Episode 5 | Rebekah Staples

Mississippi policymakers prioritized science-based reading over the last decade and saw the nation's greatest gains in reading scores as measured by the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation's Report Card.

Meanwhile, Maine has been spending more and more on K-12 education, not empowering families, losing student enrollment, and falling to some of the worst NAEP results ever.

This week, Laurel sits down with Rebekah Staples, a Mississippi-based public policy consultant who served as policy director for Governor Haley Barbour and senior advisor to Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves. During her time in state government, she worked on education funding, budget reform, workforce development, and government efficiency initiatives. She holds an MBA from Vanderbilt University and currently runs her own consulting firm. FSStrategies.com/our-story