Mississippi Senate shuts down House’s school choice bill, raises teacher salaries, expands public school transfers
It took the State Senate Education Committee panel only 84 seconds of deliberation to kill the House’s massive education bill with a 12-0 vote. The omnibus education bill included legislation aimed at increasing teacher salaries, easing the process of transferring between public school systems and creating student accounts that would allow public tax dollars to be applied toward private education.
Legislators from both parties and governing bodies voiced concerns and opposition to any legislation that would allow public school funding to be siphoned from the public school system to fund private education despite pressure from Governor Tate Reeves and House Speaker Jason White.
Senate President Pro Tem Dean Kirby said in Mississippi Today’s political podcast that while the bill narrowly passed the House, that the House did not have the opportunity to hear from their constituents the way the Senate did. He went on to say that while he only received approximately 200 texts, emails and other points of contact, many others in the Senate received more than 1,000 from their respective constituents. Kirby said that of all the contact he received from constituents, that only three were in support of the bill.
“They [the House of Representatives] didn’t have all that pressure built up the way we [the Senate] did,” said Kirby. “You might say, ‘oh yeah, all the teachers and administrators called,’ but no, that wasn’t even a fifth of the calls. They were parents, and they were parents of A-rated school districts. They feel like they have good schools, and they don’t want anyone messing with their schools… The public schools weren’t for it- and I’m talking about all the public schools…and all of the private schools were against it. So, we just couldn’t find anyone for it.”
The Senate did not oppose every component of the bill. In fact, the Republican-led committee instead began working to piecemeal a series of smaller bills to address the increase of teacher salaries and making portability [transfers between public school systems] easier for parents and students. For all intents and purposes, the only provision related to education that truly died in the Senate was legislation to allow public dollars to be used for private schools.
“We’ve [the Senate] already passed several sections of that bill ourselves,” said Kirby. “It’s just the vouchers and private schools, which some people say is still unconstitutional. The private schools were big time against it. They didn’t want the vouchers. In other states, where they’d already passed it [voucher programs] they were telling us that they had no idea how much it was going to cost them, and it’s cost them much more than they ever expected. It’s just not working out quite like they thought it would.”
Reeves took to social media following the decision, harshly criticizing Republican leadership, Senate Education Committee chairman Dennis DeBar, Jr. and Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann.
“That’s why- in my 23 years- I’ve never been more disappointed in elected officials than I am this morning in LG Hosemann and Senator Dennis DeBar,” said Reeves in a Facebook post. “They killed a Republican legislative priority shared by conservatives all across this country and they worked closely with the Democrats to do it…The Mississippi Senate Education Committee: Where Conservative priorities go to Die. And where the Democrat philosophy still dominates.”
White, who has pushed the bill as a top priority for the 2026 legislative session, refused to speak to reporters as he exited the chambers following the conclusion of the session. His communications director told the press White was not taking any questions as they led White off the floor. Instead, White also took to social media to criticize the Senate leadership and education committee.
“Today, the Senate chose to be premature of legislative deadlines and performative in their 2-minute Education Committee meeting to kill HB 2,” said White on Facebook. “The self-proclaimed deliberative body did not deliberate. Instead of engaging in meaningful work to build on Mississippi’s education gains, the Senate has chosen the route to shut down any productive pathway to put students before systems. To avoid conversation, debate, or thorough evaluation is a disservice to parents, students, and future generations of Mississippians.”
White went on to accuse the Senate of being aligned with the ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center, the Mississippi Democratic Party and the status quo, also calling their actions impulsive and rash.
“We have the same goals in the House and the Senate, and we’ll get there,” said Kirby. “We’re going to do what we think is best, and we’re going to listen to the people [voters] that sent us there.”
