NATCHEZ &045;&045; Education’s top state chiefs stopped at the Natchez branch of Alcorn State University Wednesday evening to speak with a small crowd about education as one entity in Mississippi.

Henry Johnson, state superintendent of education; Wayne Stonecypher, executive director of the State Board for Community and Junior Colleges; and David Potter, commissioner of the Institutions of Higher Learning stressed pulling public education, community colleges and universities together to better benefit the people of Mississippi.

&uot;The three entities are working even more closely together than they ever have,&uot; Johnson said to the room of local education administrators and a handful of concerned citizens. &uot;We are going to have to produce better products. We are committed to making it happen.&uot;

The state administrators stressed the impact a quality education has on the economy of a state and the role the whole community plays in that. The two college-level administrators recommended to Alcorn State and Copiah-Lincoln Community College personnel that they have their students spend more time in the public schools working with children.

&uot;This is the perfect example of what will make us strong, Co-Lin and ASU’s (partnership),&uot; Stonecypher said. &uot;This is a model y’all are proud of and the state should be too. The only way we are going to get ahead is education and we’ve got to work together.&uot;

Stonecypher said Mississippi has to make education as important as the first day of hunting season or football games if it wants to main gains.

&uot;One of the goals we’ve got is changing the culture we’ve got,&uot; he said. &uot;Totality of education is the key to moving us from where we are to where we want to be.&uot;

Potter said Mississippi has to invest in education to see progress.

&uot;We are an undereducated state and we need to do more to make clear the impact higher education,&uot; Potter said.

The administrators will continue their tour of the state in two weeks with the gulf coast.