Jackson Free Press

During yesterday's three-hour-long debate over the latest iteration of charter-school legislation, Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, frequently voiced his opposition to the bill.

"What's this mania about charter schools?" Bryan asked from the Senate floor. "It's as though it's going to solve every problem of mankind."

At the time, Sen. Michael Watson, R-Pascagoula, was at the podium to introduce an amendment to establish special-needs charter schools. Watson said he simply preferred the charter-school model to traditional schools.

The details of the bill differ, depending on whom you ask. Most people agree that the bill establishes a charter-school authorizing board that operates outside the Mississippi Department of Education. The Legislature would have oversight of the authorizing board.

The bill will allow charter schools across the state. In A- and B-rated school districts, an organization seeking a charter would need approval from the local school board. In C, D and F school districts, the charter school could bypass the local board and go straight to the authorizer, made up of appointees by the governor, lieutenant governor and state public school superintendent.

Under the provisions of the legislation, students can cross school-district lines to attend a charter school, and the per-pupil government funding would follow the student to the charter school. A provision to allow virtual charter schools was stripped out of the original bill in committee. Senate Education Committee Chairman Sen. Gray Tollison, R-Oxford, said parents of special-needs children want an online charter-school option, and said that he would author another bill to provide for virtual charter schools.

After about three hours of debate, the measure passed 31-17.

Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, said that because a small number of charter schools would serve a small number of students, charter schools do not represent a radical overhaul of public-school education in the state.

Blount also unsuccessfully tried to amend the bill to prohibit charter schools and other educational-services organizations that contract with the state from making political donations to lawmakers. Blount, along with Sens. John Horhn and Hillman Frazier, both Democrats from Jackson, all voted no on the final bill.

"We're not transforming education in this bill," Blount said on the Senate floor.

After the vote, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who supports setting up charter schools, said the bill is a part of a large number of measures the Legislature started working on last year toward transforming education in Mississippi.

Next, the bill will be transferred to the House. A similar charter-school bill died last year in the House Education Committee, but Speaker Philip Gunn rearranged committee members to make passage of a charter-school bill more likely this time around.