JACKSON, Miss. — A teacher who wants to dismantle the Common Core academic standards is trying to defeat Mississippi Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves in the Republican primary.
But a sparse campaign budget and little statewide name recognition mean there’s only a remote possibility that Alisha Nelson McElhenney of Moss Point will prevent Reeves from winning the party nomination Tuesday.
The Democratic primary is between former state Sen. Tim Johnson of Madison and bookkeeper Jelani Barr of Greenwood.
Johnson has also been a Madison alderman and Madison County supervisor — and until this campaign, he was a Republican. Barr has not held public office.
The party nominees advance to the Nov. 3 general election, when Libertarian Ron Williams and the Reform Party’s Rosa B. Williams also will be on the ballot for lieutenant governor.
McElhenney said she considered running for a state Senate seat when she thought her local senator, Republican Michael Watson, was going to run for lieutenant governor. Watson sought re-election, and McElhenney entered the race for the state’s second-highest office.
Mississippi is among the majority of states that have adopted Common Core in recent years, and supporters say the standards are designed to help students think more analytically and rely less on rote memorization. Critics, including McElhenney, say Common Core math, for example, can be complicated and confusing for children like her daughter, who’s starting fifth grade.
“We set them up for failure, and they deserve better from us,” McElhenney told The Associated Press on Friday.
The lieutenant governor does not have the power to change state academic standards. Those decisions are made by the state Board of Education.
During the legislative session this year, Reeves pushed a bill that he said was aimed at moving Mississippi away from Common Core.
It would have created a 15-member commission to recommend changes in academic standards.
The recommendations would go to the state Board of Education, but the board would be under no obligation to accept them.
The bill passed the House and Senate, but was vetoed by Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, who said it would fall short of his goal of ditching Common Core.
McElhenney reported having $4,250 in her campaign fund at the end of June. Reeves had nearly $3 million.
Reeves has collected endorsements from a long list of Republican elected officials and conservative groups. In campaign appearances, he says he has kept his promises to cut taxes, balance the state budget and keep bond debt under control.
“Our future is even brighter because our children are not saddled with excessive debt,” Reeves said Wednesday at the Neshoba County Fair, one of the state’s largest political gatherings.
Johnson said Mississippi needs to expand Medicaid to help people who can’t afford private insurance and to bring billions of dollars to the state. He also said the state should fully fund an education budget formula that has been shortchanged most years since it was put into law in 1997.
“If we value public education, we must fund it,” Johnson said at the Neshoba County Fair.
Johnson had $65,425 in his campaign fund on his latest finance report. Barr reported no cash on hand.
In an interview with the AP, Barr said he wants to eliminate privately run prisons, impose term limits on politicians, legalize marijuana, ditch Common Core and eliminate all standardized testing in schools. Barr also said police officers, elected officials and others paid with tax dollars need to be more accountable to the public.
“We have to get some common sense back,” Barr said. “There’s no reason we should be at the bottom of the barrel.”
