MS House committee passes massive school choice expansion bill. What it means

• A Mississippi education bill proposes creating 12,500 educational savings accounts for school choice.
• The accounts would provide up to $7,000 per child for private or charter school expenses.
• The legislation also includes a $3,000 pay raise for assistant teachers.
• Democrats raised concerns that the bill would divert necessary funds from public education.

The education bill championed by Mississippi House Speaker Jason White narrowly passed its first test in the legislature Wednesday. The legislation focuses on aligning Mississippi with its conservative neighbors by expanding and funding school choice options.

One of the most controversial provisions of the massive bill involves creating 12,500 educational savings accounts. The state would allocate more than $87 million to create these accounts, which would give the families of eligible students up to $7,000 per child to cover costs such as uniforms and tuition at private and charter schools.

Half of the initial savings accounts would be designated for students currently enrolled in public schools, and education committee chairman Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, said the selection process would prioritize low-income students.

“This is designed to make certain that if you’re 100% below the median income, you are the first in line to get this money,” he said in the Wednesday committee meeting. “We want to make certain that our kids out there that really haven’t had an opportunity to go anywhere else would have that opportunity.”

How MS can lower veteran suicide: MS lawmakers propose solutions to lower veteran suicide rate

The accounts would provide funds for fewer than 3% of Mississippi’s school-age children in the 2027-2028 school year, if the bill passes, with scheduled increases in the number of savings accounts for the following three school years. After that, the number of savings accounts would only increase if there aren’t enough savings accounts for all interested students.

The bill is estimated to cost more than $160 million in its first year, the bulk of which would go to the student savings accounts. Included in the total is around $29 million allocated for assistant teacher pay raises. Roberson said the raise, a $3,000 bump that would bring minimum assistant teacher salaries up to $20,000 a year, was one of the provisions he thought was most important.

“It’s absolutely insane that anybody could even do it for $20,000 a year, and I hope we can work on increasing that going forward,” Roberson said.

The bill does not include teacher or professor salary increases, which differs from the legislation coming out of the Senate. A bill from Sen. Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, proposing a $2,000 raise for teachers passed the Senate and was sent to the House last week, but the House has not voted on it yet.

Roberson said he thought a discussion about teacher pay raises was worth having, but the House education bill was not the right place for it.

“It’s not in this bill because I don’t want to put anybody in this room in a position to suggest that I’m forcing you to vote against the teacher pay raise if you’re against [school choice],” he told the committee. “I’m all in favor of a teacher pay increase, but what I’m more in favor of is making certain that our babies are getting educated.”

Democrat legislators focused on the school choice aspect of the bill in the committee hearing, where they debated the impact of a potential mass exodus to private or charter schools on public education.

“We talk about how public education is the gateway for every family to have success, but we also know that we have underfunded public education since we’ve been in this government,” said Rep. Cheikh Taylor, D-Starkville. “This is a gateway, in my opinion, that we see that there’s going to be an advancement of tons of charter schools coming forward with zero accountability.”

Roberson said the bill was not the perfect solution to the problems facing Mississippi schools.

“This bill is not the end-all to fix all for schools. Never has been,” he said. “It is a piece of the puzzle that we need to continue working on.”

Democrats, including Taylor, warned committee members of the legislation’s impact on the average Mississippi family.

“Most of us run on public education, and therefore, if we divert these funds from public education, we’re also diverting funds from the entire philosophy that gives advancement to most families,” Taylor said, gesturing at banners on the committee room wall declaring that several school districts received an “A” grade. “How do we throw away the progress on the wall for 12,500 students?”