House Speaker Jason White says he wants to restore the initiative process to allow citizens to place issues on the ballot.

But at the same time, White apparently does not want people to vote on the important issue of whether the state should expand its so-called “school choice” initiatives, which would provide more public funds to private schools.

His positions on two of what he calls his legislative priorities — restoring the initiative process to allow citizens to vote and expanding school choice options — seem to be incompatible.

White, the Republican House Speaker from West, has established a special committee to look at restoring the ballot initiative process, which allows voters to bypass the will of lawmakers and gather signatures to place issues directly on the ballot.

The state Supreme Court ruled Mississippi’s initiative process void in 2021 because it required a designated number of signatures be gathered from five U.S. House districts to place an issue on the ballot. The Supreme Court pointed out the state has had only four districts since 2000, thus the initiative process was invalid, even though other entities in state government are based on the five congressional districts.

Lawmakers vowed to fix the problem and quickly restore the initiative process. They still haven’t, and there’s no sign of any real movement to seek an agreement.

White has said he believes restoring the ballot initiative is important. But apparently he does not want school choice to be placed on the ballot for a vote of the citizens.

The speaker also has formed a special committee to look at expanding Mississippi school choice. The committee is expected to make recommendations before the start of the 2026 legislative session in January.

Though it may seem logical to do so, the committee does not seem interested in recommending a proposal be placed on the ballot to amend the Mississippi Constitution to repeal language that states explicitly that public funds cannot be provided to private schools.

Section 208 of the Mississippi Constitution reads in part: “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.”

That language is stunningly clear and concise, especially compared to some of the convoluted legalese often found in historical governing documents.

Multiple states have language in their constitutions prohibiting public funds from being spent on religious or sectarian schools. The courts have struck down that language, saying religious schools could not be discriminated against. But only the South Carolina Constitution has language similar to Mississippi’s restricting public funds from being spent on any private school — religious or non-religious.

If White and his special committee were serious about expanding the state’s school choice programs, they would start with amending Section 208. That could be done by the Legislature approving the proposal by a two-thirds vote of each chamber and then placing it on the ballot for voters to approve or reject.

Therein is the problem for the pro-voucher, school choice crowd. They know they cannot garner that two-thirds vote in both chambers of the Mississippi Legislature, and furthermore they cannot convince the public to pass such a proposal.

If they thought they could, they already would have placed such a proposal before the Legislature.

Instead, if the Legislature ever passes a proposal expanding school choice to private schools, they are counting on the Mississippi Supreme Court ignoring the plain language of the state constitution and ruling that public funds can be spent on private schools.

Of course, another option would be for the Legislature to finally restore the initiative process in Mississippi and allow voters to place a proposal on the ballot to repeal Section 208 language banning public funds from being spent on private schools.

But that is not likely to happen even if the Legislature restores the ballot initiative, which is also not likely to happen.