The Senate charter school bill, SB 2161, has not yet been taken up for a vote. Please continue to contact the senators who represent your school district about this bill.
SB 2161 threatens to siphon resources away from the C-rated districts that are doing some of our very best work with high-poverty students, allowing their students to cross district lines to attend charter schools.
Changes in the accountability model that take effect this year, coupled with continued changes in state tests, are expected to lower ratings of A and B school districts, making them vulnerable to this provision, now and in the future. Read more about these changes.
The deadline for Senate action on this bill is April 14, and we expect the leadership to continue pressuring senators until they have the votes they want or until the deadline, whichever comes first. Therefore, it is imperative that senators keep hearing from you!
Please contact the senators in your school district every day using at least one of these means: phone call, email, text message, tweet, Facebook message. If you can, do all five every day!
Our message: Send SB 2161 to conference to remove C districts from anything having to do with charter schools.
Find phone, email, and social media contact information for the senators in your school district.
Share the same message with Lt. Governor Reeves: 601.359.3200
Today, the House sent HB 458, the average daily membership bill, to conference on a voice vote, making it possible for broad changes to be made to the MAEP formula without a full public vetting.
The House also passed SB 2858, the tax cut bill that reduces state revenue by $134-million, with a reverse repealer that will send it to conference. See the vote here. This vote was complicated by an amendment requiring the establishment of a lottery to fund education and road maintenance prior to any tax cut taking place – and by the fact that the bill is seen as the last hope to generate funding for repairing roads and bridges. Chairman Jeff Smith vowed not to come back from conference with a corporate franchise tax cut and predicted that no agreement on tax cuts was likely to emerge.
Please ask all the public school supporters you know to make daily contacts with senators about the charter school bill until it is moved off the calendar. We are so very thankful that our children have you in their corner – what a blessing!
