The 2026 Regular Session of the Mississippi Legislature will convene at 12:00 noon on Tuesday, January 6, 2026. Word at the capitol is that Speaker Jason White plans to drop his school choice bill on the first day of the session. In addition, Speaker White continues to indicate he plans to include numerous education issues, including school choice and a teacher pay raise, in one big bill. Doing so will hold each measure hostage to the others. For example, a legislator who supports a teacher pay raise but opposes school choice would be forced to vote for the bill in order to pass a pay raise. Both of these issues are worthy of individual consideration. Educators should not be used as political pawns and a pay raise should not be held hostage to other issues.
If passed during the 2026 Legislative Session, school choice would create two educational systems with unlevel playing fields thereby fundamentally changing public education in our state. In MPE’s 2025 Member Survey conducted this past October, 74% of our members opposed public tax dollars funding vouchers or educational savings accounts (ESAs) for private school tuition and 61% did not support allowing public school students to transfer from one public school district to another of their choosing regardless of their residency (i.e., public to public school choice).
These next two weeks provide a great opportunity for you to share your thoughts on school choice and vouchers with your representative and senator before they return to Jackson for the session. Rank and file members of each chamber sometimes face great pressure from their chamber’s leadership to support or oppose certain pieces of legislation. Representatives and senators are elected to represent their local constituents, not the governor or legislative leadership. Your conversations, calls and comments can provide your representative and/or senator with the “cover” they need to vote against their chamber’s leadership on critical issues such as school choice. MPE offers the following for your reference in these conversations:
Our Winter 2023 MPE Journal answered frequently asked questions regarding vouchers and our Winter 2024 MPE Journal discussed several issues to be considered in the school choice conversation.
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