Mississippi
Court to hear case on Mississippi grants to private schools
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi choose is scheduled to listen to arguments Tuesday in a lawsuit that claims the state is violating its personal structure by directing $10 million in pandemic aid cash to non-public colleges.
In April, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed two payments. One created a grant program to assist non-public colleges pay for water, broadband and different infrastructure initiatives. The opposite allotted the $10 million of federal cash for this system, beginning July 1.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, the Mississippi Heart for Justice and Democracy Ahead filed the lawsuit June 15 in Hinds County Chancery Courtroom on behalf of Dad and mom for Public Faculties, an advocacy group based greater than 30 years in the past.
The lawsuit asks a choose to dam this system, which permits grants of as much as $100,000 to any in-state faculty that may be a member of the Midsouth Affiliation of Impartial Faculties and that’s accredited by a state, regional or nationwide group. The parameters of this system exclude public colleges from making use of for the infrastructure grants.
The lawsuit cites Part 208 of the Mississippi Structure, which prohibits using public cash for any faculty that isn’t “a free faculty.”
Non-public colleges “can function solely as long as college students pay tuition,” however public colleges have an obligation to serve each youngster, the lawsuit says. It says infrastructure enhancements make non-public colleges extra aggressive.
In arguments filed Aug. 4, attorneys for the state responded that the federal funds “had been by no means earmarked for public colleges within the first place,” so public colleges “stand to lose precisely nothing” because of the grant program.
Hinds County Chancery Choose Crystal Smart Martin is listening to the case.
Throughout this yr’s legislative session, Mississippi’s Republican-controlled Home and Senate made plans to spend a lot of the $1.8 billion the state is receiving from the federal authorities for pandemic aid.
Legislators this yr additionally created a program to supply interest-free loans to public colleges to enhance buildings and different amenities, with cash coming from the state. These loans have to be repaid inside 10 years. The grants to non-public colleges don’t have to be repaid.