A newly-passed law will allow higher-performing school schools to make more of their own decisions without consulting the Mississippi Department of Education.

This education upgrade also deals with other topics, such as teacher recruitment and student discipline.

Schools that will be able to take advantage of this law are those that have achieved level four or five.

They would be exempt from certain requirements, including turning in paperwork to the Department of Education, setting the opening and closing days of school, among other process standards.

"There should be some presumption that you know what you're doing, that you're getting something right," said Rep. Greg Snowden. "And give you a little freedom from the paperwork and administrative hassles that are present in the education bureaucracy."

This new law is something that is encouraging to those who run level four and five schools.

"Any flexibility that we can have here at the local level, we would certainly appreciate that," said Don Brantley, Superintendent of Union Public Schools. "Any time a school district is doing well, then they need to be able to make some decisions locally that might benefit the school."

The education upgrade plan also increases the role of education service agencies to serve local districts. There are eight of these agencies. Under this plan, they will take some burdens off of the Department of Education.

Here are some of the other parts of that upgrade education bill signed by the governor:

In addition to the freedom it gives high-performing schools, it would also allow more local operational freedom for all schools.

The bill also sets up a state office to deal with the dropout problem and gives bonuses to recruit and retain good teachers.