A bill that would make it easier for K-12 students to transfer to other public schools outside their home districts will die in the Mississippi Senate, the chamber’s leaders said as a Tuesday night deadline loomed.

But the House responded by inserting language from the legislation into an unrelated bill, a Hail Mary attempt to keep the measure alive this session. The last-minute procedural move was aimed at saving legislation that would allow students to request a transfer to another school district outside their home area, and introduce legal requirements to ensure districts comply.

Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, said the policy, known as “open enrollment” or “portability,” would not advance this year.

“Nothing will happen this year as far as requiring public-to-public (transfers). But I still would like to have it studied, so that might come up later this year,” DeBar said. “I do not believe you’ll see anything regarding portability being implemented this year.”

DeBar’s statement confirmed the bill didn’t have the votes to pass in its current form, which was later affirmed by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who leads the Senate.

The legislation’s demise in the Senate unfolded even though easing public school transfers was cited before the session as a key education priority by the Republican leaders of both chambers, House Speaker Jason White and Hosemann.

On Tuesday afternoon, it appeared the conversation between the legislative leaders on education had soured. If the House portability bill died in the Senate, it would show a failure of leadership on Hosemann’s part, White said in remarks to Mississippi Today.

“I think it speaks volumes to the leadership in the Senate and where they are on education, and that they are for the status quo. At some point, the Lieutenant Governor has to embrace the fact that he is part of that status quo. He was on record all through the fall saying he was for portability,” White said. “His mouth says one thing but his actions and leadership in the Senate say a completely different thing.”

In a statement, Hosemann said he supports portability, but confirmed the votes weren’t there to pass the bill in his chamber.

“I have always supported public-to-public portability with capacity requirements and will continue to do so despite not currently having the votes,” Hosemann said.

The House Education Committee inserted language from the portability bill, HB 1435, into SB 2618, an unrelated bill that aims to address chronic absenteeism in schools.

Rep. Jansen Owen, R-Poplarville, said the move will “continue the discussion and give the Lieutenant Governor an opportunity to accomplish two policy goals he has stated multiple times in the press in the last few months.”

Hosemann has cited both portability and fighting chronic absenteeism as key priorities.

Portability is a component of a broader array of policies known as “school choice,” which proponents say gives parents greater autonomy to customize their children’s education. Opponents say the policies undermine public schools serving some of the state’s neediest students. 

Mississippi currently has a very limited form of “open enrollment” that allows students to transfer from their home district to a nearby school district. However, the transfer requires the approval of both the home and receiving school districts.

HB 1435 passed the GOP-majority chamber last month 67-46, with partisan crossover supporting and opposing the legislation. Four Democrats joined the Republican majority to support the proposal, while 10 Republicans joined with the Democratic minority to oppose the bill.

Under the House-approved legislation, sponsored by Owen, a student could request to transfer to another school district outside their home district. The receiving school district would have 60 days to either accept or reject the student’s application. The home school district could no longer prevent the student from transferring to another district.

In a statement shortly after the Senate Education Committee declined to take up his bill on Tuesday morning, Owen told Mississippi Today that there was still time for the committee to reconsider ahead of the evening deadline.

“I’m hopeful the votes are there to move this legislation to the next step,” Owen said.

But DeBar said there was a “plethora of issues” with easing public transfers that needed to be studied further before the Senate would get on board with the policy.

“At this point, there are so many issues ranging from local taxes, how do you get a child from one school district to the other when you’re poor and you can’t afford it anyways,” DeBar said.

School districts receive funding through local property taxes and the state government. The state funds under the bill would follow the student from district to district, while the funds from local property taxes would stay in their original district.

Under the House proposal, the state would pay the difference to the receiving school district if a student transferred. House lawmakers said they planned to allocate $5 million for transfers for the first year if the proposal becomes law.

Some House Democrats, almost all of whom are Black, said they worried the proposal could bring re-segregation of schools because families with means would flock to well-performing school districts while poorer families who lack reliable transportation would be locked in low-performing school districts.

Proponents said the bill would allow open enrollment for all students, and the legislation prohibits school districts from discriminating against applicants over their race, sex and income level.

There were also members who feared portability could be used primarily as a pretext for making athletic transfers easier, DeBar said.

White had put school-choice issues such as portability near the center of his legislative agenda. But most of the measures have either already died or had yet to advance ahead of Tuesday’s deadline.

“It was a baby step in the school choice movement to give parents some other outlet,” White said of the portability bill.

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