On Nov. 4, Jay Hughes, a Democrat from Oxford, upset incumbent Brad Mayo, a Republican, in the election for the District 12 House of Representatives seat.
Hughes ran on the campaign motto, “It all starts with education.”
The same day Hughes won the seat, Initiative 42 — a proposed constitutional amendment that would have required the Legislature to fully fund K-12 education — was not voted in by Mississippi voters.
On Thursday, Hughes spoke at the Columbus Exchange Club’s regular meeting at Lion Hills Center, hammering home his unrelenting message of “education first” and presenting a sobering account of his first legislative session, which failed again to increase K-12 funding while passing a massive tax cut that he says cannot be justified.
Courted by both Republicans and Democrats prior to last year’s elections, the two-term Oxford alderman ultimately cast his lot with the Democratic Party even as the Republicans gained a supermajority in both Houses.
But Hughes said Thursday he places little value in party affiliation.
“My party has always been public education,” Hughes said. “It truly is the start of everything. So many of the things our state is last in would be different if we didn’t continue to be last in education.”
The attorney and businessman said funding education is consistent with his views as a fiscal conservative.
“The reality is that it is far cheaper to educate a child for 12 years than it is to support that same person for the next 40 years,” he said. “If you drop out of high school, there is a 90 percent chance that by age 30, you are either going to be incarcerated or on some form of government assistance.”
Although he quickly built a reputation as a vocal critic of the GOP leadership’s stance on education during his first session, Hughes said the session gave him a disturbing lesson in “perception vs. reality.”
“What I can tell is that special interests control 100 percent of what happens there,” he said. “Someone asked me why we didn’t have a tax-free day for public schools for buying school supplies. The answer is simple: There are no lobbyists in Jackson to fight for it.”
Hughes always was an outspoken critic of the legislative process.
“The most disappointing thing for me was that everything happens behind closed doors,” he said. “What the public sees is a show. It’s as orchestrated as a school play. To me, that is an offense to the democratic process.”
He said many legislators are more influenced by short-term, self-interests than good policy and urged citizens to pay careful attention to the actions of those they send to Jackson.
“I wish every (legislator) would vote like they aren’t running for re-election in four years,” he said. “I also wish people would vote based on what a person does rather than voting for a letter (R or D). Voting matters. Only 13 percent of the population votes. There are far more people complaining than there are people who voted.”
Although he admits he faces long odds in fighting to make education a priority — and funding it as a priority — Hughes said he remains undaunted in his fight.
“With my dying breath, I’ll be saying it all starts with education,” he said.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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