Please join us in thanking our friends in the Mississippi House for rejecting the final remaining public school choice measure. SB 2618, a school attendance officer bill, had been amended in the House Education Committee to include choice/portability language. The bill died on today’s deadline when Chairman Roberson declined to take it up for a floor vote.
We now can turn our full attention to preventing any increase in the flow of public funds to private schools via the Children’s Promise Act.
Three House bills include Children’s Promise Act language (HB 1894, HB 1902, HB 1903) a program that sends tax dollars to private schools. All three have passed the House and have been sent to the Senate Finance Committee.
Two of these bills increase dramatically the flow of public money to private schools by way of dollar-for-dollar tax credits for donations. The private schools get that public money with no obligation or accountability to the taxpayers footing the bill – no requirement that they enroll new students, no restrictions on expenditure of funds, no reporting requirements, no state audits.
No one even checks to be sure that the private schools currently getting $9-million of our tax dollars every year are enrolling the qualifying children that the law says they are supposed to serve. At a minimum, any private school that receives an annual subsidy from our tax dollars should be audited by the state to ensure compliance with the law.
Please ask senators to
OPPOSE
Any increase in Children’s Promise Act tax credits for private schools (HB 1894, HB 1902, HB 1903)
AND
Require state audits of any private school receiving taxpayer-subsidized dollars
through the Children’s Promise Act, ESA vouchers, or other means
Capitol Switchboard: 601.359.3770
(Open Mon. noon-5:00, Tues.-Thurs. 8:00-5:00, Fri. 8:00-noon)
Lt. Gov. Hosemann: 601.359.3200
Find additional contact information for legislators here.
You can see all the bills we are tracking and your legislators’ votes on our Bill Tracker. Of note is that improvements to the law allowing retired teachers to return full-time to the classroom while drawing PERS, and the provision adding grades 7 and 8 CTE to the school funding law, both remain alive and await concurrence or conference in the House.
These last few weeks of the session are critically important. Please invite other public school supporters to sign up for our notifications so they can help us remain vigilant until the very end. Ask that they join you in urging lawmakers to oppose any increase in the diversion of public money to private schools through the Children’s Promise Act. Our legislators need our support as they stand up to lobbyists working against public education. Together, we’ve got this!
