Burnham named state education superintendent

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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JACKSON — Tom Burnham, who led Mississippi’s public school system for five years in the mid-1990s, has been chosen to return to the position.

The state Board of Education announced its decision Tuesday after interviewing four candidates. Burnham, 63, will succeed Hank Bounds, who resigned in June to accept the job as Mississippi’s higher education commissioner.

Burnham is currently dean of the School of Education at the University of Mississippi. He will assume his new duties by the end of the year, said Pete Smith, spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Education. He’s a former superintendent for Henderson County Public Schools in North Carolina and Biloxi Public Schools. He served as Mississippi’s education superintendent from 1992-1997.