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Dear Jack,

Lt Gov Delbert Hosemann and Senator Dennis DeBar manoeuvred to kill the school choice bill, HB2, this week. They moved against parent power using a Senate education committee procedure, taking less than 90 seconds and not allowing any debate.

Governor Tate Reeves spoke for many in our state when he said he has “never been more disappointed in elected officials than I am this morning in LG Hosemann and Senator Dennis Debar.”
Hosemann & DeBar kill core conservative policy
Hosemann and Debar “killed a Republican legislative priority shared by conservatives all across this country and they worked closely with the Democrats to do it. Even worse - they tried to do it in the dark and hide it from MS conservatives on a deadline day.”

The following day, Senator Nicole Boyd was on Supertalk suggesting school choice is ‘not conservative’. Do her primary voters know?

So, what now?

1. Don’t be distracted by chaff


Anxious not to be exposed as un-conservative, the Senate leadership has passed a range of education bills that are the legislative equivalent of chaff – those clouds of particles fired from military aircraft to distract the enemy radar.

There are Senate bills in favor of math and civics. (Great). There’s a bill to allow students to switch schools, but only if they come from an F rated district, two years in a row. (Ok. Sort of). There are even bills in favor of motherhood and apple pie. (Just kidding.)

None of the chaff bills are disagreeable (in fact most should be supported). But they do nothing to actually empower parents. Mississippi parents – unlike families in each of our surrounding states – would not be able to control their child’s share of the state funds.

Do not accept the claim that the Senate is somehow advancing school choice with education bills that do not give parents power.

2. Resurrect school choice – and send it back to the Senate.


Over the past two years the House passed a flagship conservative policy – income tax elimination and before that school funding reform. Each time the Senate moved to kill the policy, and each time the House came back. There then followed a battle of wills, which the House won.

Speaker Jason White, who has invested political capital in school choice, could do something similar this time. Amending one of the Senate chaff bills to include the key parts of HB2 – and sending it back - would be one way to do it.

The danger is that some might try to only include some of the less important parts of HB2. An education freedom bill that does not allow families to control their share of the budget is not an education freedom bill.

What if that fails?

3. A Special Session


Governor Tate Reeves has been so robust in his condemnation of Delbert Hosemann, I wonder if he might be willing to call a Special Session - unless Hosemann starts to support mainstream Republican party education policy.

Calling a Special Session unless a law allowing education freedom is passed would be a powerful tool. The Governor could set the agenda. The spotlight would be on Mr. Hosemann, and if he and his sidekicks really were willing to block parent power, the entire state would be able to see. A bold move for someone said to still harbor gubernatorial ambition, perhaps.

This week was a step back for school choice, but we had similar reversals when the Senate leadership tried to stop previous reforms.

We lost a battle for parent power this week. We can win the fight. But perhaps the key lesson is that those wanting school choice need to understand that we do actually need to fight.

Nicey nicey only encouraged them to kill the bill without debate.
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Warm regards,
Douglas Carswell
President & CEO

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