School Choice and the Senate’s Break From Republican Principles

Mississippi Republicans like to say elections are about choices. Last week, voters were given one more choice, though not at the ballot box. When Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar quietly killed school choice legislation, they forced an uncomfortable but necessary question: are they even Republicans anymore?

Gov. Tate Reeves didn’t mince words. He said he had “never been more disappointed” in Hosemann and DeBar, accusing them of working with Democrats to kill a Republican priority “in the dark.” He went further, calling the Senate Education Committee the place “where conservative priorities go to die” and where “the Democrat philosophy still dominates.” Those are not throwaway lines. They are an indictment from the leader of Mississippi’s Republican Party of its own Senate leadership.

And when you hold the Senate’s actions up against the Mississippi GOP platform, the disconnect is impossible to ignore.

The Republican platform is explicit: education should be measured by results, not just spending. It prioritizes classroom instruction over bureaucracy, supports parental authority, and—most importantly—states plainly that parental involvement “should extend to allowing parents to choose the school that best meets the educational needs of their children.” That is not ambiguous language. That is a direct endorsement of school choice.

Yet Hosemann and DeBar used their power to ensure parents never got that option. Not by winning an argument on the floor. Not by persuading a majority of legislators. But by stopping the bill cold in committee.

That approach mirrors the very education status quo Republicans have criticized for decades: centralized control, protection of entrenched interests, and an utter disregard for outcomes—especially for low-income families trapped in failing schools. Mississippi Republicans campaign against that model every election cycle. But when the moment came to act, the Senate leadership sided with it.

This isn’t a disagreement over tactics or timing. It’s a philosophical divide. The GOP platform emphasizes parental authority, competition, efficiency, and student-centered results. The Senate’s decision protected administrative power and denied parents choice. One of those positions is Republican. The other simply isn’t.

Party labels matter because they signal values. If Hosemann and DeBar no longer believe parents should choose schools, if they believe education decisions should be monopolized by government systems, and if they are comfortable partnering with Democrats to block conservative reforms behind closed doors, then honesty demands clarity.

No one is saying Democrats don’t have a right to oppose school choice. They do. But Mississippi voters also have a right to know when their elected officials no longer align with the party they claim to represent.

Perhaps it’s time for Hosemann and DeBar to make it official. If they reject the Republican Party’s stated principles on education, parental authority, and reform, then changing parties would be more straightforward than continuing to campaign under a banner they no longer uphold.

At minimum, Mississippi Republicans deserve leaders who will fight for the platform they ran on—or step aside for those who will.