Mississippi State Representative Joel Bomgar of Mississippi House District 58 (Madison County) spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at its October 10, 2017, meeting. The subject of Rep. Bomgar's talk was raising the State of Mississippi from last place in the US based on per capita income. He presented data demonstrating that the problem is not racial or geographical, but is primarily due to educational achievement levels in the state. He said that employers do not want to locate in the state because of the shortage of well educated workers. He said that the lack of educational achievement is due to limited choice of educational alternatives because students are assigned to districts and schools based on where they live and he believes that the educational process would be more effective if the students had more options regarding schools.
Representative Bomgar said that he committed to his constituents that he would develop a detailed plan for getting Mississippi out of last place in the US on a per capita income basis during his initial 4 year term. He further said that he is two years into his term and that he is committed to finalizing that plan by the end of his four year term. The accompanying photo shows Representative Bomgar at the head table during the meeting with the title slide for his presentation on the screen “Rising Out of Last Place.”To his left at the table is Rotarian Jeff Adcock who introduced him to the club. He presented extensive data supporting his conclusions that the proble of low per capita income is neither racial nor geographical within the state. The supporting data were in comparison with the racial make-up of Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, & South Carolina.
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The second photo is of Rep. Bomgar with the last slide in his presentation. It show's his objective for the sate of Mississippi.
The third photo is of Rep. Bomgar (center) with Rotarians Don Roberts (left) and Tom Parry (right) following his presentation.
We thank Rep. Bomgar for his presentation to our club, for his commitment to our state, and for his willingness to share is ideas for raising the state from its 50th position