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Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mississippi House kills bill to allow students to more easily move between school districts
House leadership on Wednesday allowed a bill to die that would have given parent's the ability to more easily transfer their child from one public school district to another. The legislation, a "portability" initiative that was embedded into a Senate education bill, would have allowed students to transfer between public school districts without the approval of their district of origin, and it allowed that child's portion of state K-12 education funding to follow them to the new district. When explaining why the bill died on the House calendar by Wednesday's deadline, House Education Chairman Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, and portability advocate Rep. Jansen Owen, R-Poplarville, both said the bill would have been challenged and killed with a point of order, which seeks to challenge whether a bill's language is germane to its original intent. "Anytime you have a bill, whether it's something that changes a minor thing or a major thing in education, you're going to have people for and against," Roberson said. "Unfortunately, portability is dead. We will come back next year, and we'll be talking about it again." Owen told reporters on the House floor that pressures both inside and outside of the legislature caused the bill's death. He later said he intends to pursue the legislation again next year. School choice update: MS House lawmakers push school choice as Senate chairman kills proposals. Read details "This had nothing to do with public dollars going anywhere but back to other public schools," Owen said. "The whole idea that this is to be lumped in with the (Children's Promise Act, a school choice bill) or anything else is (ridiculous). This was the most basic way to give parents the most basic amount of choice. The only thing we were doing here was telling a school district they can't tell me no when I want to send my kid to another public school district." Earlier this session, the piece of legislation in question, Senate Bill 2618, had been amended in the House Education Committee to include the House portability bill after the Senate had killed several House education priorities for the year. The issue was that the Senate bill only dealt with school attendance officers, and a portability piece was not germane. The bill was the last of a slew of attempts by House leadership to give parents more options for their child's education. More school choice news: Why universal school choice is unlikely to pass in 2025 MS Legislature? Read here The topic is often referred to as school choice, which typically has to do with using government funds to give parents more options with K-12 education, including both public-to-public school district transfers, expansion of charter schools and sending public dollars toward private education. House Speaker Jason White, R-West, who made education reforms such as school choice one of his top priorities for the year, laid the blame on a lack of support inside the legislature, lobbying against the idea and a lack of an opportunity for the Senate chamber to fully consider portability. "I think more and more of my colleagues here in the House and even in the Senate, if they're given an opportunity to express where they are in the form of voting for it or against it, I think you're going to see those (anti portability) attitudes change," White said. "(This issue) doesn't necessarily fall purely along party lines or racial lines. I think you're starting to see real, meaningful adult conversations among lawmakers about, 'Hey, what is best for kids and parents'…You're hearing those conversations." When the House portability bill originally passed the House chamber, it passed mostly along party lines, with less than a handful of Democrats voting in favor and a few Republicans voting against the measure. Throughout the session, Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, has killed both Senate and House proposals to give parents more school choice by way of both portability and other pieces of legislation that would allow public dollars going toward private schools. Grant McLaughlin covers the Legislature and state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@ or 972-571-2335. This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: MS House kills school district portability bill
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
MS House lawmakers push school choice as Senate chairman kills proposals. Read details
Hours after the Senate Education Committee killed several House priorities for the year, the House Education Committee on Tuesday killed a flurry of Senate bills and revived an effort to allow students to more easily move between school districts. On Tuesday, as a legislative deadline loomed, the House Education Committee amended and passed only one bill sent over from the Senate. By the time the deadline passed Tuesday evening, both committees had let education initiatives in both chambers die, citing lack of support for some and wanting to continue negotiations on others. While it is typical of every session for committees not to advance bills that passed the other chamber, House Education Chairman Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, said this could be seen as a tactic to force negotiations for at least some school choice legislation either this year or next. "There's lots of places to put other things in conference," House Education Chairman Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, said. "As we're developing (through the session), a lot of the bills were probably going to die anyway. Anything that dies this year, we're going to be coming back with next year." The House Education Committee, after learning the Senate killed several bills dealing with school choice, charter school expansion and school district consolidation, paused its business to speak with House leadership. School choice: School choice in MS House lives by in-house rule, not Democratic principle. See details When the committee met three hours later, it amended a Senate bill to allow for public-to-public school district movement for students, leaving all others on the cutting room floor. That piece of legislation would allow for students to move to another school district without the permission of the school district of origin. The state would also pay for any student transfers and fund the idea with $5 million if it passes, per the House proposal. Rep. Jansen Owen, R-Poplarville, said this was an effort to continue discussions on giving parents some choice for the children's education. When asked why he killed the original House bill dealing with portability, Senate Education Chairman Dennis Debar, R-Leakesville, said there were concerns about how student funding would flow between districts, whether student athletes would have an unfair advantage and a lack of support in the Senate. School choice lacks support: Why universal school choice is unlikely to pass in 2025 MS Legislature? Read here "Nothing will happen this year as far as requiring public-to-public (portability)," Debar said. "I still would like to have it studied, so that might come up later this year. I do not believe you'll see anything regarding portability being implemented this year.' Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann in a written response to the Clarion Ledger, said portability, or public-to-public school transfers, was not popular among his senators. "I have always supported public-to-public portability with capacity requirements and will continue to do so despite not currently having the votes," House Speaker Jason White, R-West, called out Hosemann for not driving for the legislation despite making it a legislative priority. "He supported it, he talked about it on a political stump even this past year," White said to reporters. "That bill (now) languishes somewhere in a committee." DeBar also said that he killed the other school choice bills because he wants to wait for studies to be produced and discussed on charter school expansion and on a statewide school district consolidation effort. The portability bill is part of a much larger debate in the state Capitol regarding school choice, a loose term for legislation seeking to give parents more state-funded choices for the children's education. Those debates typically run hot for some Mississippi Democrats, who in the House have equivocated portability, or public-to-public school transfer reform, as being akin to a path toward legalized segregation in public schools, while others have voiced concerns about student athletes taking advantage of the program to play at better performing schools. School choice tax credits: This week in politics: School choice bills return for second round in MS House What is school choice? How are Mississippi lawmakers advancing the school choice agenda in 2025? See here "This is a bill that claims to expand educational opportunities, but in reality, it plans to weaken our public school systems," Rep. John Faulkner, D-Holly Springs, said of the House portability bill before it passed out of the House in February. "It provides no funding for transportation, making it a privilege for those who can afford it, while leaving behind students in struggling districts. Furthermore, it risks diverting critical funds from under resourced schools." As for what school choice legislation is left to consider this session, the field is almost clear. White, who has for the second year in a row put education reform, including school choice, within his top legislative priorities, has repeatedly said the state should do something to give parents more options for education. Other school choice bills dealing with a tax credit program, the Children's Promise Act, also await further consideration in the Senate. Grant McLaughlin covers state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@ or 972-571-2335 This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: MS House: School choice again a focal point
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bobby Harrison: Why are private school supporters so afraid of Mississippi voters?
Proponents of spending public funds on private schools are not proponents of letting the people vote on the issue. Their fear of letting the people vote is becoming increasingly clear as the debate intensifies on whether taxpayer dollars should be directed toward private schools. House Education Chair Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, recently passed out of his committee a proposal that would allow students in low performing districts in some instances to receive public funds to attend private schools. The proposal would not necessarily help low income students since the bill does not include a mechanism to provide transportation to the private schools. Many argue that with the lack of a transportation component, those who would be aided would be primarily students from more affluent families. Despite some vocal support, the bill still has a long way to go. Roberson even says he does not expect the bill to progress far in the legislative process but wants to keep it alive for now to spur debate of the issue. Roberson made no secret of the fact that the bill was written in such a manner as to try to skirt a provision of the Mississippi Constitution that states plainly that public funds cannot be spent on private schools. He argued his proposal would not be unconstitutional since the public funds are not being given to the private schools but to the students in the form of education savings accounts that would have to be spent on the expenses of attending a private school. Would that argument hold up in court? Who knows how judges will interpret the law. But what is certain is that supporters of private school choice could take the issue out of the hands of the nine members of the Mississippi Supreme Court. During the current session, instead of trying to circumvent the Mississippi Constitution, Roberson could propose a resolution to amend the state constitution to allow private school choice. Then people through the democratic process in a statewide election would have the option to approve or reject the amendment. Why haven't voucher proponents ever tried such as amendment? The answer might be as plain as day or the nose on your face. It does not appear the courts have ruled on the constitutionality of the proposal to send the public funds to the students instead of the schools. In 1941, the state Supreme Court ruled against litigants challenging a law that allowed the state to furnish textbooks to all children in certain grades, including those in private schools. On the surface, it appears that the 1941 Supreme Court decision is on point (as attorneys say) since the state's largess was going directly to the student first instead of to the private school. But it does not appear the high court addressed the question of whether it was constitutional for the textbooks to go to the students instead of the private schools. Instead, the court majority said the law was constitutional because the textbooks were being loaned — not given — to the students. The Supreme Court majority even pointed out there were provisions in the law saying students would be responsible for paying for any damage done to the textbooks while they were on loan. If students so chose, they could purchase the books. 'The books belong to, and are controlled by, the state; they are merely loaned to the individual pupil,' the 1941 majority opinion read. But if Roberson's scheme successfully circumvents the provision of the constitution that prohibits public funds from being spent on private schools, there are other concerns — namely Section 66 of the Mississippi Constitution. That provision requires a hard-to-obtain two-thirds majority vote of both the House and Senate for any bill 'granting a donation or gratuity in favor of any person or object' to become law. Would money provided to a student to attend a private school be a donation? A simple way to resolve all these questions would be to let the people vote. But the voucher supporters' aversion to voting appears to be a recurring theme. When the bill was taken up in the House Education Committee last week, Roberson asked for a voice vote on whether to advance the bill to the full House for consideration. He ruled that a majority on the voice vote supported advancing the bill instead of letting it die. By most accounts, the voice vote was close and in doubt, but Roberson refused efforts of committee members for a show of hands or roll call vote to erase any doubt on whether the bill had the votes needed to progress in the legislative process. This column was produced by Mississippi Today, a nonprofit news organization that covers state government, public policy, politics and culture. Bobby Harrison is the editor of Mississippi Today Ideas.
Associated Press
05-02-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Sending taxpayer money to private schools advances in Mississippi House
A House committee advanced a bill Tuesday that would send taxpayer money from public to private schools. The move keeps alive a yearslong push from private school advocates and prompted concern among Democrats that the legislation could undermine public schools serving some of the state's neediest students. House Education Chairman Rob Roberson's bill passed after an hour of debate. Roberson advanced the bill by voice vote and denied Democrats' request for a roll call where each member's vote could be recorded. Roberson acknowledged the bill faces a tough road ahead in the Legislature before it would have a chance of becoming law. But he said lawmakers needed to discuss solutions for students in disadvantaged areas who aren't getting a quality education. 'The purpose of this is for us to continue having a conversation about how we help the poorest of the poor (students),' Roberson said. 'I do realize that you all are getting a lot of pressure to push back on this, but we've got to keep talking about these things. Even if it makes you uncomfortable, even if you're getting a million phone calls, these kids deserve to have us talking about this.' Taylor Spillman, a spokesperson for House Speaker Jason White, said the bill is part of a package of education proposals that align with President Donald Trump's executive order promoting 'school choice.' Roberson's legislation would allow students who have been enrolled in a district rated D or F within the past five years to use the state portion of their base student cost — money that would normally go to their local public school — and use it to pay for private school tuition. Students could only use the money at a private school if there is not an A- or B-rated district willing to accept them within 30 miles of their home. The legislation does not cover transportation costs for students, an omission that Democrats on the committee said would exacerbate the economic strain on poor families. The money from each child's base student cost would be placed in an education scholarship account, a provision designed to protect the legislation from a legal challenge. The constitutionality of education savings accounts in Mississippi remains a subject of debate. Skeptics say ESAs are unconstitutional because they allow public money to be used to support private schools. Supporters say the accounts do not directly fund private schools, but instead allow families to make their own decisions about where to educate their children. The legislation creates an initial appropriation of $5 million in public money. The Legislature would then need to appropriate funds for the program based on the state Department of Education's estimation of students attending private schools that are currently receiving public money and the projected number of eligible students who opt to attend a private school. Students in families that make less than 138% of the federal poverty level would have first access to the money. After that, funds would be disbursed on a first-come, first-served basis. Students would need to obtain approval from the receiving district in order to transfer to another public school. The district could decline to accept the student if school officials say they don't have enough room. Proponents of such ' school choice ' measures argue that parents should have greater autonomy to customize their children's education and that students shouldn't be trapped in low-performing schools. Opponents argue these measures starve already under-resourced public schools of funds they would otherwise receive. Rep. Cheikh Taylor, D-Starkville, said the bill and similar measures sending taxpayer funds to private schools would widen the 'separation of school systems' between rich and poor areas. He also said the bill would be struck down by either a state or federal court if it became law. 'There will be an educational gap that will be furthered by this bill and the constitutionality has not been vetted,' Taylor said. 'The intent has always been to divert money to charter schools and private schools. For years we've pushed back against it. Now we're seeing again that this ugly head of the separation of education, those who are afforded more access and those who are not.' Roberson said that divide already exists in Mississippi and that wealthy families find ways to send their children to the schools of their choosing, either public or private. 'Frankly it comes down to, the rich people can take kids can take their kids and go anywhere they want to. The poor kids, whether transportation is attached or not, end up going to what's left over,' Roberson said. 'If you're a wealthy person, you have school choice.' The school choice push has been intertwined with debates over race and class in education. Those against school choice say the policies could effectively re-segregate schools. School choice supporters say some high-performing school districts fight school choice measures to avoid accepting students from poor and minority backgrounds. Roberson said he did not believe the Legislature was ready to support 'full-blown school choice.' Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and senators with sway over education policy have not said they support sending public money to private schools. Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, said this week that he is skeptical that even a measure to ease transfers between public schools could pass. The bill has already drawn fierce opposition from public education groups, who said the measure could lay the groundwork for an unconstitutional voucher program impacting all public schools in the state 'Just because it is being passed through the parents' hands before it goes to the private school, doesn't make the action any less unconstitutional, in our opinion,' said Erica Jones, Executive Director of the Mississippi Association of Educators. The proposal now awaits a vote on the House floor. ___
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mississippi lawmaker proposes School Choice bill
JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – A bill designed to help less fortunate students is generating controversy. House Bill 1433, which was authored by State Rep. Rob Roberson (R-District 43), intends to find education options for students in 'D' or 'F'-rated schools. The proposed legislation is known as the Quality Desert Education Enrollment and Transfer Scholarship Act. It would being with an initial fund of $5 million. House passes Mississippi State Employees Paid Parental Leave Act 'We're here for the right reasons. We're trying to make this the best we can for the poor kids. The bottom line on any of this is the in the other piece of legislation, this this may fall. They may not even pass the Senate. They may not ever get past our own calendar. But we need to be talking about this stuff,' Roberson said. Critics said the bill would put a tremendous burden on taxpayers. 'According to the School Choice Lobby, the top 10 states for school choice have all gone backwards. If you look at their test scores in the last 10 years, they are all moving backwards, some very significantly. So, for example, Florida has been held up as the school with the most school choice, and they have lost almost ten points in their scale scores, their average test scores on national reading exams,' said Nancy Loome, executive director of The Parents' Campaign. Bills will go to the House floor for votes next week. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
