Senate kills slate of House education reforms, drawing rebuke from Speaker White

• Among the legislation that died Tuesday in the Senate was public-to-public school transfers, the Tim Tebow Act, and charter school expansion. The House hopes to keep at least part of the school choice agenda alive.

The Mississippi House of Representatives passed three modest measures to increase education options for families in the Magnolia State earlier this session. All three died without a vote in the Senate Tuesday, as a deadline for the Senate Education Committee came and went without considering the bills.

In the wake of Senate leadership’s decision to allow the bills to die, House Speaker Jason White (R) told Magnolia Tribune, “Mississippi parents are demanding more choices. We are in a ruby red state that voted overwhelmingly for President Trump. These policies align with the direction he is leading our country. We should be able to be a part of that.” 

Since taking office, President Donald Trump (R) formally declared as a policy of his administration the expansion of school choice programs. The President has directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to design federal funding programs to aid in that objective.

None of the bills passed by the House went nearly as far as the universal school choice plans passed in Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee in recent years.

HB 1435 would have made a process already in Mississippi law for a child to transfer between public schools slightly easier by removing the veto power of the school the child wants to leave. HB 1617, commonly referred to as the Tim Tebow Act, would have allowed homeschool students to participate in extracurricular activities at the public school where they live. Meanwhile, HB 1432 sought to expand where public charter schools could be opened in C-rated districts.

Speaker White said there was a divide between what Senate leadership said they supported and their actions.

“At some point, your actions have to match your words. You can’t keep saying you’re for something and continue to kill it,” said White. “The Lt. Governor and Senate Leadership are not for these policies, that’s fair. That’s their right. They are elected just like my fellow House members. But we are at the point where a pattern has developed, and actions speak way louder than words.”

Prior to this year’s session, Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann (R) voiced support for the change to Mississippi’s public-to-public transfer law embodied in HB 1435.

Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar (R) acknowledged on Tuesday that the bills would be dead when the clock struck 8 p.m. but told Magnolia Tribune that nothing is set in stone until Sine Die (the end of session).

The divide between the chambers represents a yearslong tussle between school superintendents, and the advocacy organizations that represent them in the Capitol, and advocates for school choice.

“Today, the Senate declined to act on a number of bills that would have expanded education options for Mississippi families,” said Empower Mississippi’s CEO Grant Callen. “While we are disappointed in this result, we recognize that nothing is dead during the legislative session until it is ‘dead, dead, dead,’ and we will continue working with lawmakers to bring school choice to more Mississippi families.”

In an effort to keep some school choice legislation alive, members of the House Education Committee took action late Tuesday.

“After the Senate killed the bill, I amended the school attendance officers (SAO) bill in committee and placed 1435 within it,” Rep. Jansen Owen (R), a member of the House Education Committee, told Magnolia Tribune.

House Education Chairman Rob Roberson (R) said he was, “disappointed that the Senate didn’t take up several of our bills that the House felt strengthened families.”

“However, we have amended the SAO bill in committee to give us more time to talk about this important matter,” Roberson added.