Fighting for Parents, Children and Choice in Education in Mississippi
This week the Mississippi Justice Institute filed a brief in Hinds County Chancery Court supporting the students who attend charter schools and the parents who made those educational choices for their children.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has filed a lawsuit against the State of Mississippi and Jackson Public Schools calling the funding of charter schools unconstitutional. Not only do the briefs filed by the SPLC not prove their case, but if SPLC were to win, other schools would lose all state funding including the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, the Mississippi School for the Arts, some alternative schools covering multiple districts, and failing schools that must be taken over by the state. It would also be questionable whether local funding could follow a student living in one district who receives consent from both school boards to transfer and attend a school outside his district of residence, and whether local funding could follow children who attend agricultural high schools outside their district. In fact, SPLC's arguments put the entire concept of all municipal school districts on shaky grounds, including Jackson Public Schools.
The SPLC's arguments for state funding depend on court decisions involving the Mississippi Constitution of 1868 and regarding the power of the state to operate segregated schools. You read that right. The Southern Poverty Law Center seeks to deny students the opportunity for school choice based on legal premises which once justified separate and unequal schools for black students and white students.
We invite you to read the brief by the Mississippi Justice Institute to get an understanding of our defense of parents' right to choose what is best for the education of their children and the constitutional funding mechanism which provides educational opportunities for local students.
Get a full update on the status of the case here and read the latest brief here.
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