A recent article in Mississippi Today claimed that the Mississippi Constitution precluded the possibility of school choice in our state. Others have made similar claims.
Watch Aaron Rice of the Mississippi Justice Institute explain why this is not the case.
During Covid, the Mississippi legislature authorized a state agency to distribute about $10 million of federal Covid relief funds to private schools for infrastructure improvements. The decision has been challenges by an activist group who argue that Section 208 made such payments unconstitutional.
Even if our state Supreme Court rules that the provision of $10 million in federal relief funds to private schools was unconstitutional, that decision would not prevent Mississippi from enacting school choice programs, including those available to families using non-public schools.
The Mississippi Constitution only prohibits the appropriation of state education dollars for institutional aid to non-public schools. It does not prevent the state from providing individual aid to students who choose to use those funds for tuition at non-public schools. Indeed, to avoid future confusion on that point, our legal division, the Mississippi Justice Institute, asked the Court to explicitly say so in its ruling.
Citing the constitution must not be an excuse not to do school choice. It certainly is not a credible reason.
