Despite the nationally recognized “Mississippi Miracle” of improved test scores, the Mississippi Legislature appears committed to taking up school choice legislation as a cornerstone of its educational agenda heading into the next legislative session beginning in January 2026.
After chronically being the worst state, Mississippi now ranks 16th in the nation in education, but many lawmakers insist that their constituents want the ability to send their children to another school if it’s performing better academically.
Mississippians actually already have some form of school choice. Some school districts provide magnet schools. Parents of children with disabilities have the option to use some public funding to send their children to private schools that provide needed services, and children with dyslexia can receive vouchers to be used at non-resident public schools or accredited private schools that offer therapy. School boards also may vote to release students from their district if the parent works in a neighboring district.
In the McComb School District, parents of elementary-aged children have the choice to send their children to Summit Elementary.
“In February, applications are given out to our kindergarten parents for enrollment at Summit Elementary, and normally around 50 students are accepted,” Superintendent Johnnie Vick said. “Our current students at Summit move up to the next grade. If one of our returning students attending Summit leaves, a slot comes open in that grade level. We currently have 211 enrolled.”
Lawmakers are looking to expand school choice, perhaps through a voucher program that allows students to attend a neighboring private school or a public school outside their district. With few details ironed out, the proposal has created more questions than answers.
Local schools are unsure how they will be affected by the legislation, but they have some basic logistical concerns.
“One of our major concerns has to do with the unknown,” South Pike School District Superintendent Dr. Geneva Holmes said. “Right now, we can look at our current enrollment and trends to determine our need for teachers.
“If school choice comes along, it will be difficult to know how to plan.”
North Pike Superintendent Jay Smith echoed that sentiment.
“If our numbers will change, we would need to know in the spring before school starts in the fall,” he said.
Parklane Academy Administrator Jack Henderson also voiced this concern.
“Our school has preregistration in February. From those numbers, we make decisions about teachers and classrooms,” Henderson said.
Transportation
Due to the size of the county, transportation would be a significant concern if school choice comes to Pike County.
For example, if a child living in the North Pike School District decided to attend elementary school at Osyka, the child would be looking at a 30-mile bus ride every morning and afternoon. It is also unclear which school district would responsible for transportation.
“We have problems securing bus drivers now,” Smith said. “It would be difficult for us to find enough bus drivers if we were requiring them to take long routes out of the district. It would also increase our fuel costs significantly.”
Said Holmes, “Our budget is set for transportation within our local area. If we have to transport students well outside of our district, it would be a large cost to absorb.”
If students could use vouchers at the local private school, Parklane Academy, transportation would remain a concern.
“We do not provide busing for our students,” Henderson said.
Extra Costs, Class Size
and Curriculum
Henderson said private schools have more fees than tuition that public schools do not, including membership dues for clubs, uniforms, pre-registration fees and meals, which unlike at some public schools, are not free.
“Tuition cannot pay all of the bills of a private school,” he said. “Tuition gets you in the door.”
Parklane also has admission standards, Henderson said.
“We would need to maintain the right to handle our admissions policy the way we like to handle it,” he said. “We have academic requirements and behavioral standards that we plan to maintain.”
Throughout its history, Parklane has provided a Christian education, Henderson noted.
“We want to choose our curriculum, pray and teach the Bible,” he said. “We will continue to do business the way we have always done business.”
Parklane also has been committed to small class sizes, which Henderson said “is better for the students and the teachers.”
“We want to maintain everything that makes us unique,” he said.
Holmes also is concerned about the effects school choice would have on class size.
“When class sizes increase, it is a hardship for teachers as they strive to support all of their students,” she said.
Even within the public schools, Holmes sees a problem with varying curriculum.
“The Mississippi Department of Education does not put out pacing guides, and each district has options for resources to use,” she said. “It would not be a good idea for a student to try to hop between public schools within a school year.”
Taxes and vouchers
While it seems fair for parents to be allowed to choose their child’s school, school choice could cause unintended consequences that would reach outside the campus and into the community.
North Pike School District residents voted to pass a bond issue in 2017 that created a millage increase.
“Residents within our district voted to increase their taxes to support the school. A state voucher would almost certainly fall short of the dollars needed to equate to what the taxpayers in our district now pay towards our schools,” Smith said.
If parents do not have to live within the district to send their children to that school, people may decide to leave the area with higher taxes, potentially causing property values to fall and the tax base to shrink, he fears.
According to the Common Core of Data at the National Center for Educational Statistics, 35% of North Pike’s revenue in fiscal year 2023-24 came from federal sources, while 45% came from state and 20% came from local. The school received approximately $6,200 per student in state funding.
The McComb School District’s budget is comprised of 41% state, 30% federal and 29% local funding and received approximately $5,600 in state funds per student.
South Pike’s budget featured 45% state funding, 28% federal and 27% and also received $5,600 per student from the state.
If the legislature’s voucher system will only include state funds, the vouchers will provide private schools only 45% of the funding that the public school would receive for the same student.
Enrollment is one of the factors that determines how much federal and state funding public schools receive.
It is unclear if local funding would follow the student or remain within the student’s original school district.
It also could be cost-prohibitive for the state to make vouchers available to private and homeschool students as well.
According to the Learning Policy Institute, 43,338 students were enrolled in Mississippi private schools in the 2020-21 school year.
The Homeschool Report on the Mississippi Department of Education website listed 23,872 homeschooled students in the 2023-24 school year.
At this time, tax money is not set aside for these students because they are not part of the public school system. If all of those students were suddenly given a voucher, it could easily cost the state at least $400 million more than is currently set aside for public schools.
If a universal voucher program is not enacted, only certain students would qualify. If it is based on the performance of public schools, Pike County could see some issues. Both South Pike and McComb junior highs received “F” scores this fall under the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program grading system.
A performance-based voucher system leaves unanswered questions, such as figuring out how to determine which students will be allowed to transfer, whether schools could absorb an influx of students and what becomes of students left at failing schools.
Vick said Summit Elementary, the McComb School District’s only A-rated school — and the only one in Pike County where parents have a choice to send their children — has developed a culture for success.
“We see positive results with Summit Elementary. It is a student-centered learning environment, using high-quality instruction materials,” he said.
“We have built a positive team work culture coupled with low staff turnover that has produced an academic environment that fosters success.”
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This coverage is supported by a grant from Press Forward Mississippi, part of a nationwide philanthropic effort to reinvigorate local news.
