Families, advocates call on changes to Mississippi Education Scholarship Account program
MISSISSIPPI (WLBT) – According to WLBT News, special needs families have the option of an education scholarship in Mississippi. However, some say it’s not working as it should.
Now, there’s a push to make changes during the 2025 legislative session.
Kimberly Robinson’s autistic son, MJ, started out in public school but it wasn’t the best fit for his needs.
They’ve made the tough financial decision to move him to a private school.
“It’s very expensive, because it’s a school geared to helping special needs kids, and with the tuition, we have to decide between the tuition or therapies,” said Robinson.
However, they’ve been stuck on the waitlist for the state’s education scholarship account for the last two years.
“This is my taxpayer dollars, and I should be able to, if it’s available for me to put somewhere else at a private school to help my child have a good life, a good education, then that’s what I want,” she described.
The program has had critics from the start, saying those dollars are going to schools that don’t have public oversight and are not subject to state academic standards. They still have concerns about any expansion of the program.
“The ESA voucher program has never in any year of its existence utilized the total funds appropriated to it,” noted Nancy Loome, Executive Director of The Parents’ Campaign. “For FY 2024, the program returned $256,552 in unused ESA voucher funds to the state treasury. Clearly, additional funding is not needed.”
In an attempt to fix the unused money issue, a new provision states that students need to prove they’ve already been accepted into a private school that meets their unique learning needs. Empower Mississippi says that’s having unintended consequences.
“Just since September, about half the students on the waitlist have been kicked off because they couldn’t demonstrate they’ve been accepted to a private school,” said Empower Mississippi founder and CEO Grant Callen.
So, they’re already advocating to get rid of that red tape and add funding to get the 150-plus students off the current waitlist.
“And we’re talking about students with special needs,” added Callen. “It is absolutely worth spending this extra 2 million.”
Governor Tate Reeves referenced the ESA waitlist in his FY 2026 Executive Budget Recommendation. He is also calling on lawmakers to fund the program to get families off the waitlist.
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