The House passed HB 1671 without eliminating the tax credits that benefit private schools, though the increase in private school funding that had been added to the bill was removed.
HB 1671 includes the Children’s Promise Act – the law that was supposed to encourage donations to organizations that serve children in foster care but, instead, diverted half of the funding to private schools. The bill now goes to the Senate, where it should be amended to direct 100% of the tax credits in Section 4 to the benefit of organizations that serve children in foster care.
Please ask your senator to amend the bill to strike Section 4(1)(b)(ii) to remove the tax credits for private school funding and redirect those to benefit children in foster care. Please also continue to reach out to legislators urging them to fully fund our public schools.
Contact legislators, Speaker Gunn, and Lt. Gov. Hosemann with this message:
1. FULLY FUND public schools
2. Keep public funds in PUBLIC schools – amend HB 1671 to remove private school funding
Find contact information for legislators who represent your school district
Capitol Switchboard: 601.359.3770
Speaker Gunn: 601.359.3300
Lt. Gov. Hosemann: 601.359.3200
Legislators have an extra $1-billion in recurring revenue to spend, more than three times what is needed to fully fund the MAEP. We also know that:
- Our neighboring states of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee outspend Mississippi on public education by more than $1,000 per student, putting Mississippi students and high school graduates at a significant disadvantage when competing with their peers in other states.
- It’s been proven time and again that when we invest in them, Mississippi’s public school teachers and students deliver, achieving more academic improvement than those in any other state.
There are 5 days left in our February promotion that could win $1,000 for your school! Contest details:
- The contest will end at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, February 28, and the (one) winning school will be announced on Friday, March 3, 2023.
- Any adult age 21 or older may participate by completing an on-line sign-up form for email notifications from The Parents’ Campaign.
- Entry forms must have “Send me email updates” checked.
- Only one sign-up per email address is allowed, but an entrant may list multiple schools within a district, and each school will receive credit for the sign-up.
- Entry is open only to new sign-ups, but current email recipients can help build entries for your school by forwarding this to family and friends.
- Only Mississippi public schools are eligible to win the contest.
- The winning school will have the highest ratio of sign-ups to school enrollment (number of sign-up forms that include the school’s name divided by the school’s 2022-2023 total enrollment as listed on MDE’s web site).
Please keep reaching out to legislators with our important message. Ask everyone you know to call. Because together, we’ve got this!
