After 16 Years, Mississippi First Founder, Leader Rachel Canter to Transition in 2025
Move comes after years of significant progress statewide in expanding, strengthening educational opportunities; Board search underway for successor
Mississippi First founder and Executive Director Rachel Canter announced today that she will transition from the organization in 2025. The move comes after a transformational period for public education in Mississippi, with more and higher-quality educational opportunities now available for children and families and the state an exemplar nationwide for its recent academic progress.
“From the very beginning, leading this organization has been a labor of love, sweat, and more than a few tears—no more so than today, when after sixteen years, I have decided to leave my position by June 2025,” Canter said in a letter she released. “I need to leave Mississippi First while the organization is strong enough to survive, and I believe that time is now. …Leading Mississippi First has been the honor of a lifetime, and I am so grateful to all of my allies, near and far, who have sustained me.”
“Tens of thousands of children in Mississippi have greater opportunities because of Rachel Canter,” said Tim Abram, Chair of the Board for Mississippi First. “She has successfully fought an uphill battle for the last 16 years, and, in doing so, she has helped to transform the landscape around public education statewide. I am grateful for her service to Mississippi First and to Mississippi, and the Board and I wish her all the best in her future endeavors.”
Since Mississippi First launched in 2008, the state has implemented several initiatives to enhance public education. Mississippi First, a non-partisan, nonprofit education policy advocacy organization, has been instrumental in many of these advancements, especially around early childhood education, charter schools, and equitable educational opportunities.
Among the most notable areas of improvement:
Early Childhood Education:
- Establishment of State-Funded Pre-K: In 2013, Mississippi enacted the Early Learning Collaborative Act, creating the state’s first state-funded pre-kindergarten program. Mississippi First authored and advocated for this legislation, leading to the establishment of Early Learning Collaboratives (ELCs) across the state.
- Expansion and Quality Recognition: Since their inception, the ELC programs operated by the state have received more than $140 million in appropriations from the legislature. The state has been recognized nationally for meeting all 10 quality standards set by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER).
- Public Support for Early Education: A 2023 survey conducted by Mississippi First revealed widespread public support for pre-K and early learning initiatives, highlighting the importance of early childhood education among Mississippians.
Charter Schools:
- Legislation and Growth: The Mississippi Charter Schools Act of 2013 established a framework for charter schools in the state. Mississippi First has been a leading voice in advocating for high-quality public charter schools, contributing to the development and strengthening of charter school policies.
- Funding and Support: In 2022, Mississippi First received a federal Charter Schools Program (CSP) grant aimed at increasing the number of high-quality charter schools, with a goal to create ten new charter schools by 2027.
Equitable Educational Opportunities:
- New School Funding Formula: In 2024, Mississippi replaced the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) with the Mississippi Student Funding Formula. This new formula aims to allocate additional funding for students requiring more resources, such as those in poverty, with special needs, or learning English as a second language.
- Teacher Recruitment and Retention: Mississippi First has advocated for policies to attract and retain effective teachers, particularly in high-need districts. Their research and advocacy efforts have led to two teacher pay raises, including the 2022 historic raise, as well as the creation of teacher support programs such as the Winter-Reed Loan Repayment Program.
- Rigorous Learning Standards: Mississippi First was an early, and often lone, voice for improved learning standards and more rigorous accountability policies. Their work to support the adoption of high-quality learning standards, aligned instructional materials, and strong accountability policies has been the backbone of many of Mississippi’s academic gains.
As Abram, the Board Chair, said: “When Rachel started this organization 16 years ago, the idea that Mississippi could be first in anything positive when it came to education was almost laughable. Today, Mississippi is widely respected for its commitment to public education. Rachel would be the first to tell you that many people were involved in achieving this sea change, but the Board and I feel strongly that Rachel has been an absolutely pivotal part of this progress.”
The Board has begun a search for Canter’s successor and will announce more details in early 2025. Canter plans to transition from Mississippi First in the first half of 2025.
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Media Contact: Brendan Lowe, brendan@eachdaycomms.org, 856.904.1693
An announcement
Dear friends, colleagues, and supporters,
I was 19 when I decided that I would devote my life to what eventually became Mississippi First. It was the summer of 2002, and No Child Left Behind was set to go into effect that fall. I had spent the summer as an intern in the Mississippi Governor’s Office and was tasked with spearheading a grant application to help Mississippi get ready for the changes that this new federal law would require.
Through that process, I met the then-superintendent of Cleveland Public Schools. He told me a story about children in Cleveland who were too poor to afford running water and came with their families each week to the fire station to fill up buckets and jugs. These were the children, he impressed upon me, that we are saying can no longer be left behind. What was unstated, but nonetheless seemed to echo so loud to me, was that our country, and our state, would rather forget these children—our children, my children—and each new initiative was only lip service to the idea of something better made by cynical politicos in Washington.
I went home that evening feeling determined and more than a little defiant. A Starkville kid who grew up attending public schools, I have never been able to accept the idea that just because the state and its children are poor, and just because our history is among the darkest in the nation, we will never be able to be better or do better than last place. “This is what I want to do for the rest of my life,” I told a friend. “I want to change Mississippi so that every child, including the kids in Cleveland, can get a great education in Mississippi public schools.”
It took seven years, and a lot of twists and turns, from that moment until I moved to Jackson in 2008 to start Mississippi First. From the very beginning, leading this organization has been a labor of love, sweat, and more than a few tears—no more so than today, when after 16 years I am writing to share that I will leave my position by June 2025. I came to this decision after many months of long, careful thought.
My first and largest reason is deeply personal. When I started Mississippi First, I was young and single and responsible to no one other than myself and my ideals. In the intervening years, I have traversed many of the milestones of adulthood, most importantly getting married and having two children. It has become increasingly obvious to me that the pressures of this job are unsustainable if I want to have the time and energy to be present for my kids as they approach their formative adolescent years. To put it bluntly, I need to take a break from devoting so much energy to Mississippi’s children to focus on my own.
Secondly, I want Mississippi First, the organization I’ve led and cared about so deeply, to have a long life regardless of whether I stay at the helm. The transition from a founder to a successor is often rocky for an organization, and the longer I stay, the harder I know it will be. I need to leave Mississippi First while the organization is strong enough to survive, and I believe that time is now, after 16 years of historic wins, including this past year’s generational accomplishment in writing a new, more equitable public school funding formula law. I believe new leadership will open new possibilities.
The usual terms—“bittersweet,” “mixed emotions”—do not adequately describe what I’m feeling now. One of the questions I’ve grappled with over the years is when will it be enough? When will I have done enough to make good on the promises I made when I was 19? With the wisdom of experience, I honestly do not know whether I can ever do enough. I do know that I need to step back from the day-to-day challenges of this position for a brief while so I can sustain my commitment to this work over many years ahead.
Leading Mississippi First has been the honor of a lifetime, and I am so grateful to all my allies, near and far, who have sustained me as I have done this difficult work in this difficult place. I am proud of what we have accomplished together, and I am sorry to leave you.
There will be time for tears, and lessons learned, and future plans. Most importantly, there is still a little more time to get things done before my last day in this seat; I hope we can make the most of it.
My best wishes,
Rachel
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