Mississippi Today
A surprising absence on the 2023 campaign trail? Public funds for private schools.
Providing public funds to private schools is the issue that no one is talking about during the 2023 gubernatorial campaign even though it could be a hot topic during the next four years.
The issue is not talked about much โ if any โ on the campaign trail by Republican incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves nor Democratic challenger Brandon Presley. But Reeves has a record.
During his eight years as lieutenant governor and four as governor, Reeves, who is seeking reelection this November, has been a staunch supporter of providing vouchers for students to attend private schools.
There is no bigger illustration of Reeves’ support for vouchers than the unusual lengths he went to at the end of the 2019 session to ensure passage of a voucher bill.
In 2019, then-Lt. Gov. Reeves led a secretive effort to increase funding for a program that provides $6,500 vouchers to allow a small number of special education students to attend private schools.
The program, which at the time provided funding for about 750 students, did nothing to help the about 60,000 other students with special education designations.
During the 2019 session, many legislators made it clear that they did not want to expand the program that had been cited for various shortcomings, including for a lack of accountability, in a report by a legislative watchdog group. After the House Education Committee refused to expand the program, legislative leaders, led by Reeves, in the waning hours of the session inserted money for the expanded voucher program in a bill funding about 70 primarily local construction projects across the state. The bill sent the funds for those projects to the Department of Finance and Administration.
Legislators said when they voted on the bill, they did not know the special education voucher program was tucked away in a bill dealing with construction projects.
โWho would have thought money for that was in a DFA budget bill?โ asked Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, soon after the secretive project was discovered.
At the time, Reeves said the program needed the extra funds to help special needs students who were on a waiting list to garner the vouchers. He defended sneaking the program through the legislative process for the special needs children.
โI don’t know if pushing for this is good for me politically,โ Reeves said in 2019. โBut quite frankly, I don’t care. I got elected to do what is right.โ
There are other examples of Reeves’ devotion to school choice, including his Senate passing a voucher program in 2018 that was killed in the House.
Despite Reeves’ school choice allegiance, he seldom talks about it on the campaign trail. He also seldom broached the subject in his successful 2019 gubernatorial campaign.
A recent Reeves campaign commercial highlights public education. The campaign commercial touts the historic pay raise provided to public school teachers in the 2022 legislative session, and highlights the gains public school students in the lower grades have made on reading and math tests in recent years. But the commercials offer not a word on the governor’s steadfast support for diverting public funds to private funds.
Presley also has not spoken often of the voucher issue on the campaign trail.
But when asked about the issue, Presley said, โAs a proud product of Nettleton public schools, I believe we need to invest more in public education, not siphon off taxpayer dollars to wealthy private schools at the expense of Mississippi children. I do not support public money for wealthy private schools.โ
In the 2022 session, legislators approved and Reeves signed into law a bill that provided $10 million (in federal COVID-19 relief funds) to private schools.
A lawsuit was filed by public school supporters challenging that appropriation based on language in the Mississippi Constitution that appears to plainly prohibit public funds from being expended in private schools.
Section 208 of the Mississippi Constitution reads, โNo religious or other sect or sects shall ever control any part of the school or other educational funds of this state; nor shall any funds be appropriated toward the support of any sectarian school, or to any school that at the time of receiving such appropriation is not conducted as a free school.โ
Despite that language, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, presumably with the blessing of the governor, is fighting the lawsuit. The case is pending before the Mississippi Supreme Court.
It is not known whether that case will be decided before the Nov. 7 general election.
No doubt, if Reeves wins and the Supreme Court says providing public funds to private schools is constitutional despite what the state Constitution says, school choice will be one of Mississippi’s biggest issues.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1926
Nov. 5, 1926
Victoria Gray Adams, one of the founding members of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, was born near Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
โ(There are) those who are in the Movement and those who have the Movement in them,โ she said. โThe Movement is in me, and I know it always will be.โ
In 1961, this door-to-door cosmetics saleswoman convinced her preacher to open their church to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which began pushing for voter registration. A year later, she became a field secretary for SNCC and led a boycott of businesses in Hattiesburg, later helping found the umbrella group, the Council of Federated Organization, for all the civil rights groups working in Mississippi.
In 1964, she and other civil rights leaders fought the Jim Crow laws and practices that kept Black Mississippians from voting, marching to the courthouse in the chilly rain to protest. By the end of the day, nearly 150 had made their way to register to vote.
Adams became the first known woman in Mississippi to run for the U.S. Senate, unsuccessfully challenging longtime Sen. John Stennis. She also helped found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. It was time, she said, to pay attention to Black Mississippians, โwho had not even had the leavings from the American political table.โ
In August 1964, she joined party members in challenging Mississippi’s all-white delegation to the Democratic National Convention.
โWe really were the true Democratic Party,โ she recalled in a 2004 interview. โWe accomplished the removal of the wall, the curtain of fear in Mississippi for African-Americans demanding their rights.โ
Four years later, the party that once barred her now welcomed her.
She continued her activism and later talked of that success: โWe eliminated the isolation of the African-Americans from the political process. I believe that Mississippi now has the highest number of African-American elected officials in the nation. We laid the groundwork for that.โ
In 2006, she died of cancer.
โWhen I met โฆ that community of youthful civil rights activists, I realized that this was exactly what I’d been looking for all of my conscious existence,โ she said. โIt was like coming home.โ
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Vote today: Mississippi voters head to the polls. Hereโs what you need to know
Polls in Mississippi will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. today as voters make their picks for presidential, congressional, state judicial and some local races.
READ MORE: View Mississippi sample ballot
Voters are reminded to bring a photo identification. This can include a valid Mississippi driver’s license, an identification or employee identification card issued by any government entity of the U.S. or state of Mississippi, a U.S. passport, a military photo ID card, a current student ID card issued by an accredited college or university or a Mississippi voter ID card. For more information on voter ID rules, check here.
READ MORE: Vote Tuesday: Candidates battle for seats on state’s highest courts
Those who do not have a valid ID can vote affidavit, but must return and present a photo ID within five days for their ballot to count. Voters waiting in line as polls close at 7 p.m. will still be allowed to vote. If you vote absentee or affidavit, you can track the status of your ballot here.
POLLING PLACE LOCATOR: Use the secretary of state’s online locator to find where you vote
Stay tuned to Mississippi Today for live results, starting after polls close.
LISTEN: Podcast: Mississippi’s top election official discusses Tuesday’s election
The Mississippi secretary of state’s office offers an online resource, My Election Day, where voters can locate or confirm their polling place, view sample ballots and view current office holders. Those with doubts or questions about their precinct locations are urged to contact their local election officials. Contact info for local election officials is also provided on the My Election Day site.
READ MORE: Mississippi Election 2024: What will be on Tuesday’s ballot?
The secretary of state’s office, U.S. attorney’s office and the state Democratic and Republican parties will have observers across the state monitoring elections and responding to complaints.
The secretary of state’s elections division can be contacted at 1-800-829-6786 or ElectionsAnswers@sos.ms.gov.
The U.S. attorney’s office investigates election fraud, intimidation or voting rights issues and can be contacted at 601-973-2826 or 601-973-2855, or complaints can be filed directly with the Department of Justice Civil Rights division at civilrights.justice.gov. Local law enforcement holds primary jurisdiction and serves as a first responder for alleged crimes or emergencies at voting precincts.
The secretary of state’s office also provides some Election Day law reminders:
- It is unlawful to campaign for any candidate within 150 feet from any entrance to a polling place, unless on private property.
- The polling places should be clear of people for 30 feet from every entrance except for election officials, voters waiting to vote or authorized poll watchers.
- Voters are prohibited from taking photos of their marked ballots.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Senate panel weighs how much โ or whether โ to cut state taxes
A group of state senators on Monday grappled with how much to slash state taxes or if they should cut them at all, portending a major policy debate at the Capitol for next year’s legislative session.
The Senate Fiscal Policy Study Group solicited testimony from the state government’s leading experts on budget, economic and tax policies to prepare for an almost certain intense debate in January over how much they should trim state taxes while balancing the need to fund government services.ย
Senate Finance Chairman Josh Harkins, a Republican from Flowood whose committee has jurisdiction over tax policy, told Mississippi Today that he wanted senators to have basic facts in front of them before they help decide next year if Mississippi should cut taxes.
โWe’re getting a tax cut the next two years whether we do anything or not,โ Harkins said. โI just want to make sure we have all the facts in front of people to understand we have a clear picture of how much revenue we’re bringing in.โ
Mississippi is already phasing in a major tax cut. After a raucous debate in 2022, lawmakers agreed to phase in an income tax cut. In two years it will leave Mississippi with a flat 4% tax on income over $10,000, one of the lowest rates in the nation.
However, the top two legislative leaders, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann who oversees the Senate and House Speaker Jason White, have both recently said they want legislators to consider new tax cut policies.
Hosemann, the Republican leader of the Senate, has publicly said he would like to see the state’s grocery tax, the highest of its kind in the nation, reduced, though he hasn’t specified how much of a reduction or how long it would take for the cut to be implemented.
White, a Republican from West, said last week that he would like to see the state’s 4% income tax phased out and have the state’s 7% grocery tax cut in half over time.
โWe are hoping to construct a tax system that, yes, prioritizes certain needs in our state, but it also protects and rewards taxpayers,โ White said last week.
But it’s difficult to collect accurate data on the state’s grocery tax, and state lawmakers must grapple with a laundry list of spending needs and obligations based on testimony from state agency leaders on Monday.
Mississippi currently has a 7% sales tax, which is applied to groceries. The state collects the tax but remits 18.5% back to cities. For many municipalities, the sales tax is a significant source of revenue.
If state lawmakers want to reduce the grocery tax without impacting cities, they could pass a new law to change the diversion amounts or appropriate enough money to make the municipalities whole.
State Revenue Commissioner Chris Graham said the Mississippi Department of Revenue, the agency in charge of collecting state taxes, does not have a mechanism in place for accurately capturing how much money cities collect in grocery taxes. This is because the tax on groceries is the same as non-grocery items.
However, Graham estimates that the state collects roughly $540 million in taxes from grocery items.
The other problem lawmakers would have in implementing significant tax cuts is a growing list of spending needs in Mississippi, a state with abject poverty, water and sewer and other infrastructure woes and some of the worst health metrics in the nation.
Representatives from the Legislative Budget Office, the group that advises lawmakers on tax and spending policy, told senators that lawmakers will also be faced with rising costs in the public employee retirement system, the Medicaid budget, public education, state employee health insurance, and state infrastructure projects.
State agencies, including the employee retirement system, also requested $751 million more for the coming budget year.
โThat’s the billion dollar question, I guess,โ Senate Appropriations Chairman Briggs Hopson, a Republican from Vicksburg, said. โHow we’re able to fund basic government services?โ
Harkins and Hopson said the committee would likely meet again before the Legislature convenes for its 2025 session on January 7.
A House committee on tax cuts has also been holding hearings, and White in September held a summit on tax policy.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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