Mississippi has achieved its highest education ranking in history in the national KIDS COUNT report! The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s latest KIDS COUNT Data Book ranks Mississippi 16th in the nation in education, up from 30th in 2024. The 2025 Data Book ranks Mississippi 48th overall in child well-being. Kudos to our rock star teachers and students for their hard work and academic achievements, which are reaping benefits for Mississippians in every corner of the state in better economic development, higher average income, a higher quality of life, and brighter futures for our children. You are making Mississippi shine!
Unfortunately, that historically high ranking is now in jeopardy, as Mississippi’s public schools are threatened by a dangerous voucher provision tucked into a piece of federal legislation.
All of the hard work we’ve done to keep vouchers out of Mississippi is at serious risk of being dismantled due to a scheme in the “Big Beautiful Bill” (HR 1) that would force vouchers into every state.
HR 1 has passed the U.S. House and is being considered by the Senate. Senators Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith could be the key to removing the voucher provision from the bill. We need your help to make that happen.
Much attention is being focused on other elements of this broad bill, but little has been paid to the voucher piece, which would do irreparable harm to our public schools and put at serious risk our students’ historic achievement gains, while increasing the federal deficit by $5-billion annually.
Please ask our U.S. Senators to oppose the federal tax-credit vouchers (Qualified Elementary and Secondary Education Scholarships) in HR 1:
Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith
Mississippi Offices
Brookhaven (limited hours): 601.748.8024 Gulfport: 228.867.9710 Jackson: 601.965.4459 Oxford: 662.236.1018
Washington Office
U.S. Capitol: 202.224.5054
Senator Roger Wicker
Mississippi Offices
Gulfport: 228.871.7017 Hernando: 662.429.1002 Jackson: 601.965.4644 Tupelo: 662.844.5010
Washington Office
U.S. Capitol: 202.224.6253
Find additional contact information for your members of Congress
Voters across our country have made clear their opposition to vouchers, which have proven to be “welfare for the wealthy,” serving primarily more affluent families whose children already were attending private schools. Each and every time that vouchers have been on a statewide ballot, they have lost. See the 13 times that voters have rejected vouchers.
HR 1 would divert badly needed funding away from public schools and empower private interests and voucher-backers to pick and choose which children in Mississippi get to be educated with federal tax dollars – and which should be denied. The ultimate choice always goes to the private schools, not to parents or students.
The results of “school choice” in other states have been abysmal. Research has told us for years that academic outcomes of private voucher schools are inferior to those of public schools. Recent results on national assessments confirm that.
While Mississippi’s test scores have surged forward over the past decade, every single one of the states that EdChoice names a Top 10 State for School Choice has moved backward.
And though public schools have every expenditure scrutinized and are held to stringent accountability standards, voucher recipients have used their “education” dollars for trips to Disney World, luxury BBQ grills, and other questionable purchases, with no audits and no accountability for private voucher schools. Shouldn’t all schools that receive taxpayer dollars be held to the same standards?
Please help us ensure that Senator Hyde-Smith and Senator Wicker understand these three points:
- Mississippians have fought the voucher lobby repeatedly and successfully; we do not want vouchers forced on us by the federal government.
- HR 1’s costly voucher program would take Mississippi backward, putting at risk the impressive gains our public school students and teachers have made in recent years.
- The federal tax-credit vouchers in HR 1 would add $5-billion to the federal deficit annually, for a program that Mississippians do not want.
Please call right away – and repeatedly. Ask your friends and family to call, too. Our children are counting on us, and together, we’ve got this!
