The House Select Committee on “Education Freedom” met this afternoon and heard from:
- Barrett Donahoe, representing the Midsouth Association of Independent Schools (Mississippi’s private school association)
- Chad Harrison and Tim Shramek, on behalf of the Mississippi High School Activities Association (oversees Mississippi middle and high school athletics and activities)
- Mary Werner, who serves on the Mississippi Board of Education (Mississippi’s state public school board), though she noted that she was speaking as an individual, not for the board
- Sam Duell, with Yes. Every Kid. (a Koch-funded school choice lobbying organization)
Donahoe testified that the primary reasons his private school association has opposed school choice in the past were:
- Fear of an “erosion of admissions standards” (being forced to admit students they don’t want)
- Fear of “over-regulation” and state testing
- Fear of losing curricular and institutional autonomy
He emphasized repeatedly that private schools were not willing to have their students take the same state assessments that public school students take, terming it non-negotiable. When asked if public schools should be relieved of those accountability requirements, he said no.
Over the years, the Mississippi Legislature has passed countless mandates that public schools must meet, some of them unfunded, and many of them adopted without input from educators. Public schools comply. Astoundingly, in today’s committee hearing, some legislators appeared eager to make any concessions necessary to entice private schools to take public money – no accountability, no oversight, no rules at all. Others on the committee clearly are more skeptical.
School choice is not a harmless policy with minimal consequences. Florida, hailed as the best state for school choice, has seen its academic achievement plummet. In Arizona, universal school choice has devastated the state budget, driving cuts to nearly all state services. While they are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to pay the tuition of students who already were enrolled in private schools before school choice was adopted, inflation-adjusted per-student funding for Arizona’s public schools has declined each year since universal choice was passed. Today, Arizona spends less per student than it did in 2008. Public schools are closing as a result.
School choice, if adopted, will set Mississippi back decades. Backward in per-student public school funding, backward in student achievement, backward in economic development, backward in quality of life.
Mississippi has made terrific strides in student achievement, thanks to our incredible teachers and state leaders’ investments in our public schools. The Mississippi Department of Education has announced a plan to kick those achievements up a notch, expanding successful early grade strategies into the middle and upper grades. We have an opportunity to change the national perception of Mississippi for good, to establish our state permanently as a beacon of light, one that has cracked the code on education, with a plan to bring every single student to his or her potential. We can’t do that with a separate and unequal system of education that lets private schools pick winners and losers. We’ve been there before, and it landed us on the very bottom rung of the education ladder.
Ask your legislators to join us in work that will benefit every Mississippi child, in public schools, where every child is chosen.
Chairman Roberson announced that there would be additional committee meetings, but that dates for them have not yet been decided. I promise to keep you posted.
We’ve had a significant uptick in invitations to speak to groups around the state about the school choice issue. If you know of other groups that would like to learn more about the dangers of school choice, please let me know. Our children, our families, and our communities are counting on us. And together, we’ve got this!
