Grant Callen is Founder and CEO of Empower Mississippi. He can be reached at grant@empowerms.org. He is the author of this post.
Last week the Legislative Session came to a close and lawmakers went home without passing a budget, virtually guaranteeing that Governor Reeves will have to call lawmakers back for a Special Session to adopt a budget before the end of the fiscal year.
Families across Mississippi came into this session cautiously optimistic that for the first time since 2016, Mississippi lawmakers would finally expand educational opportunities for families. Speaker Jason White made school choice a top priority issue and fought for bills to simplify public school transfers across district lines, broaden the reach of charter schools, allow homeschool students to participate in public school extracurriculars, allow families to use a portion of their tax dollars to pay for private school tuition, and make it easier for students with special needs to access the state’s ESA program. Governor Reeves voiced his support for these House-passed measures.
Yet sadly, that hope was extinguished when the Senate allowed every school choice expansion bill to die in committee without even taking a vote. Once again, the entrenched education establishment mobilized, inundating House and Senate members with baseless fears that expanding parental options would unravel public education. Despite the clear need for expanded options, the voices of superintendents and administrators drowned out the pleas of parents and families, and the Senate chose the path of least resistance—killing these bills rather than confronting the status quo.
We can no longer allow the coalition of the status quo to go on sowing fear and doubt with lies and misinformation. Groups like the misleadingly named Parents’ Campaign undermine civil discourse by distorting facts, fueling fear and suspicion toward families seeking options, and showing little regard for students’ needs compared to preserving the entrenched interests of the education establishment. Lawmakers can stand with the Parents’ Campaign, or they can stand with students and families, but they cannot do both.
We recognize there are plenty of legitimate questions about how school choice would be implemented. We welcome those discussions, but the only way to do that in good faith is to start with the truth.
The superintendents who oppose school choice should have a seat at the table. Lawmakers should take their perspective into account but recognize that their primary interest is defending the systems and institutions of the status quo—not standing up for the needs of individual children who are being left behind.
For families looking for someone to blame, no independent observer could reasonably conclude that Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann doesn’t shoulder much of the responsibility for the death of school choice bills this year.
Lt. Governor Hosemann is a thoughtful lawmaker and a friend, but he has never been a champion for school choice. In fact, some would say there’s ample evidence he opposes it, but this year he publicly endorsed one type of school choice commonly called “portability”—the idea of allowing students to choose to attend a public school outside their home district. However, when the Senate had a chance to pass its own portability bill, they didn’t even bring it to a vote. And when the House sent them a similar bill, the Senate Education Committee also failed to vote on it, letting it die without action.
There are several possible reasons for the Senate’s failure to act on school choice legislation this year. But regardless of the “why,” it’s a dark day for Mississippi families and a reminder of the powerful influence of the coalition of the status quo. School choice isn’t just legislation; it’s a lifeline for students stuck in schools that aren’t meeting their needs and an opportunity to ensure every child’s potential is unleashed, no matter their circumstances. I am deeply disappointed that the Senate has turned its back on these families, silencing a rising tide of voices demanding better.
As the leader of the State Senate, the responsibility lies with Lt. Governor Hosemann.
When Mississippi started down the school choice path with the passage of charter school legislation in 2013, we were a national leader. In 2015 we were the third state in the nation to pass an education savings account program, and I received calls from education advocates in other states who wanted to understand how we did it and how they could use our legislation as a model in their state.
Today, Mississippi is being left behind by an education choice revolution that is sweeping the country, giving parents new and innovative options to ensure their children can attend a school where they thrive. Fifteen states have passed school choice programs that are open to every child in their state, dozens of states have wide open laws that allow charter schools to be opened anywhere, and nearly 30 states allow students broad flexibility to choose a different public school if one’s home district is not a good fit. But not in Mississippi.
Mississippi is now surrounded on all sides by states that have universal school choice and far surpass the educational options we provide to parents and students. Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana have all joined the movement. Given that 38% of Mississippi residents live in counties that border these other states, the pressure on Mississippi lawmakers to act will only intensify as families learn from their neighbors across state lines about how educational options can transform lives. The growing awareness of these benefits is certain to fuel demand for similar opportunities here as President Trump continues to pound his bully pulpit about the merits of school choice.
I’ve never been more convinced that school choice is coming to Mississippi, but will we lose another generation of kids before lawmakers act? School choice legislation may be dead for 2025, but this movement is very much alive and growing stronger every day. We stand ready to work with anyone, including my friend Lt. Governor Hosemann, to deliver long overdue education options to Mississippi families.
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33 comments:
Hosemann is a pox on the Senate and, therefore, the state. I assume he's decided that he won't be governor at his advanced age (poor guy), so he can reveal his true colors. If you ever thought he was a conservative, the joke's on you.
A Special Session guarantees more free meals/drinks at Ticos, all subsidized by lobbyists.
Hosemann=RINO=Hosemann=RINO=Hosemann=RINO
Um, they don't go to Tico's like they used to. Given how it tasted my last two visits, I can't say I blame them.
The RINO Hosemann let us down? I am SHOCKED!
The entire legislature failed us. They let their egos get in the way of taking care of the people's business for which they were elected. It is a crying shame.
They might not go to Ticos as much but be assured that they are eating (and "drinking") on the lobbyist expense account just as much if not more than in the past.
Hoseman is the "Thad Cochran" of state-level politics. If Mississippi had a beltway, he would be inside it.
You know what's funny? Y'all think the lobbyists are buying them off with dinners. Well, there is another angle. Many times it is the legislators, especially chairmen, who are shaking down the lobbyists for dinners, as well as other things. Want that legislation passed.... well......
He should call a special session starting Friday of Memorial Day weekend.
I always thought it was like DC where they go to these fancy places that take your coat and your briefcase and then while having dinner, the lobbyists slip the Elected traitors the ticket to pickup the lobbyists briefcase full of banknotes/stocks/gold coins/ crypto wallets/CSAM (for Joe Biden)
The dinners and booze are used just to break the ice. Those expenses are just chump change.
True
KF doesn't really matter whether you are talking about the prostitute or the John, it is still prostitution. And the legislators are public officials, so they are held to a higher standard whether they are giving or receiving.
Mississippians have repeatedly said no to sending tax dollars to private schools.
The Hosemann is "hosing" us.
All the neighbors in treasure cove and tidewater disagree. Home box will go for Hosemann. Eventually we will find out who is funding this communist push to take our schools and run them down. Rubes say conservative everyone else sees communist.
Delbert is only listening to the superintendents from places like Madison, Petal, Ocean Springs, etc. The good school districts don't want to take students from neighboring failing districts.
"Eventually we will find out who is funding this communist push to take our schools and run them down"
Where are you from? There's no way you can say that with a straight face. There's not much room left to go down. Our schools are pitiful.
"(Superintendents) are not standing up for the needs of individual children who are being left behind."
That can't be true. I read that George Bush said no child would be left behind. And every teacher in Mississippi embraced the concept.
It's total bunk to suggest that parents have been hoping for school choice for decades.
What remains a mystery is why several 'think tanks' and unelected know-it-alls support a concept where they have no skin in the game. They are the real lobbyists. And they lost this round.
I understand the arguments regarding school choice, and agree with many, but in Mississippi school choice would only mean distributing the public education failure misery forcibly upon others.
If you want to get your kid a scholarship to a private school, they should play a sport. Otherwise, work hard and pay tuition.
This is one of the most misleading, ignorant, uninformed posts in the history of this blog. Vast amounts of research indicate that school choice is a DETRIMENT to quality education. Callen and his ilk need to site facts rather than the way they want things to be. Private schools do not even want school choice. I have never spoken with ONE parent who advocates for school choice and I have interacted with many. When will these selfish lobbyists give up their selfish agenda ? Never, as long as it benefits them and their wealthy friends.
Nancy Loome isn't credible as the mouthpiece of the opposition.
@10:44 - you did not talk to me.
You can't herd cats. We use the phrase " cat fight" for a reason. If you elect cats, no state officials can get them to "heel" like dogs .Each of those "cats" think they know everything already!
I'm also weary of every Trumpster calling Republicans who are actually fiscally conservative and who understand economics, RINOS.
Please accept responsibility when we find ourselves economically in taters as well as isolated, friendless and "serfs" to our "oligarchs", at least one of whom may turn fiction, The Manchurian Candidate, into non-fiction. How ironic that the anti-communist party of the '50's now loves the guy who loves Russia and Putin and wants to gift Ukraine to "The Motherland". And, who married two women whose families had ties to former Soviet countries.
Poor Grant. I got news for you. Delbert doesn’t like you. Nor AFP or MCPP. This comment is actually for your readers cause you know this but you’re saying he is “your” friend. TYPICAL LIBERAL-TARIAN. The lies never stop.
Perhaps, you would like to explain the difference between Russia, U.K., and the E.U. With the totalitarian actions of the U.K., and the E.U., their alignment is more with Russia, than with the U.S.
@10:44 - you must not be talking to many parents - myself included. Just a few minutes ago the federal government was trying to ram down our throats adolescent boys on girls teams and parents have taken notice there the long-term writing on the wall is there will be no safe space in a purely public school for common sense. Take a drive down Old Canton in Jackson, there are now several private schools /charter schools with varied demographics. There is Revive Collegiate Charter, Montessori Academy of Jackson, something else at Beth Israel, New Jerusalem Christian School, then right over the border CCS. There is not a single purely public school on that stretch north of Canton Mart, but plenty of schools that provide parents a choice other than JPS.
There is not a single purely public school on that stretch north of Canton Mart
When did JPS close McLeod?
Where are your facts? All you have is an opinion, bring some facts.
On Old Canton itself north of Canton Mart, there is nothing but JPS alternatives. Not sure how many go to McLeod as their isn't much traffic heading there and honestly I forgot about it. Along the corridor itself, there is a lot going on with parents getting tired of having no control over schooling and they are scratching out alternatives on their own, all different types of parents mind you.
I feel like the supervisors know if parents had just a bit of financial help by receiving their own tax dollars back to direct toward education there would be an additional shift, hence the fight - it is just about the money not the children and has been for a long time in the Public School world.
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