This afternoon the Senate Finance Committee moved forward two bills that include the Children’s Promise Act language, the law that sends millions in state funding to private schools. The committee passed an amended version of HB 1944, creating an additional $6-million category of tax credits for special purpose schools, nonpublic schools that serve only children with some special need, such as Magnolia Speech School and the Lighthouse Academy for Dyslexia. A number of special purpose schools already receive direct appropriations from the state, and all of them have additional voucher and state-funded “scholarship” programs designed specifically for them.
The amendment removes for now HB 1944’s increases in private school funding and the provision that would have taken tax credits away from foster care organizations on October 1 and transferred them to private schools. A reverse repealer added to the bill ensures that it will go to conference, opening it to shenanigans like we’ve seen in recent years.
All tax credits directly threaten public school funding by reducing state revenue. A provision written into the Mississippi Student Funding Formula (MSFF) says that, in a year in which revenue declines, the lower prior-year base student cost can be used to determine school district funding, reducing the funding to public schools, even as nonpublic school funding increases via the Children’s Promise Act.
The committee also passed HB 4067, a “special projects” bond bill through which the Legislature funds hundreds of millions of dollars in projects in some legislators’ home districts. This bill also includes the section of law addressing the Children’s Promise Act, making it susceptible to increases in private school funding in conference.
Unless these bills are defeated on the Senate floor tomorrow, both bills likely will remain in negotiations where private school funding can be increased at any time until the final moments of the session. Please call your senator and Lt. Gov. Hosemann right away, and ask at least one other person to call, as well, doubling your impact.
Ask senators to:
VOTE NO on HB 1944
and
AMEND HB 4067 to remove Section 15, the Children’s Promise Act
Find contact information for legislators
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann: 601.359.3200
Capitol Switchboard: 601.359.3770
The Children’s Promise Act is not just a “tax incentive.” It is the state paying back private school patrons for their donations to private schools, dollar for dollar. It has the exact same impact on the state budget and for private schools as would a direct state appropriation to the school. It reduces the state funding available for a teacher pay raise, repairs to school facilities, an expansion of pre-k, and many other needs in our public schools.
When Mississippi is experiencing a teacher shortage crisis and teachers are desperate for a minimum $5,000 pay raise, we simply cannot afford for the Legislature to give away millions of dollars in tax credits.
Please remind your senator and Lt. Gov. Hosemann that any tax credits threaten public school funding and a significant teacher pay raise, and they should be defeated. Ask your friends and neighbors to call, too. Together, we’ve got this!
