This morning, the House tabled the motion to reconsider on the Senate charter bill.
House Education Chairman John Moore moved to send SB 2161 to the Senate as it passed the House initially. Rep. Steve Holland urged the House to defeat Moore’s motion so that the bill could be reconsidered and amended to remove C districts from those eligible to have students cross district lines to attend charter schools. Moore’s motion passed narrowly (58-57), sending the bill to the Senate with students in districts rated C, D, and F allowed to enroll in charter schools in other districts (local and state funding follows the student). You can see how your rep voted here.
The bill now goes to the Senate for concurrence or conference.
Please ask your senator and Lt. Governor Reeves to send SB 2161 to conference where C districts can be removed from anything having to do with charter schools.
Capitol Switchboard: 601.359.3770
Lt. Governor Reeves Capitol: 601.359.3200
Find contact information for legislators who represent your school district.
The Senate did not take up HB 1044, thankfully, allowing it to die on the calendar. This was the House charter school bill which had been amended by the Senate Education Committee to allow open enrollment in charter schools statewide and to allow charters to locate in C districts against the wishes of the local school board.
The Senate removed the reverse repealer on HB 33, a bill that extends eligibility for special needs vouchers to students who have had an IEP within the past five years. If sent to conference by the House, HB 33 could be changed to create a broad voucher system, using state funds to pay tuition at private schools.
Please ask your representative and Speaker Gunn to concur with the Senate version of HB 33 and send the bill on to the governor as it is.
Capitol Switchboard: 601.359.3770
Speaker Gunn Capitol: 601.359.3300
Find contact information for legislators who represent your school district.
Many of you have expressed great frustration at your representatives’ admissions that they were doing the will of the leadership and ignoring the will of constituents. This highlights the importance of improved awareness among voters regarding how decisions about critical legislation are made. You can invite others in your community to sign up for our emails here.
Thank you for your amazing work thus far! Please contact your legislators, and ask your friends to contact them, too. There is a misconception that C districts are under-performing. To the contrary, many of them are doing truly extraordinary work in very challenging circumstances. We need to get them removed from the provision that allows their students to cross district lines for charters, taking local and state money with them, and weakening schools that are doing really great work. Let’s make those calls and get this done for our kids!
