Mississippi: Too stupid for words!

Netscape's former CEO, Jim Barksdale, decided after reading that Mississippi's literacy rating was abominable, that he was going to try and do something about it. He decided to fund an incredibly generous reading program for Mississippi school children, if the state did three things:

1. Fully fund public education starting July 1
2. Give the teachers' raises
3. Approve an annual audit of federal child care

All reasonable requests for Mississippi school kids, who have the lowest literacy ratings in the country.

Jim Barksdale, of Jackson, and his wife had donated $100 million in January 2000 to create the Barksdale Reading Institute, which offers books and other teaching materials to improve literacy among children in low-performing public schools in Mississippi.

He made the surprise offer to set up scholarships using another $50 million of his own money during a March visit to the Capitol, where his family's charitable work was being honored.

If children who went through this program, and successfully finished high school, then they would have received $5000 and if they completed college at one of the Mississippi public universities, they would receive another $5000.

Par for the course, the Mississippi lawmakers fell short $87.7 million of the Department of Education annual budget request.

And we wonder what is wrong with the south??? Maybe the lawmakers were too illiterate to understand the offer.

This story comes from Wired.