We need your help with a variety of bills awaiting votes in the House and Senate – some good and some very bad. Please reach out to your legislators right away about the following bills.
Bills awaiting House votes:
HB 1234 – School accountability dashboard – Creates new accountability “dashboards” on which public schools would be required to publish monthly detailed financial and academic data, adding new layers of accountability for public schools while publicly-funded private schools are explicitly protected from any public scrutiny or accountability. VOTE NO
HB 1367 – School nutrition – Ensures that all students receive a school lunch, prohibiting schools from withholding lunch from students who can’t pay or otherwise ostracizing them, among other nutrition-related provisions. VOTE YES
HB 1606 – Excellence for All Pilot Program – Attempts to mitigate the teacher shortage by improving teacher retention; directs MDE to provide a career ladder for teachers and provide additional supports and incentives in pilot districts. VOTE YES
SB 2001 – Teacher pay raise – Provides for a $2,000 across-the-board increase. AMEND (to increase to $5,000 minimum across-the-board raise) AND VOTE YES
SB 2002 – Public school choice – Allows public schools to pick and choose out-of-district students to attend their schools; available only to students who can provide their own transportation to and from school. VOTE NO
SB 2003 – Retirees return to classroom – Expands incentives for retirees to return to teaching while receiving PERS benefits. VOTE YES
Bills awaiting Senate votes:
HB 2 – Mississippi Education Freedom Act – Massive voucher/school choice bill that lets state-funded schools pick and choose their students. VOTE NO
SB 2242 – Mississippi Math Act – Provides pilot program to identify and provide interventions for students struggling in math and supports for math teachers in grades K-5. VOTE YES
SB 2487 – Adolescent literacy initiative – Expands literacy support to schools and students in grades 4-8. This bill needs some clarifications and improvements but is a very good start toward ensuring children in middle grades get the reading interventions they need. AMEND (to allow further work) AND VOTE YES
Ask your senator to
VOTE NO:
HB 2 (vouchers/school choice)
VOTE YES:
SB 2242 (Math Act)
SB 2487 (expand literacy support to middle grades – amend to allow further work)
Capitol Switchboard: 601.359.3770
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann: 601.359.3200
Find additional contact information for legislators
Ask your representative to
VOTE NO:
HB 1234 (increases accountability reporting for public schools)
SB 2002 (public school choice)
VOTE YES:
HB 1367 (children cannot be denied school lunch)
HB 1606 (teacher career ladder, addresses teacher shortage)
SB 2001 (teacher pay – amend to minimum $5,000 pay raise)
SB 2003 (improves retired teacher incentives to return to classroom)
House Speaker Jason White: 601.359.3300
Capitol Switchboard: 601.359.3770
Find additional contact information for legislators
A few of these bills are awaiting committee votes, and others have passed committee and are awaiting votes of the full chamber. You can see the status of each on the Bill Tracker page of our website. If you would like to call all legislators who represent a portion of your school district, you can find their names and contact information here. Please urge others in your community to call, as well.
The hypocrisy of some legislators will be on full display if they vote for the additional accountability reporting for public schools required in HB 1234 after having voted to protect state-funded private schools from any public financial or academic accountability or public scrutiny at all. We promise to keep you posted.
In addition to the bills listed above, there are two bills of concern that we want you to be aware of but on which we are not yet taking a position:
- HB 1292 – The committee substitute requires that all school boards be elected, removing the ability of municipal school districts to have appointed school board members; requires that municipal school board elections be held at the time of either gubernatorial or presidential elections; makes provisions for the recall of an elected school board member by petition of 30% of the county electorate and with the governor’s approval of the petition. Numerous parents in municipal districts have reached out to us in the past to express opposition to changing their boards from appointed to elected, as many of their best school board members have been deeply committed, hard-working parents or business leaders who are willing to serve but unwilling to engage in a political campaign. All of Mississippi’s top-5-rated school districts and 8 of our top-10-rated school districts are municipal districts with appointed boards.
- HB 517 – The committee substitute as it passed the House Education Committee brings forward the charter school code sections for possible amendments. The bill as originally introduced reduced accountability for charter schools, provided for multiple authorizers (allowing those proposing to open new charter schools to “shop” for the most lenient authorizer), permitted virtual charter schools, and otherwise reduced accountability for charter schools (note: all but one of Mississippi’s existing charter schools currently are rated either D or F). We will continue to watch this bill for any amendments that expand or reduce accountability for charter schools.
Your calls to legislators are making a tremendous difference, and they are very much needed, as the out-of-state voucher lobby has poured money into Mississippi and ramped up attacks on pro-public school legislators. We can’t let the loud voices of a very few overwhelm the voices of the many – that’s you!
Please call right away, and ask others to call, as well. Together, we’ve got this!
