Senator Daniel Sparks (R), describes a strike-all to HB 1944. which would create an additional $6 million in available tax credits for the state's special purpose schools. Those schools focus on helping children with disabilities. (Photo by Jeremy Pittari)
- The legislation would create an additional $6 million in tax credits for special purpose schools that serve students with disabilities.
The Senate passed a strike-all amendment to a House bill that would create a third bucket for educational tax credits solely for special purpose schools under the Children’s Promise Act.
HB 1944, as it was amended through the Senate strike-all, moves special purpose schools, or those that cater to the needs of students with disabilities, to a third designation under state tax law. Currently, there are tax credits for facilities and schools that focus on providing care and education to foster children as well as for all private schools.
State Senator Daniel Sparks (R) said the third bucket, would be comprised of only special purpose schools.
Available tax credits for the first two buckets would remain the same at $9 million each. The Senate strike-all would create an additional $6 million in tax credits for the special purpose schools for the 2027-28 calendar year, which would increase to a maximum of $8 million the following year.
Some examples of special purpose schools cited by Sparks include the Magnolia Speech School, Park Academy and Lighthouse Academy. These schools provide services to students diagnosed with intellectual, physical, emotional or other disabilities.
“These are students that would be educated in the public school system, they have serious educational challenges due to circumstances in their life,” Spark explained. “The main thing is these are Mississippi students that if they were at the public school, there would be an IEP and they would be responsible to provide the services and while it may cost even more to do in a local school district the effectiveness would not be likely as great as such a place as Magnolia Speech School.”
To be included in the third bucket, that school would need to hold a special purpose school designation with the Mississippi Department of Education. Sparks added that qualifying schools for the new credits must serve students with disabilities, making other special schools in the state, such as the Mississippi School of Mathematics and Science, ineligible.
The senator said the need for the third bucket is due to the current buckets for foster organizations and private schools being “bled dry” before the special purpose schools get a chance to apply.
“That’s actually a designation that currently exists through MDE. That way nobody is jumping into this pot that doesn’t provide the services,” Sparks added.
When asked by State Senator Michael McLendon (R) if this new tax credit would harm the public school system, Sparks said he believed it would only help public schools by getting students in the most need the assistance they require to be successful in life.
“So, while it is an additional $6 million in tax credits, I want to be very clear, I understand tax credit is equal to a dollar of appropriation. I think sometimes that gets forgotten,” Sparks said. “If you take a dollar out of the general fund, that’s one less dollar you have to appropriate. So, your point is well taken.”
He added that the state is already dealing with a tight budget when looking to balance revenues with ever growing needs.
“In the aggregate, at some point we have $7.4 billion in anticipated revenue. And we have $7.1 billion in appropriated expenses, that’s a $300 million play.” Sparks said. “And Medicaid says they need $300 (million).”
Before the bill went to a vote, State Senator David Blount (D) introduced an amendment to the strike-all that would remove private schools from the second bucket and leave the special purpose schools, negating the need for an additional $6 million in tax credits.
“What the amendment would do is keep the first bucket of $9 million for non-profits who do good work in our state the same,” Blount explained. “It would delete the second bucket, which is private schools, which have not been certified as special purpose schools, and then it would insert special purpose schools for not the $6 million, which is the strike-all, but half of the $18 existing million dollars in tax credits, to dedicate that to special purpose schools.”
His amendment died in a 24-26 vote, with two senators voting present.
The strike-all version of the bill, which needed a three-fifths vote to move forward, passed off the Senate floor with 17 senators voting against. It now goes to conference between the House and Senate.
Soon after the bill’s passage, The Parents’ Campaign took to social media urging their supporters to call lawmakers insist on a conference report that redirects Children’s Promise Act private school tax credits to special purpose schools or to vote no on HB 1944 and insist on a minimum $5,000 teacher pay raise and an assistant teacher pay raise this year.
