The House’s education bill that includes wide expansion of school choice policies is dead, its fate decided after 84 seconds of deliberation by a Senate panel.
The Senate Education Committee met on Tuesday solely to discuss the House’s omnibus education package that included a school choice program that would’ve allowed public dollars to go toward private school tuition and homeschooling.
School choice policies, which give parents more say over their children’s education by funding choices outside of public schools with state and federal money, have gained traction across the country and are being pushed by President Donald Trump’s administration. It’s a pet issue of House Speaker Jason White, a Republican from West, who has vocally promoted school choice in his chamber.
But as the House leadership and proponents of school choice have continued their press, reaching a fever-pitch in recent weeks, Senate leaders have made clear they are opposed to voucher programs that siphon money away from public schools — so opposed that there was no discussion when the committee considered the bill.
“I’m not going to discuss it much other than to say we’ve looked at it in depth and … this committee has passed most everything (else in House Bill 2),” Senate Education Committee Chairman Dennis DeBar said.
After DeBar, a Republican from Leakesville, received no questions, Sen. Brice Wiggins, a Republican from Pascagoula, made a motion to vote on the bill.
After a chorus of “nay” from committee members, DeBar said, “The bill dies today.”
While the House has filed two omnibus education bills this session, both hundreds of pages long and covering many policies — a tactic also favored by the Trump administration — the Senate has taken a piecemeal approach. The chamber’s education committee has passed many provisions in House Bill 2 as standalone pieces of legislation, including raising assistant teacher pay and making it easier for students to transfer between public school districts.
The full House convened immediately after the Senate committee’s vote, but White refused to speak to reporters as he exited the chamber.
“He’s not taking any questions right now,” said Taylor Spillman, the speaker’s communications director, waving a handful of reporters away while leading White off the floor. “Not right now.”
Later Tuesday night, White blasted Republican Senate leadership on social media and accused them of being in cahoots with liberal organizations.
“We are not deterred,” he wrote. “This issue will not go away. The Senate has anchored their support to the status quo. We are comfortable where we stand in our support from (the White House), (Gov. Tate Reeves), most of our statewide elected officials, faith-based organizations, business leaders, the Mississippi Federation of Republican Women, and the majority of Mississippians.”
It’s unclear how White will proceed. He was previously optimistic that the chambers would come to an agreement but suggested in the event that they didn’t, Reeves might call a special session to reconsider school choice policies. Technically, the chamber could try to revive parts of the bill by putting the same language into a similar education bill.
The Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Cheikh Taylor, a representative from Starkville, lauded the Senate committee’s actions in an email following the vote.
“Our public schools are the cornerstone of every community in this state, and this unanimous rejection sends a clear message: Mississippi will not abandon the students and families who depend on quality public education—no matter how much out-of-state money tries to buy our legislators,” he said.
But Rep. Jansen Owen, a Republican from Poplarville who helped author House Bill 2, told Mississippi Today that the fight is far from over.
“Historic teacher pay raises, a historic increase in K-12 funding and a rewritten funding formula, elimination of the state income tax — every one of these major reforms was, at some point, killed in a Senate committee,” he said. “Every one ultimately became law. I look forward to continuing the debate — and the fight — for parental freedom.”
