Mississippi currently has 435,000 students in K-12 public schools and approximately 45,000 in private schools. Under current state law, most students must either enroll in a school within their district or a private school at personal expense.
Lawmakers are potentially looking to change that.
Some Mississippi legislators have pushed for years to adopt school choice statewide, allowing parents to pick which schools their children attend, regardless of where they live, with their state-allocated tax dollars to follow them. Earlier this year, during the state’s most recent legislative session, multiple bills that would have created school choice laws died from lack of support.
With federal pressure mounting from the Trump administration, which has been favorable of school choice laws, Mississippi lawmakers are again looking to push a bill that many believe could have dramatic repercussions for the state’s current education system.
Despite strong support from many lawmakers, it’s a structural change that comes with plenty of trepidation even from many potentially open to the idea — particularly among the area’s educators.
Area school officials wary of school choice
Tupelo Public School District Superintendent of Education Rob Picou, like many educators throughout the state, is wary of school choice laws as proposed. Tupelo is home to the state’s largest high school.
Picou believes such a significant change to how schools are populated and funded can have “repercussions for years to come” and should be approached with caution and care.
“These public schools throughout Mississippi, they are not indestructible,” Picou said. “They could do irreparable harm to the public model that exists — that the community of Tupelo has invested in and continues to invest in.”
That’s a sentiment echoed by Coke Magee, Lee County School District’s superintendent.
Magee isn’t in favor of school choice in any of the currently proposed forms, which differ in specifics but are broadly similar. Magee believes such structural changes would ultimately lead to a decrease in funding for his district, especially if public tax dollars are allowed to follow students to private schools, as the proposed laws allow.
This, Magee said, will undoubtedly force school districts like his to cut services and other important elements.
“I’m against the overall idea,” Magee said. “It mainly serves to divert public funds intended for our public schools, ultimately decreasing funding … Most public school leaders will be against that.”
Monroe County School District Superintendent Chad O’Brian said his job is not to tell people how to feel about school choice but is instead to educate students and educate their parents about what school choice is and how it could affect them.
“We don’t want people to be passive or uninformed about school choice so that if it comes, people would say, ‘Why didn’t anybody tell us these things?’ or ‘We didn’t ask these questions,’” he said. “ We’ve got some serious questions that need answering before we can be pro or con with the school choice issue.”
Funding and stipulations are among a host of specific details yet to trickle down to educators about school choice, which could create complications preparing for the upcoming school year, if it was to pass.
“If school choice — as it’s being promoted — passes, it’s going to make it very difficult for districts to plan,” O’Brian said. “We end the year with a certain student count, and we relatively know what we’ll have the following year. If this opens up, you really don’t know.
Faulkner, like other school officials, believes that the proposal for school choice is not something she can support as it stands today despite what she believes are some potential positives, including encouraging competitive growth among school districts.
“I strongly oppose school choice as it is currently being proposed. I do not believe it is fair or right for public funds to be diverted to private schools that are not held to the same standards as our public schools,” Faulkner said. “Public schools operate under strict accountability measures, transparency requirements, and serve all students, while private schools are not bound by the same responsibilities.
Moving money
Perhaps the most controversial element of the proposed school choice laws is that they would allow state tax dollars that normally help pay for students’ public education to follow them to private schools.
Currently, public schools receive around a set amount in state funds per student enrolled in their classrooms. If a student later moves to a private school, the tax dollars don’t go with them.
The proposed school choice laws would change that, diverting a proposed $6,500 in public money to private institutions. For supporters of public education — and public educators themselves — this is cause for concern.
Although he isn’t wholly opposed to giving public money to private schools, Picou believes if that were to happen, it should be under the umbrella of a public system to allow for accountability that doesn’t currently exist.
“I have a nuanced perspective on (school choice),” said Picou, who began his career teaching in Alaska. “Where I was in Alaska, we had charter schools in our public school system. I don’t think charter schools or special-mission schools are something that can’t fit in the public school system.”
Picou said if the state wants to fund private or charter schools, those schools must be held to the same standard as a public school.
“You accept public money, you should be held to the same accountability,” he said. “An A-through-F accountability rating, a requirement to serve all children — including special education children, transparency with funding and transparency with purchasing. Now you’re making the whole system public.”
Itawamba County School District Superintendent Austin Alexander believes an exodus of students from public schools to private schools would certainly affect public school funding in its own right, there’s also the sudden additional cost of funding vouchers for students who are already enrolled in private schools or who are schooled at home.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, during the 2021-22 school year, Mississippi’s private schools educated 8.9% of the state’s grade-school students. With the passage of school choice legislation, those existing private school students could potentially be eligible for the same money available to students currently enrolled in public school. Alexander believes this would place an immediate and substantial additional burden on the state’s education budget — a phenomenon he said he’s already observed in states that have enacted similar school choice legislation.
“The biggest thing is going to be if they open this up and allow kids to just choose,” Alexander said. “The state is essentially going to be funding public and private and home schools through the state budget. … It has cost taxpayers more money (in other states), since they’re funding all education instead of just public.”
Like Picou, Alexander also expressed concerns about accountability. Public schools must meet certain educational standards — measured by standardized testing, exit exams and other tools – to receive state funding. Private schools and home educators are not required to meet any such standards by the state.
“There is no (state) accountability in private schools,” Alexander said, “so they’re getting state money without accountability that public schools have.”
Private schools also can turn down prospective students, while public schools lack that option. That leaves much of the “choice” in school choice with the private institutions, while public schools are legally required to make accommodations for students wishing to enroll – which, Alexander noted, comes with its own expenses for which public schools are responsible.
“When a student comes to us in public school, it doesn’t matter if that student is going to score a 36 on their ACT or has a disability and requires special accommodations and teachers,” he said. “We have to enroll that student. Private schools can turn down students.”
Windy Faulkner, Union County’s superintendent, said she’d be more receptive to school choice if private schools were held to the same accountability standards as public schools. If not, she said it would be too unfair not just to the school but to parents who cannot afford to transfer at will.
“In reality, very few families will be able to afford the difference in tuition for their child to attend a private school,” she said. “Only wealthier families will truly have the means to transport their children or cover those added costs. That means the system is not really designed to benefit all students — it favors a select few.”
For O’Brian, Monroe County’s superintendent, private school officials with whom he’s spoken aren’t necessarily in favor of school choice either. Government funding usually comes with government stipulations.
“They’re private for a reason and don’t want the government telling them not to pray or read the Bible or have certain convictions and religious classes,” he said. “What happens when public money does come in? Does the public get to tell them how to run their private ed? To go private isn’t the parents’ choice, it’s the private school’s choice because they don’t have to admit everybody. Public schools have to admit and attempt to educate everybody that comes through our door. Private schools can be very selective about who they admit.”
Even moving money from one public school to another — broadly, a more favorable policy — could cause funding issues for some school districts, Magee said.
Magee said the expected voucher money won’t cover the cost of tuition nor the costs of providing public education to a child annually. Picou said it costs TPSD about $13,000 per child and Magee said it costs LCSD “significantly more” than the state appropriation.
“We have so many activities. We have reduced class sizes,” Picou said. “We have a really robust education program and extracurricular program, so we can’t possibly be expected to take children and educate them on $6,500 a year.”
Schools also receive federal dollars per student. Under the bills proposed in Mississippi last year, that allocation would remain at a student’s school based on his or her residence, regardless of where the student attends classes.
Magee said 60% of LCSD’s budget, which is funded primarily through state approbation, goes to salaries for teachers and maintenance staff.
“Those funds would be diverted to schools that do not have the same levels of accountability that public schools do,” Magee said, again speaking of public funds being used for private schools. “I think it would affect different regions of our state differently, but ultimately, the greatest impact would be on the overall diversion of funds that are currently appropriated to schools would be decreased.”
TCPS head also undecided on school choice issue
Opened in 1988, Tupelo Christian Preparatory School is a K-12 school that educates students through a biblical lens.
Andy Carter, head of schools at TCPS, said school choice would be a benefit to his school as long as they can keep to the school’s mission of “leading students in partnership with Christian families, to know Christ and make Him known through rigorous academics, challenging athletics, stimulating arts, and servant-hood activities.”
“In the right configuration, it could help our families,” he said.
Current enrollment at TCPS is about 600 students. Carter said there is room for more, but cautions that the school must be selective, and ensure any new students are compatible with the school’s priorities and mission.
Unlike public schools, which cannot restrict students based on religion or lack thereof, TCPS requires at least one parent to be of Christian faith before their child can enroll. Carter said the school seeks “to partner with Christian families.”
The biggest challenge as a private school is dealing with finances, Carter said.
At TCPS, the tuition rate for high school students is $8,880 annually, $8,580 for first through eighth grade students, $7,000 for full-day kindergarteners and $3,500 for half-day kindergarteners.
State funding, as currently proposed, would only fully cover the cost of half-day kindergarteners.
“We really want to keep tuition as low as we can, and it is a challenge,” Carter said. “We want to keep tuition low, but at the same time, provide quality. There’s constant tension.”
Carter disagrees, however, that private schools aren’t held to the same standards as public schools. The school regularly measures the progress and success of its students through its own assessments.
The ACT is another measure of how the school’s students are performing academically.
“We see that as one of the measures of how we’re doing,” Carter said. “Our ACT scores have been good, and I think you can and we do measure. We measure by many factors, including when they leave and go to college and how they perform there.”
As far as state assessments being a requirement for private school to take part in school choice, Carter said that was outside his purview.
“That’s not a decision just for me to make; I’d definitely take it to our board,” he said. “We have our own assessments, and we’d have to review it and see if that’s something we’d change.”
Lack of details in proposed laws a primary concern
Pontotoc School District Superintendent Brock Puckett said while school choice sounds reasonable, there are too many unknowns.
Uncertainty is a common thread among educators’ concerns when asked about school choice.
“If adopted in Mississippi, I would hope that there are guardrails in place that provide accountability for student learning and fiscal responsibility,” he said in a written statement to the Pontotoc Progress. “Without oversight of what our state dollars are being invested in we could potentially end up with a generation of citizens that are great at recreational activities but not great at reading, writing, civics/government, history, science and math.”
Puckett had many questions about the ins and outs of the legislation, including about transient students, what happens when a student moves midway through a semester, or if a parent can only afford a portion of the tuition of a private school after already pulling their student out of a public school.
“There are so many scenarios and questions that need to be talked through and answered,” he said. “Education is Mississippi’s greatest single expenditure by the state government. It would be my hope that the public at large would have a greater opportunity to speak into this systemic change that is being discussed through town hall meetings, open discussions and forums where every individual that desires to would have an opportunity to be heard…. I think the more people you include in the decision making process the better decision that can be made for all Mississippians.”
Tupelo’s Picou said there’s a current dearth of specifics from lawmakers despite multiple attempts to pass a school choice bill in the previous legislative session.
“I’m a superintendent of a district, and I don’t know (the details),” he said. “They haven’t even informed us about what the implications of school choice are going to be.”
Picou said he hopes to host a political panel discussion with the local delegation to allow parents to ask questions about the proposed legislation, noting he has gotten a lot of calls about school choice.
“At the end of the day, the dollars and services have to match,” he said. “Until they do their due diligence and come here and talk to my community about the potential implications of choice, it would be hard for me to make that show of support. I’d like to get all my millennial parents and all my young parents in the auditorium and have everyone of those state legislators answer their questions. This is the future. These are the young parents … I can get an auditorium full of young parents.”
TCPS’s Carter said the proposed laws he’s seen are light on details, and the details matter.
“There’s so many ways and so many things that could come out, it seems to me we would like to hear a whole lot more details about what exactly would be in a bill and what that would look like,” he said. “The No. 1 for us at Tupelo Christian is we don’t want anything that would compromise our mission or vision for our school. That’s where we would need to be careful to make sure we’re true to our mission.”
‘Sand in a hurricane’
With or without school choice, Faulkner said she believes her district is in good shape, but there will be some, but over time school choice would weigh the district down with families having the potential to bounce around schools for athletics or extracurricular activities, causing a loss in funding.
“In the long run, I believe this kind of policy undermines both fairness and stability,” Faulkner said. “Our focus should be on strengthening every public school so that families feel confident in the education available right in their own community.”
Faulkner said over the past 15 years, Mississippi’s public education system has progressed rapidly, so school choice would be trying to fix something that isn’t broken.
“Why in the world would we want to change course now? To disrupt the progress we’ve made by diverting funds or shifting focus away from strengthening our public schools makes no sense. We should be building on this momentum — not dismantling it.”
Despite Picou’s overall objection, he believes the concept of school choice isn’t inherently bad when done with intention. But there are too many unanswered questions to the process and specifics on how it will work, he said. He believes school choice as proposed is more about appeasing politicians than bettering the state’s education system.
When an issue becomes political, Picou said, it becomes a problem.
“Any time you have a bunch of politicians making decisions, you end up with very little specific guidance,” he said. “So, I think they are going to pass something nebulous called ‘school choice,’ and individual communities and school boards are going to have to respond to that.”
Picou said the legislation should include language to allow public schools to opt out of the school choice system altogether to prevent an influx of students attempting to enter high-performing districts. Even opting out, he said, comes with issues, as the district does have tuition-paying students as of now and opting out could mean refusing service to kids who were previously accepted.
“It is tough in a district like Tupelo where we have a strong ad valorem (tax revenue), and then we are surrounded by places that don’t. There are many places like Tupelo in the state,” he said. “I think to make school choice work, first they’ve got to fully fund all schools, which they are not doing. They are not providing that level of support to all schools.”
Being forced to opt into school choice, Picou said, would be too much of a strain on his district and many others, noting that funding added will not offset an influx of children from neighboring cities.
“If we are forced (to accept school choice), it will diminish the services we are able to provide our tax-paying citizens,” he said. “It would be like sand in a hurricane. You cannot sustain a prolonged deficit … eventually you start cutting programs.”
Magee, meanwhile, contends that the state already has a form of school choice, with most public schools allowing for tuition-paying students and parents to move their children into private or charter schools. Parents also have the option to homeschool children in the state.
Schools, both public and private, do, however, have a right to refuse students from outside their district.
“I don’t know that there is anything that would cause me to change my current opinion,” Magee said. “There is some stuff I’d love to get, but I can’t think of anything that could cause me to change my opinion of school choice.”
O’Brian said the original school choice plan was to help students in D- and F-rated school districts, but now educators are being told school choice could be universal.
“I could come closer to supporting students in D and F schools being allowed to transfer, but universal school choice as it’s being billed has quite a few concerns with it,” he said.
As far as government funds following students from one public school to another public school, O’Brian said he understands state dollars follow the student, but questioned where local dollars are derived.
“We’re an A district and have been for a long time. I think it’s possible you could see the housing market and property values decrease because people don’t have to live in the district in order to attend your A-rated district, and that is a concern,” he said. “If a student moves into our district, the state money comes with them but what about the local tax dollars?”
With so many communities across the state – from small towns to unincorporated communities – the local schools are the core.
“The school is the heartbeat of the community,” O’Brian said. “I hesitate to think about some of our smaller schools and the connection they have to the community and how that could be limited and changed if school choice were to pass.”
Editor’s note: Pontotoc Progress Managing Editor David Helms and New Albany Gazette Managing Editor Lynn West contributed to this article.