While many disastrous education bills have died and others will be battled in the next stage of the process, two harmful bills remain on the current calendar. Please continue to have conversations with your legislators about these bills:
SB 2161, the Senate charter school bill, is on the Senate “Motion to Reconsider” calendar, so senators could have another chance to vote on this bill tomorrow or Monday. The bill allows charter schools to locate in school districts rated C without local board approval and allows students in any part of the state to cross district lines to attend charter schools, taking local tax dollars to a charter school in another community.
Some senators have been confused about whether or not local funds would be moved from the home district to a charter school in another district. Here is the explanation of the shell game devised for this bill: beginning on line 41, Amendment 1 says that, when a student enrolls in a charter school in another school district, the state will send the per-student amount of the ad valorem school taxes of the home school district to the charter school in another district. Beginning with line 64, the amendment says that the state will then reduce the home school district’s January MAEP payment by that amount. That means that the entire amount of the per student local school (ad valorem) tax is taken from the home school district and given to the charter school in another district.
Ask the senators from your school district to reconsider and vote NO on SB 2161:
Contact information for legislators in your school district
Share the same message with Lt. Governor Reeves. Capitol: 601.359.3200
HB 47 remains on the “Motion to Reconsider ” calendar in the House and could come up for another vote tomorrow or Monday, though Chairman Moore has indicated that it is likely to die. This bill, which is extremely unfair to students and teachers, requires that they be held accountable for any new curriculum and/or assessment the very first time they see it, and it gives the State Auditor oversight of school ratings.
Please make sure that the representatives from your school district understand that HB 47 is harmful to students and teachers and their public schools:
Contact information for legislators in your school district
Share the same message with Speaker Gunn. Capitol: 601.359.3300
Please watch your email inbox tomorrow for important information on two additional bills that we believe could become extremely worrisome in the next few weeks. Thank you, thank you for your terrific work so far and for always going to bat for our children and their public schools!
