Graduation and student testing reform ideas being raised by theMississippi Association of School Superintendents set the stage forsome interesting legislative debate when or if they are everbrought up for discussion.

Area school district leaders, including former Brookhavenschools superintendent Dr. Sam Bounds as MASS executive director,met with local legislators last week to raise awareness and currysupport for their reform plans.

Those include creation of alternate paths to graduation forstudents who may not be college-bound and simply destined for theworld of work and elimination of “high-stakes” state testing.Bounds said preparation for state tests takes away from classroomlearning time and eliminating them would save millionsannually.

Of course, full funding of the Mississippi Adequate EducationProgram remains a top priority for school superintendents in thisarea and across the state.

Mississippians should be willing to consider any suggestionsthat will improve the quality of education in the state. And giventhe current state of the economy, state lawmakers should no doubtbe interested in any ideas that will save money.

Whether the MASS ideas will produce the desired outcomes remainsto be seen, but putting them on the table opens the door to findingeffective ways to provide the best education possible for statestudents.