Thousands more Mississippi students could soon have access to publicly funded vouchers to pay for them to attend private K-12 schools if Mississippi House Speaker Jason White gets his way this legislative session.
During an invite-only Q&A in his office on Jan. 5, the Republican speaker said that the House is “focusing on the most needy first” through expanding educational savings accounts, also known as school vouchers, in House Bill 2. Students whose families make up to 300% of the average median household income will have the first chance at obtaining Magnolia Student Accounts in the 2027 to 2028 school year.
White described his chamber’s strategy as “starting small” after listening to testimony from Mississippians and experts out of state to see what has worked and what has not worked across the country regarding “school choice” initiatives.
“I think that looks like starting slow, starting with a small number of students, (a) common-sense approach,” White said at the Q&A on Jan. 5. “We’re not talking about opening up universal school choice to any of the 500,000 kids that are in K-12 education in our state.”
The speaker and Mississippi House Education Vice Chairman Jansen Owen, R-Poplarville, cosponsored the House’s education package.
White’s office did not invite the Mississippi Free Press to the Jan. 5 invite-only press Q&A he held in his office before the legislative session started. Other reporters from the Capitol Press Corps shared an audio recording of the event with the Mississippi Free Press, as well as a graphic White’s office made.
Under H.B. 2, the state would have 12,500 Magnolia Student Account slots available. Half of those slots would go to students who attended public school the previous school year, and the other half would go to any student in the state who would be in grades K-12 for the upcoming school year. The State would deposit the student base cost amount for the year into the Magnolia Student Account for the participating student. The Transfer Student Fund would be capped at $5 million.
The number of slots would increase each year to reach 20,000 in the 2030 to 2031 school year. After that, the State could add up to 2,500 additional slots each year depending on the status of the waitlist for the program.
White’s office sent out a graphic that says the House will draft separate funding and appropriations legislation for the educational savings accounts.
H.B. 2 would also establish the Homeschool Educational Savings Account, which allows families that homeschool their children to apply for a $1,000 voucher to use for education-related expenses.
Three private school voucher programs are already available in Mississippi: the Equal Opportunity for Students with Special Needs Program; the Mississippi Dyslexia Therapy Scholarship for Students with Dyslexia Program; and the Nate Rogers (Speech-Language) Scholarship for Students with Disabilities Program.
Students in the speech therapy program will receive an extra $2,000 plus the base student cost to go toward their education expenses under H.B. 2. The dyslexia program students will receive an extra $1,000 along with the base student cost. These extra dollars will help students with disabilities transfer to public schools or nonpublic special-purpose schools, House leadership says.
Mississippi Parents’ Campaign Director Nancy Loome, who lobbies for public school teachers, said she and her organization are “absolutely opposed” to public taxpayer dollars going toward private schools.
“Some of these legislators who are pushing school choice will tell you that parents who are not sending their children to public schools are not getting anything for those education tax dollars,” she told the Mississippi Free Press on Jan. 9. “That is simply not true. Everybody benefits from strong public schools in their communities.”
During public hearings at the Capitol last fall, supporters of “school choice” programs like Project 2025 author Lindsey Burke argued for expanded voucher access and other policies.
Over a dozen other provisions covering various educational topics are included in H.B. 2, touching issues ranging from charter schools, portability, literacy and math expansion, assistant teacher pay, changes to the Mississippi Public Employees’ Retirement System and retired teacher recruitment.