Education advocate urges nuanced Mississippi school choice debate after committee defeats bill

The Senate Education Committee unanimously voted down House Bill 2 on Feb. 3, and Mississippi First urged a more nuanced statewide conversation about school choice, the group’s executive director said.

Mississippi First commissioned a survey of a representative sample of parents in counties with C-, D- and F-rated school districts that do not currently have charter schools, the group said. The organization reported that 60.24% of parents believe only some or no children in their community have access to high-quality schools, 17.5% believe all children have such access, and 91.8% of adults surveyed believe parents should have a choice in where their child goes to school.

Angela Bass, executive director of Mississippi First, wrote that her own life was shaped by moving to another district so she could attend a higher-performing high school. Bass said many families lack that option and that choice in Mississippi is currently uneven and often determined by zip code, race and income.

Bass outlined three primary approaches in the current policy debate. She described Education Savings Accounts, as proposed in House Bill 2, as directing public funds to private and unaccredited schools with limited requirements for academic transparency and accountability. She said public school portability would allow students to attend public schools outside their assigned district but would depend on admission practices, capacity, transportation and administrative coordination. Finally, she said expanding public charter schools would authorize additional tuition-free public schools beyond the narrow set of districts currently eligible under state law, where, the group said, only 10 charter schools operate.

Mississippi First said it opposes ESAs as currently designed, supports public school portability with caution, and strongly supports expanding public charter schools as a complementary strategy to strengthen the public system. The group cited national research from Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes showing charter schools can produce stronger learning gains for low-income students and said early state evidence is encouraging, noting that six of the seven charter schools it discussed have state accountability scores ranking in the top half of schools in the districts they serve. Bass wrote that policymakers should design policies that make access to high-quality schools less dependent on privilege and more rooted in public purpose.

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