Voucher Bills in the 2014 Legislative Session
Posted 4/25/2014
No voucher bills survived the 2014 Legislative Session in Mississippi. Most of the bills died in committee or on calendars earlier in the session; the only remaining voucher legislation, the special needs voucher bill, was defeated by the House of Representatives on the last day of the session. See descriptions of all of the voucher bills introduced in 2014 here and learn more about the effort to divert public taxpayer dollars to private schools here.
Read about the role of vouchers in privatizing and "profitizing" public education and the myth of school choice promoted by groups such as ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council).
Parents and families oppose special needs voucher bills: read a letter to legislators from a Starkville parent and an explanation of the concerns expressed by Families as Allies.
What are vouchers?
Vouchers are state-funded certificates that are used to pay tuition to private schools. Mississippians have been so opposed to using taxpayer dollars to fund private schools that our constitution bans these voucher payments. Savvy folks who have long sought to privatize our public schools now are attempting to circumvent the constitution - and the will of the people - through tax credit scholarships, also called neo-vouchers, and education savings accounts, a new method of funneling state tax dollars to private schools.
Find more information here about vouchers in other states and research revealing the ineffectiveness of voucher programs.