1/9/26 Legislative Update: House Introduces School Choice Bill

HB 2, the Mississippi Education Freedom Act authored by House Speaker Jason White, dropped in the legislative bill tracking system Wednesday morning. This is Speaker White’s school choice bill that provides vouchers for private schools and homeschoolers. Among numerous measures and initiatives addressed in the omnibus 553-page bill, HB 2:

• Allows public funds to pay for private school tuition via Magnolia Savings Accounts. HB 2 provides for 12,500 of these vouchers in Year 1 of the program (2027-28 school year) and 20,000 by Year 4 (2030-31 school year). Half are designated for students who attended public school the preceding school year and half are available to students without regard to prior public or nonpublic school attendance. Voucher amounts will be equivalent to public schools’ annual Base Student Cost which is currently $6,961.45; thus, Year 1 will cost the state at least $87 million. HB 2 also allows families who homeschool to apply for a $1,000 voucher for educational expenses.
• Redefines the amount of current speech language and dyslexia vouchers as the Base Student Cost plus an additional $2,000. HB 2 also shifts governance for these and current special needs vouchers from MDE to the Office of the State Treasurer which will also administer the new voucher programs created by HB 2.
• Exempts private or homeschools from accountability measures our state’s public schools are held to. The director of the private school association told the House Committee on Education Freedom in October that private schools would not give up their autonomy regarding admission standards, testing, and curriculum in exchange for public funds. Speaker White granted private schools this, as HB 2 provides that private schools cannot be required to adjust their admissions or academic standards, administer statewide assessments, or be subjected to the state accountability system.
• Amends current law to remove a local district’s authority to stop/deny a student’s transfer to another public school district. Transfers will be subject to a receiving district’s capacity and HB 2 requires districts to publish capacity data, application timelines, and transfer selection criteria on their websites.
• Expands charter schools statewide. Charters may currently only open in D or F districts without local school board approval. HB 2 allows charters to open in any school district and does not require local board approval in A, B or C districts. All but one of the state’s seven charter schools that received accountability grades for the 2024-25 school year were rated D or F.
• Revises the definition of “Net enrollment” for purposes of the Mississippi Student Funding Formula to limit it to students in kindergarten through Grade 12; thus, the formula will not provide funds for pre-K students. 
• Includes a $3,000 pay raise for assistant teachers, increasing their minimum salary from $17,000 to $20,000. HB 2 does not include a teacher pay raise.
• Includes provisions of the Tim Tebow Act which allows homeschool students to participate in public school extra-curricular activities.
• Creates the Adolescent Literacy Initiative which expands our state’s literacy initiative to grades 4 through 8. HB 2 also establishes a statewide math initiative, requires financial literacy instruction in grades 6-8 beginning with the 2026-27 school year, and requires a ½ Carnegie unit financial literacy course for graduation starting with the Class of 2031.
• Revises PERS Tier 5’s full-service requirements from 35 years to 30 years and reverts its average salary based on eight highest consecutive years language back to four highest years to mirror other tiers.
• Amends current state law governing retired teachers returning to the classroom. HB 2 removes the requirement that a returning teacher may only teach in a critical shortage geographic or subject area, requires that the salary for a returning retired teacher be no less than what they were receiving when they retired, and sets the PERS contribution requirement at actual cost (currently 27.4%) rather than the 50% in current law.
• Requires the consolidation of the Hazlehurst City School District and the Copiah County School District effective July 1, 2028.

Click here to read the bill. The challenge of such an omnibus bill is that good provisions – such as the assistant teacher pay raise and the changes to Tier 5 – are held hostage to other issues in the bill. HB 2 has been referred to the House Education Committee. There will be a great deal of pressure put on committee members and rank-and-file members of the Mississippi House to pass the bill, as it is Speaker White’s top priority for the legislative session. Your representative is elected to represent the constituents of his/her House district, not the legislative leadership. Please contact your representative with your thoughts on HB 2.

The full Senate passed the following bills Wednesday morning:

• SB 2001 (teacher pay raise) passed unanimously
• SB 2002 (public to public school choice) passed on a 33-19 vote. Click here to see that vote.
• SB 2003 (retired teachers return to classroom) passed on a 50-2 vote. Click here to see that vote.
• SB 2004 (financial infusion to PERS) passed unanimously

These four bill now head to the House for consideration.  Legislators will return to the capitol Monday afternoon, January 12, and both chambers are scheduled to convene at 4:00 p.m.