Steps taken for private school voucher study
The Mississippi House Appropriations Committee has launched forward a bill to study the viability of a private school voucher system in Mississippi, even though multiple sources told the Clarion Ledger the measure was not intended to advance out of committee.
According to House Bill 1449 sponsor and Education Committee Chair Rob Roberson, R-starkville, the bill was only meant to help forward conversations about overhauling the state’s long internally critiqued public education system and lack of choices for children in Mississippi to receive an “adequate” education.
“The reality is that I want to study all of the aspects of education and how it is impacted, and how we’re going to fund education in the future and what that looks like,” Roberson said. “The reality is that we can look at this anyway, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter how we go about doing it. We don’t necessarily have to have a bill to (study a private voucher system).”
Those conversations were supposed to culminate in House Bill 1453, which would, if passed, replace the state’s objective K-12 education funding formula with one based on student enrollment and a committee to recommend funding changes to lawmakers. Roberson passed that bill out of Committee Tuesday afternoon.
A private school voucher system would include a way for the Legislature to appropriate education funds to a program in which parents could access money to send their children to a private school. In the program, those schools would also be required to implement standardized exams before they can accept those funds.
Roberson previously filed a version of the HB 1449 that would have phased in that program over four years, but after conversations with GOP leadership, he changed the bill to a study committee made up of lawmakers and other appointees picked by the governor and lieutenant governor.
However, Roberson told the Clarion Ledger he needed to focus away from that bill to garner more Democratic support for his funding formula, which he sees as a starting point to continue looking at other education reforms.
“I don’t want anybody to feel like we are selling (HB 1449) to get (HB 1453),” Roberson said. “That’s not what’s going on here, and what we’re doing is giving them assurances that our hearts in the right place, and that’s the intent here.”
Rep. Justis Gibbs, D-jackson, who serves on the Education Committee, confirmed with the Clarion Ledger that Roberson had been having talks with House Democrats about his two controversial bills, but Gibbs did not say he was one of the Democrats Roberson had spoken to.
While Roberson told the Clarion Ledger Tuesday afternoon that he has no plans to bring HB 1449 to the House floor for a vote, he instead hopes to recommit it or let it die on the House calendar. Roberson also previously told reporters he was not going to pass the bill through his committee at all.
Because the bill has passed through both Education and Appropriations committees, Roberson could change his mind and bring up the bill on the floor, or even amend it back to the original format, which if passed, would establish a private school voucher program using state funds.
If the bill does get passed through the House, it would already face opposition from Senate Education Chair Dennis Debar, R-leakesville, who previously said he does not believe the state can currently afford a voucher program.
Read did not comment on why he brought out the bill to his committee Tuesday morning when asked by the Clarion Ledger.
Grant Mclaughlin covers state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@gannett .com or 972-571-2335.