(Photo from Speaker Jason White’s Facebook page)
- Some legislators, mainly Democrats, have expressed opposition to the proposed education reforms.
Mississippi Speaker of the House Jason White (R) outlined key parts of his chamber’s education reform bill on Monday afternoon, one day before the start of the 2026 season. White said the legislation could be filed as early as this week.
The cornerstone of the bill is to give parents and students more say in their K-12 education decisions, with state funding following the pupils to the school of their choice.
The measure will call for reforms to start slow.
“This is about parents making the best choice for their kids,” said White. “We can give parents a choice without wrecking the gains we have seen in the last few years, but actually taking and expounding on that and continue to be the envy of other states.”
Speaker White was referring to Mississippi rising from near the bottom of most national education rankings to as high as No. 16 in this year’s 2025 KIDS Count Data Book published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Mississippi was ranked 48th in the same publication in 2014.
The state has seen marked improvements in reading and math skills among elementary schoolers.
States that already allow public funds to follow students recommended that the Magnolia State start small, with a few thousand students participating, and then increase slots over the coming years.
Some legislators, mainly Democrats, have expressed opposition to such education reforms, especially the provision allowing public dollars to transfer to private schools. Yet, White remains optimistic about the bill gaining bipartisan support.
“I think we can find consensus, at least in the House, about the way we are going to attack this. It’s going to be measured; it’s going to be common sense,” White said. “We will grow it over time, with some stipulations.”
Last session, the Mississippi House passed several pieces of legislation that never made it out of the Senate Education Committee. Speaker White said some of those bills will be tucked into this year’s education reform legislation, including the Tim Tebow Act which would allow homeschoolers to participate in public school extracurricular activities such as band or sports.
The House bill will also include new initiatives building on the success of the third-grade reading gate with implementation of similar programs for 4th-8th grade.
“There will be a dollar sign attached to that, certainly,” White said.
The Speaker went on to say that there will be “major charter school” reforms during the 2026 legislative session.
“The way we are doing it now is not the best way to do it,” he said. “We’re going to reform it, make it better.”
The goal is to make charter schools more accessible to families and students while streamlining the application process.
“We’ll make it more customer-friendly. We’ve limited them from the very beginning to only going into D- and F-districts. We want to open that up and allow them to go wherever somebody feels they can make it work,” White said.
In addition to education reforms, the House will take up legislation to address the Public Employees Retirement System, or PERS, this session. One possible way to help the chronically underfunded state retirement system is mobile sports betting. White said Mississippi is missing out on tax revenue.
White said the House will also examine PERS’ new Tier 5 effects on first responders as well as consider tax-related issues for retired teachers who may want to return to the classroom.
The 2026 legislative session begins at noon on January 6.
