The Mississippi House has gone home for the weekend without HB 1944 – their latest private school funding bill – being acted on by the Ways and Means Committee, to which it is assigned. HB 1944 increases state funding for private schools through a tax-credit program dubbed the Children’s Promise Act, and would send millions more in state funding to private schools annually, with increases this year and in each of the next two years – all with no accountability, no reporting, and no oversight whatsoever. See details of the bill here.
Meanwhile, the House has passed HB 1234, which requires more – much more – accountability reporting for public schools, a ridiculous, unnecessary, requirement that public schools report every month on a new “dashboard” all sorts of detailed financial and academic data, most of which is already reported on another dashboard and available on their web sites, and all of which is available to the public. If legislators want to reduce administrative costs for districts, they should stop piling on more and more administrative tasks.
Here’s what legislators – who want state-funded private schools to report nothing at all, ever, to the public – want public schools to report every month on yet another “dashboard”:
- individual line-item expenditures by date, purpose, and vendor
- contracts by vendor, purpose, and payment
- monthly revenue data by fund and source, including beginning and ending balances
- total aggregate expenditures for staff and personnel who are not compensated according to the state salary schedule
- total aggregate expenditures for staff and personnel who are compensated according to the state salary schedule
- school letter grades
- district letter grades
- grade 3 reading proficiency and growth
- grade 3 math proficiency and growth
- grade 8 reading proficiency and growth
- grade 8 math proficiency and growth
- truancy and absenteeism rates
- dropout rates
- graduation rates
- student-to-teacher ratios
- college-, career,-and workforce readiness metrics
- college placement rates
- job placement rates
- military placement rates
- average ACT scores
- average ACT WorkKeys scores
- special class offerings
- college-and career-readiness index scores
- number of teachers with advanced degrees/certifications
- number of teachers with industry experience
- teacher turnover rates
- number of long-term substitute teachers
Districts that fail to report the data timely could have their MSFF funding withheld and be slapped with an accreditation violation. But, again, they want private schools to receive the same base funding as public schools and report none of this, claiming that private school parents know all they need to know about their schools without any data at all. The level of hypocrisy is astounding.
HB 1234 has passed the House and has been referred to the Senate Education Committee.
Ask your representative to
VOTE NO:
HB 1944 or ANY BILL that increases funding to private schools via the CHILDREN’S PROMISE ACT
SB 2002 (public school choice)
VOTE YES:
SB 2001 (teacher and assistant teacher pay – amend to minimum $5,000 teacher pay raise)
SB 2003 (improves retired teacher incentives to return to classroom)
SB 2242 (Mississippi Math Act)
SB 2487 (expand literacy support to middle grades – amend to reflect effective strategies for middle grade literacy interventions, which differ from effective K-3 interventions)
House Speaker Jason White: 601.359.3300
Ask your senator to
VOTE NO:
HB 1234 (additional, duplicative, and onerous accountability and financial reporting, creating additional administrative costs)
VOTE YES:
HB 1126 (teacher pay raise – amend to remove provisions unrelated to teacher pay and provide assistant teacher pay raise)
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann: 601.359.3200
Capitol Switchboard: 601.359.3770
Find additional contact information for legislators
Today, the House passed a bill in which they inserted their proposed programs addressing reading, math, and financial literacy. The bill, SB 2294, will go back to the Senate where that body can concur with the changes, invite conference for further work, or take no action. Please also check this reminder about the other bills we are continuing to watch.
Your calls are making a real difference – please keep it up. HB 1944 (state funding to private schools) requires a 3/5 vote in the House (73 yes votes), so please be sure to touch base with your House members who voted NO on HB 2, and let them know you are counting on their NO votes again. With their help, we can defeat this bill in the House!
You’ve proven that great things happen when you work with your legislators to ensure strong public schools for ALL children. Because together, we’ve got this!
