The Mississippi House has once again passed legislation to increase the size of a program that already sends millions in state dollars to private schools.

The House, as it did in 2024, approved legislation on Wednesday sponsored by Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, that would increase the tax credits available through the Children’s Promise Act. Private schools have been receiving money through the law since 2020.

Lamar said the Act shores up nonprofits that provide services such as foster care and special needs, and that demand currently outstrips the amount of tax credits it makes available. In addition to other nonprofits, the statute also makes tax credits to private schools that meet its criteria.

“Right now there is not enough credits for the need,” Lamar said.

Some Democrats and public school advocates said the proposal — along with two other measures the House passed Wednesday bolstering the tax credits available under the Children’s Promise Act — was the latest measure in a flurry of bills introduced this session that would send taxpayer money to private schools.

“If we continue to bolster private schools with public schools’ money, it continues to harm the public school system,” said House Minority Leader Robert Johnson.

Under the Children’s Promise Act, a person or corporation can make a donation to one of the private schools certified by the Department of Revenue and receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for up to 50% of the donor’s state tax liability.

The maximum a private school currently can receive through the program is $405,000 a year.

The program was initiated in 2019 and touted as a mechanism to provide additional money to nonprofits that care for foster children. But a provision to provide tax credits to private schools was tucked into the bill.

Under current law, a total of $9 million a year in tax credit money can be doled out to private schools. HB 1903, which passed Wednesday, would increase that total up to $16 million in 2025, with the potential for more increases in future years.

The legislation does this by increasing the maximum amount of tax credits allocated by the Department of Revenue for the program from $18 million to $40 million in 2027.

“Clearly, Chairman Lamar’s priority is to get public money to private schools,” said Nancy Loome, director of the public education advocacy group The Parents Campaign. “He’s been trying to do this in many different ways, sneaking it into bills and that sort of thing. It is not the priority of the people of Mississippi. They have overwhelmingly made it clear that they oppose tax dollars benefiting private schools,” Loome said.

According to Loome, 100 private schools qualified this year for Children’s Promise Act money on a first-come, first-served basis. The schools have no obligation to provide any accountability on how the taxpayer money is spent, she added.

Under HB 1903, no more than 50% of the allocated tax credits during a calendar year could be directed to schools.

Another bill that passed Wednesday, HB 1902, would redirect some unused state tax credits to the Children’s Promise Act, Lamar said. A third bill that could be used as a vehicle to increase the tax credits, HB 1894, was initially sold by Lamar as a bond bill, to borrow money for capital projects. Lamar inserted language dealing with the tax credits into the bill, but neglected to mention this to the rest of the Ways and Means Committee he chairs before they hurriedly voted to pass it late Tuesday.

All three bills dealing with the Children’s Promise Act passed with large bipartisan majorities on Wednesday, but Johnson and other opponents said all of them should be altered before becoming law.

Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, told Mississippi Today on Thursday that he does not support sending more tax credit money under the Children’s Promise Act to private schools.

In years past, legislators have attempted to amend the law to direct all of the tax credits to benefit organizations that house and serve children in foster care. Lamar was successful in defeating those efforts.

Johnson wants to narrow the criteria used to evaluate which organizations are eligible for the tax credit so that private schools don’t get taxpayer money. He also wants provisions directing the Department of Revenue to collect more data on how the money is spent.

The Department of Revenue is responsible for certifying the private schools that are eligible to receive funds through the Children’s Promise Act. But, according to responses provided by the department, no information is available on how the funds are spent.

In 2024, the department told legislators that it did not know how the funds were used. DOR also did not have updated information on the number of children served through the Children’s Promise Act. Lamar said in 2024 that he would obtain that information, but it was not clear Thursday if he had done that.

The House’s desire to greatly expand the size of the Children’s Promise Act comes against the backdrop of a legislative session where legislative leaders have made school choice, which can entail sending taxpayer money to private schools, a central priority. The primary measure that would have done that died in the House earlier this month.

Bobby Harrison contributed to this report.

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