JACKSON — The effort to expand public-education vouchers to allow low-income families to send their children to private schools died today in committee.
The controversial HB 943, which would have renamed the “Equal Opportunity for Students with Special Needs Act” to the “Equal Opportunity for All Students Act” and expended its scope, went down after the Appropriations Committee did not meet. Today is the deadline for bills to move to the floor.
Authored by Rep. John Moore, R-Brandon, the bill would have revised eligibility for Education Savings Accounts to include low-income as well as special-needs students, with special-needs students still receiving the $6,500, and students from low-, middle- and high-income families receiving $5,000, $4,000 and $3,000, respectively. As of January of this year, only 131 of the 433 vouchers available under the current program have been used.
In a January interview, the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration said it expected the future of the leftover funds to be handled in future legislation.
The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.
