“Tackling chronic absenteeism, providing early childhood education and improving third-grade reading would increase graduation rates in Mississippi, the Republican chairman of the Mississippi Senate Education Committee said last night.

“Sen. Gray Tollison, R-Oxford, also cited a link between low third-grade reading proficiency and the high likelihood of dropping out. ‘You’ve got to look back and say, “Where do we go to make the changes that need to happen?”’ Tollison said. ‘And it starts early; it doesn’t happen in high school. It doesn’t start when they turn 15 or 13; it starts when they’re born.’”

“GOP Leaders: Invest in Early Education, Reading to Raise Graduation Rates,” The Jackson Free Press, December 1, 2016