the other side of me does not want to put this legal expense on the people of Simpson County, so I will move to withdraw the lawsuit.
“My second early goal will be to rescind the initial action that put consolidation into place. The people of Simpson County rejected consolidation and the bond issue to fund it by a majority of 57 percent to 43 percent. I ran for District 3 School Board Representative on a commitment to continue to oppose consolidation and won with over 50 percent of the vote against three other candidates. Mrs. Bri Kelly, who ran for the same position, also ran openly against consolidation and received 21 percent of the vote. This means that the people of District 3 voted against consolidation by over 70 percent! My constituents do not want consolidation, and I will move to carry out this mandate from them. I opposed consolidation.... first because its proponents never presented any tangible evidence that consolidation would improve the educational outcome of young Simpson countians; Secondly... because I and many others want to keep our local schools. Thirdly, consolidation would have been a hardship on the people from the western part of the county. Fourthly... because of the astronomical price tag of building a new consolidated high school. I hope we can put this whole consolidation issue to bed for good.
'My third early goal will be to visit and inspect our facilities to see exactly what needs to be done to get them in good condition. Overall, I think our facilities are in decent condition. We have a pretty new elementary building in Magee. We also have a pretty new second story high school building at the east end of the Magee campus. Magee Middle School is getting a new roof. We have a new classroom building at Simpson Central. We have a new 3rd and 4th grade building at Mendenhall, and a 5th and 6th grade building at Mendenhall that is only 14 years old. We also have new pre-manufactured buildings at Mendenhall for the junior high. From what I observe, we probably have some repairs and maintenance that need attention and I want to see first- hand what needs to be done.
My fourth early goal is to get into the weeds of the budget and see exactly where our money is going.
Floyd said he also wants the county get back to providing a basic education for local students. “I want us to be sure our young ones learn to read, write and spell and know their English grammar and the literature of the English speaking people. I want to be sure they know the real history of the world, of America, and of Mississippi, and not the "woke" version of it. I want to be sure we teach our young people basic math and science. The man we had as superintendent of education before Dr Paul Lawrence stated publicly that we don't need to teach such things as the Odyssey in our schools. I completely reprobate that kind of thinking. While it is true that few people need to know the Greek classics to get a job, no one should consider themselves as educated unless they at least know what the Odyssey is.
“I want to return to teaching cursive in the second grade. While most people probably do not write many letters by hand any more, that does not mean that writing in cursive is unimportant. Again, no one should consider themselves as educated if they cannot write in cursive.
“I want to raise the passing grade back to 70 percent. We cannot expect to improve education by lowering the standards. We should expect much, for if we do not expect much, we are not likely to get much.
Floyd said he knew that some had accused him of being “anti-public school during the campaign. He countered, “I will first of all state that I am all for true public schools— that is schools that are of the public, by the public, and for the public— that is schools that truly serve the public. But what I am opposed to is government schools. I am opposed to bureaucrats in the Federal Department of Education running our schools, often in direct opposition to the beliefs of our people. President Trump has said he will abolish the Federal Department of Education, and I hope he will carry through.”
He continued, “I have been a columnist for this paper since the spring of 2006 and everyone in this county should know what I stand for. I have written in “The Narrow Way,” for not only gospel and doctrinal messages, but practical messages also. My 40 years of serious study of the scriptures and the time I have spent with learned and holy men, have convinced me that God has given specific jurisdictions to the family, the civil government, and to the Church. Often the jurisdiction of the family is usurped by the government schools, and that is what I have warned people of in print and from the pulpit. "Free" public schools is one of Karl Marx's Ten Planks of Communism. This country had no public schools during its colonial and founding eras. Many of our founding fathers, including George Washington, were educated by their parents. The first "public" schools in this country were actually church schools. Local communities began to start public schools that were funded and run at the local level. It was not until the 1950's that the federal government began to subsidize public education, and then they proceeded to control it.... I make no apologies for the things I have preached and written along these lines.
“Notwithstanding my Biblical world view, we have a tax supported public school system that is mandated by our State Constitution and is governed by a myriad of statutes and precedents. We have around 2,800 young ones in this county who are in our public schools and their parents are looking to us to educate them.... As a member of the Simpson County School board I will be totally committed to each of those young ones reaching their God-given potential.
“A prominent citizen of this county publicly accused me of trying to close down the public schools because I opposed consolidation and raising taxes. The very idea that I could somehow close down the public schools is preposterous! To close down the public schools you would have to start with amending the State Constitution which requires us to have public schools and that is not going to happen- at least not any time soon.
“So I will just assure anyone who is concerned about me being "anti- public schools" that I am committed to making our public schools the very best they can be.
Floyd stated that his fourth goal is “...For us to live within our means.” He said, “The proposed budget for this coming year was $45 million plus. We have about 2,800 students enrolled. That works out to over $16,000 per year per student. That is way too much. Only about half of the budget actually goes for "instruction." I want to see more dollars go for instruction and less for administration. I want to get into the details of the budget and see where we can save money. Our people are already over-taxed, and I am committed to holding the line on tax increases, and hopefully start making cuts at some point. The education-industrial complex has been telling us as far back as I can remember, that if we will just give them more money they will do a better job, but we should know by now that our education problems are not going to be fixed by more money. I ran on a promise not to raise taxes and I will, by God's grace, keep that promise.”
Floyd concluded by thanking the district’s voters for their support. He said, I love Simpson County, and with God’s help I will labor for the good of all Simpson countians.
(Editor’s Note: This interview has been slightly edited for length.)
