Editor’s note: The following letter was written by Columbus city attorney Jeff Turnage. Turnage encourages readers to use this letter as a template for reaching out to state lawmakers in favor of leaving MSMS on the campus of MUW. The Dispatch published contact information for relevant elected officials in Thursday’s paper. If you want a digital editable version of this letter, email [email protected].

Dear Representative/Senator ____________:

I write today to plead for you to reject any notion of relocating the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science (MSMS) away from the MUW campus. The reason it must remain in Columbus is that it has an exemplary record of outstanding performance.  The figures are easily obtained to prove that, year after year, MSMS outperforms other schools and it does so with a much smaller budget than other states with comparable schools.

The MSMS Class of 2024 was offered $32M in scholarships.  It’s ranked the best school in the State by NICHE.  See www.niche.com/k12/the-mississippi-school-for-mathematics-and-science-columbus-ms/?category=overall-experience&rating=Excellent (#1 of 235 public high schools in Mississippi; #1 of 230 Best public high school teachers in Mississippi; #1 of 227 Best collect prep public high schools in Mississippi).

MSMS has regularly been ranked as one of the best public high schools in the country by Newsweek Magazine. See November 22, 2019 Edition of Starkville Daily News https://www.starkvilledailynews.com/news/msms-ranked-as-one-of-country-s-top-stem-high-schools/article_8ff0ae3a-0d3e-11ea-a31b-877725773c2c.html; See also August 27, 2014 WCBI article; MSMS Cracks Nation’s top 60 in Nation https://www.wcbi.com/msms-cracks-nations-top-60-in-magazine-ranking/ and August 9, 2017 Commercial Dispatch MSMS ranks 8th among public high schools in US https://cdispatch.com/news/msms-ranks-eighth-among-public-high-schools-in-us/; and August 9, 2018 WCBI MSMS ranks top 10 in nation https://www.wcbi.com/msms-ranks-top-10-in-the-nation/

The State of Mississippi funded MSMS at less than half what the State of Arkansas has put into its public STEM program with a nearly identical number of students.  On a per student basis, Arkansas spends approximately $51,720 per student and produced 7 National Merit finalists.  Compare that to Mississippi, who spends half that sum per student at MSMS and MSMS produced 13 National Merit Finalists.  See the tables attached.

According to the NICHE report on MSMS 80 percent of students feel safe at the school and 82% like the school and feel happy there. The Class of 2024 cranked out 24 National Merit Scholarship semifinalists. See Academic Highlights sheet.

In summary, MUW and MSMS belong together. MUW was selected as the home for MSMS because MUW is a safe and secure site on a small fenced and gated college campus. There is no evidence that tinkering with the great relationship between the W and MSMS by severing their ties would bring about better performance. There are obvious risks of taking young high school girls and boys and placing them on an SEC campus with 23,000 young men and women. (more than 60% of the MSMS students are girls).

As a longstanding supporter of the MSMS, I hope you will make the obvious right decision. That decision must be a two-fold one: (1) Leave MSMS at MUW; and (2) Increase funding to MSMS so that the facilities are on par with their record of success.