Testimony began in lawsuit regarding ARPA money

HINDS COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Testimony has begun in a lawsuit that could determine whether 2 laws signed by Governor Tate Reeves this Spring violate the Mississippi Constitution.

Tanya Marsaw, a mother from Crystal Springs, and Parents for Public Schools brought the suit to block some of the state’s share of ARPA money from being distributed to private schools.

The Legislature passed 2 bills, one creating a grant program to help private schools pay for infrastructure projects, and a second providing 10 million dollars of Federal pandemic relief money to fund that grant program.

Several groups, including Parents for Public Schools and Marsaw, point out that the grant program is in violation of Section 208 of the state constitution, which prohibits the use of public money for any school that is not a “Free School.”

Lawmakers also created a program to provide interest-free loans to public school districts for similar projects.

Those loans would have to be paid back.

The grants to the private schools would not.