The House Education Freedom Committee held its second meeting on Thursday, September 25, 2025, at the state capitol. The day consisted of testimony from the following four individuals:
Dr. Kim Wiley, Director of Education Equity at the Mississippi Center for Justice, urged legislators to avoid the financial challenges Arizona faced following its passage of universal school choice. Wiley encouraged legislators to continue to invest in our state’s public schools, teachers and students.
Dr. Marcus Boudreaux, superintendent of the Biloxi School District, shared with legislators that choice will create two separate systems that will both receive public funds, but only one will be held accountable for those funds. He identified numerous federal and state laws and regulations public schools are held accountable to. He also shared local tax implications related to school districts subsidizing the education of students who reside outside of the district and whose parents aren’t assessed taxes in the district. Mr. Boudreaux expressed his concern to committee members that school choice will lead to socio-economic segregation, complicate the teacher shortage, and destabilize the educator workforce.
Erika Donalds, Chair of the America First Policy Institute’s Center for Education Opportunity, was introduced as “an education expert and entrepreneur.” The operator of several charter schools in Florida, as well as an online school, she advocated for school choice as a fundamental parental right and a solution to what she described as an unresponsive public school “monopoly.”
Dr. Patrick Wolf, a professor in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas,discussed several studies related to the effect of school choice on educational attainment, civic outcomes, crime and mental health. He warned committee members against designing a school choice program with heavy government regulations such as those of the former Louisiana Scholarship Program, as he said such regulations scared away high-quality private schools from the program.
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