Bounds grew up on a small farm in rural Mississippi, where his family raised pigs and cows and he hauled hay.
In his tenure as state superintendent, Bounds generated more than $49 million in private donations for the Mississippi Department of Education and local school districts.
He led the effort to reopen all of the state’s public school districts within six weeks after approximately $1 billion in damage from Hurricane Katrina.
[3] Together the system enrolled 85,000 students, employed 26,000 faculty and staff, and operated with a combined annual budget of $4.5 billion, including $500 million in research and development.
One notable occurrence during his tenure was the Turning Point USA incident on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus in August 2017, which attracted national debate.