Former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, a Mississippi native, will headline a state education town meeting that will represent all three levels of Mississippi education.

The public is encouraged to attend. The panel will be moderated by Dr. James “Butch” Rosser, a nationally known surgeon and Morehouse School of Medicine professor who is a native of the Mississippi Delta.

Rosser is a proponent of using popular technology such as video games to further learning in what he calls “stealth learning.” The town meeting will be 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1 at Cain-Cochran Hall on the Raymond Campus.

Members of the panel include Dr. Hank Bounds, commissioner of higher education; Dr. Eric Clark, executive director of the State Board for Community and Junior Colleges and Dr. John Jordan, interim state superintendent of education. Other invited participants will include elected officials, educators, students and other civic leaders.

Over the summer, Rosser’s involvement began with the Hinds Community College aviation department and Jackson public schools in a program called “I, Too, Can Fly.” The program was aimed at teaching middle school students the basics of piloting an airplane through computer simulations.

“Education is the currency of freedom,” Rosser said. “It empowers ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things by shaping new skill sets for the jobs that are here and not the ones that have gone. Education will facilitate the ‘retooling’ of America, and change must happen now.”

Hinds Community College is providing live Web streaming of the event.