The House, with one dissenting vote, passed legislation Tuesday that would continue to provide Mississippi private schools millions of dollars from state tax credits to educate foster children and students with a chronic illness or a disability, though the author of the bill could not say how many of those children are actually being educated.

The bill will increase from $18 million a year to $48 million a year the amount of money from tax credits that private schools and charitable organizations that serve foster children can receive. Half of the money would go to the charitable organizations that provide services to foster children and the other half would go to the private schools. A person can make a donation to a private school and receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit.

According to the Department of Revenue web site, the private schools receiving funds through the tax credits in past years include:

• Jackson Academy, $341,000
• Madison Ridgeland Academy, 397,720
• Canton Academy, 349,295
• Tupelo Christian Preparatory School, 308,900
• Parklane Academy in McComb, $196,500
• Tunica Academy, $141,800
• LeFlore Christian School, $7,500

A long list of private schools receiving funds from the program can be found on the Department of Revenue web site. But what cannot be found is the number of children being helped through the Children’s Promise Act.

When the bill was passed five years ago, it was touted as a method to help foster children and to save the state money by keeping them out of the state foster care system. But the legislation, when it passed, had another section providing the tax credit option to go to schools that educate children “who have a chronic illness or physical, intellectual, developmental or emotional disability” or  who are economically disadvantaged.

Rep. Daryl Porter, D-Summit, asked House Ways and Means Chair Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, how many children fitting into one of those categories were being educated in the private schools. Lamar, the author of the bill, said he did not have that information but would get it to him.

Lamar said the program has saved the state millions of dollars by keeping foster children out of the state system. He said it had helped countless children.

“It has been a very successful tax credit program,” he said.

Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, who unsuccessfully offered amendments to try to direct more of the money toward the charities helping foster children and toward poor children, said one of the problems with the legislation is that no one seemed to be able answer to Porter’s question, which is how many students in the underserved categories were attending the private academies.

“Do you know whether they are or are not providing these services in addition to being a traditional private schools?” Rep. Shanda Yates, I-Jackson, asked Johnson.

 “Nobody has made that clear to me. I don’t have anything to show that they do,” said Johnson.

“But you don’t have anything to show they aren’t,” said Yates, who like most of the House voted for the bill.

All of the legislators with the exception of Rep. Jeramey Anderson, D-Moss Point, either voted for the bill or did not vote. Many voted for it because of the foster child component.

But after the vote, Johnson held the bill on a motion to reconsider, offering the opportunity for additional debate on the bill.

The Midsouth Association of Independent Schools, which includes most of the private schools in the state, said in a paper titled “The ABCs of school choice” that tax credits with revenue going to private schools was more advantageous than vouchers.

“Freedom advocates, instead, look for policies like tuition tax credits and tax credits for donations to scholarship funds, to free up resources so that parents and donors can fund their own choices. Such policies expand choice for parents without shifting the burden for their children onto others.”

The House might reconsider the legislation in the coming days. It still must be approved by the Senate before being sent to Gov. Tate Reeves, who has been a school choice advocate, for his approval.

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