Thank you to all of our members who heeded MPE’s January 24th call to action and called their House member to ask him/her to vote no on HB 1433 , a school choice and voucher bill that sends public money to private schools and opens the door for universal school choice in our state. Unfortunately, the bill remains under consideration so please contact your representative, as well as Speaker Jason White’s office at 601-359-3300, before Tuesday morning and remind them to kill HB 1433. We need HB 1433 to die on the calendar with Tuesday’s deadline for committees to pass general bills originating in their own chamber (i.e., House or Senate).
The following bills are among those passed by House Education on Wednesday, January 29:
HB 809 clarifies “active duty” for purpose of public school transfers (i.e., school choice) as it relates to legislation passed in 2024 which provided choice for children of designated service members. Rep. Jansen Owen of Pearl River County amended HB 809 in House Education on Wednesday and acknowledged that his amendment expanded the provisions of the bill to approximately 12,000 members of the National Guard. Legislators do not want to be accused of not supporting service members if they vote against the bill, but passage of this bill would create a dangerous precedent and open the door even further for public school transfers in our state.
HB 1435 removes the requirement for the school board of the school district of a child’s residence to consent to the release of the student for transfer to another public school district. The bill stipulates that a school or district may not accept or deny students for transfer based on the student’s ability or disability. The bill places several administrative requirements on local school districts, including that they determine and report capacity and space available for each school and grade level not less than four times each year. This choice bill could result in a significant financial drain on districts with already limited resources, potentially exacerbating inequities among districts.
HB 1617, commonly referred to as the Tim Tebow bill, allows homeschool students to participate in public school extracurricular activities. While public school athletes must maintain a 2.0 GPA to participate in MHSAA activities, HB 1617 prescribes three different options for homeschool students to document their eligibility, including a portfolio of their work which public school administrators must then determine the appropriateness of. The bill requires participating homeschool students to take part in the statewide testing program, but their scores will not impact the local district’s accountability rating.
There will be a flurry of committee meetings before Tuesday night’s committee deadline. Senate Education is holding its first meeting this morning. House Education will meet again at 1:00 Tuesday afternoon.MPE expects Senate Education to meet again Monday and/or Tuesday.
Calls and texts to legislators this week sent a strong message that educators are watching and expecting legislators to support our state’s public schools, rather than private schools. This week’s NAEP scores document how hard our students and educators have been working. Now is not the time to diminish resources or support for our state’s public schools!
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