The 2026 Legislative Session will convene at noon on Tuesday (Jan. 6), and we expect votes to be taken on both public and private school choice immediately. We anticipate committee meetings as early as the very first day, with legislation rushed through committee and onto the floor. The good news is that legislators are hearing from their constituents, and we believe we can stop these school choice bills.
We will keep you in the loop every step of the way, but it is essential that you reach out to your legislators now and secure their commitment to vote NO on any and all school choice legislation, no matter what is packaged with it, and no matter what it is called: Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), vouchers, portability, public school choice… All of it gives the final choice to schools, not parents, and not students – an absurd use of our tax dollars. Ask your friends and family to call, too, and see below some school choice facts to share with others as you work to defeat this harmful scheme. Find more information on the devastating impact of school choice here.
Speaker White has said he plans to package unpopular school choice with very popular education issues like a teacher pay raise in hopes of getting the votes he needs to pass it. Teachers, incensed that they would be used as political pawns in that way, are insisting that their legislators vote NO on that sort of “hostage” package bill and instead pass the stand-alone teacher pay raise bill they deserve.
Ask your legislators to VOTE NO on:
any school choice measure (private or public/portability)
or any measure that sends public money to private schools
(vouchers or tax credits through the Children’s Promise Act)
Ask them to vote YES on a stand-alone teacher pay raise ($5,000 minimum)
Capitol Switchboard: 601.359.3770
Find additional contact information for legislators
Lt. Gov. Hosemann: 601.359.3200
House Speaker White: 601.359.3300
Momentum is on our side! Realizing the serious threat that school choice is to the viability of their communities, municipal and school boards have weighed in, passing resolutions opposing public and private school choice and urging their own legislative delegations, the Mississippi Legislature, and Governor Reeves to oppose school choice and to invest in strengthening public schools.
So many of you have expressed dismay that legislators would waste time and energy on harmful proposals when there are many things they should do to strengthen public schools for ALL children. See that list here.
At The Parents’ Campaign, our positions are based on the answer to one simple question: Will this help or harm more children? With “school choice,” it isn’t even close: far, far more children would be harmed by allowing publicly funded schools to pick and choose the students they want to serve. What a blessing it is that so many Mississippi moms, dads, grandparents, teachers, local elected officials, and more are fighting so hard to stop the assault on our public schools. As we begin a new year with a clean slate, let us resolve to stand in the gap for ALL Mississippi children, to ensure strong public schools in every community for every child. Together, we’ve got this!
Share these “school choice” facts as you talk to others:
- School choice gives the choice to private schools, not parents – private schools can take state funding and remain exclusive, closing their doors to kids they don’t want
- Private voucher schools keep low-income children out by charging tuition beyond what the voucher covers – non-public school leaders say privately they plan to raise tuition if voucher legislation passes
- Mississippi, saying no to vouchers, has seen our national reading scores grow by the equivalent of a full academic year in the last decade, while every single one of the states named by EdChoice as a “Top 10 School Choice” state has seen its national test scores decline
- Vouchers have been shown to have a worse negative impact on student achievement than natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the COVID pandemic
- In states with broad voucher programs, the vast majority of vouchers go to students who already were enrolled in private schools; Speaker White says he plans to start small, then expand vouchers to all Mississippi children, costing taxpayers more than $350-million annually just for vouchers for the 10% of Mississippi children already enrolled in private schools
- School choice is highly unpopular across the country; every time vouchers have been on a statewide ballot in any state, they have been defeated, most recently last November in Colorado, Kentucky, and Nebraska
- Public school choice, also called “portability,” favors the already privileged and exacerbates inequality; it is open only to families who can afford to provide their own transportation to and from school daily (likely worsening chronic absenteeism) and only to students accepted by the transferee district, making public schools vulnerable to “poaching” and, in many cases, leaving the vast majority of students in an affected school in a diminished situation
