Legislative Analysis

House Bill 2,  titled “Mississippi Education Freedom Act,” was introduced in the Mississippi House of Representatives on January 7, 2026. A committee substitute version of the bill passed the House on January 15. Following are key provisions of the bill:

• Creates a broad new voucher program for students in private and homeschools. Allows public funds to pay for private school tuition via Magnolia Savings Accounts; provides for 12,500 of these vouchers in Year 1 of the program (2027-2028 school year) and 20,000 by Year 4 (2030-2031 school year) in two categories: half designated for students who attended public school the preceding school year and half for students without regard to prior public or private/home school attendance. Income eligibility for voucher recipients could extend to high-income households, depending on number of applicants in each category. Voucher amounts for private school students will be equivalent to public schools’ annual Base Student Cost, which currently is $6,961.45. The first-year expense to the state is estimated at $87-million. Also allows families who homeschool to apply for a $1,000 voucher for educational expenses.
• Specifically exempts private and homeschools from the accountability measures and oversight to which public schools are held, while giving private school students the same amount of state funding that is provided to public school students; says private schools cannot be required to adjust their admissions or academic standards, administer statewide assessments, or be subjected to the state accountability system, and that homeschool students cannot be required to take any assessments at all; adds substantial new accountability and reporting requirements for public schools.
• Puts management and governance of the new voucher program under the Office of the State Treasurer and moves management and oversight of current dyslexia, speech therapy, and special needs voucher programs from MDE to the State Treasurer.
• Establishes public school choice by amending current law to remove a local district’s authority to deny a student’s transfer to another public school district. Transfers will be subject to a receiving district’s capacity, and HB 2 requires districts to publish capacity data, application timelines, and transfer selection criteria on their websites.
• Establishes the Tim Tebow Act, which allows homeschoolers to participate in public school activities such as athletics, band, choir, etc., without being subject to the same participation requirements (school attendance, GPA, and others) as students in public schools. Creates an unfair advantage for homeschool students over public school students.
• Expands charter schools and significantly reduces accountability and standards; allows unlimited charters in any school district within which a D- or F-rated school exists, regardless of the district’s overall accountability rating (current law limits charters to districts rated D or F unless sanctioned by local school board); removes cap to allow an unlimited number of charter schools in the state. Reduces oversight and accountability for charter schools: provides for multiple charter school authorizers, allowing charter operators to shop for one that will approve their application; encourages segregation by removing the current law requiring charter schools’ underserved student population to be no less than 80 percent of that of the district in which it is located while opening charter school enrollment to any student statewide; removes some state academic and financial accountability requirements to which traditional public schools are subject; extends NBCT salary supplement to licensed charter school teachers who achieve national board certification and requires the state to reimburse charter school teachers for national board application expenses; allows 50 percent of charter school teachers to be unlicensed; deletes mandate for charters to adhere to state graduation requirements. [All but one of Mississippi’s seven currently operating charter schools that received accountability grades for the 2024-25 school year are rated D or F.] Original version of HB 2 expanded charter schools statewide by allowing an unlimited number of charters to open in any school district, regardless of accountability rating, opening districts rated A, B, or C to charters and removing local school boards’ authority to deny charter schools in their districts.
• Includes a $3,000 pay raise for assistant teachers, increasing their minimum salary from $17,000 to $20,000; does not include a pay raise for certified teachers.
• Expands literacy initiatives to grades 4 through 8 and establishes a statewide math initiative.
• Revises PERS Tier 5’s full-service requirements from 35 years to 30 years and reverts its average salary calculation from eight highest years of service to four highest years of service.
• Amends current state law governing retired teachers returning to the classroom. Removes the requirement that a returning teacher may only teach in a critical shortage geographic or subject area; removes the five-year limit on teaching under the retiree program; requires that the salary for a returning retired teacher be no less than what they were receiving when they retired; and sets the PERS contribution requirement at actual cost (currently 27.4%) rather than the 50% in current law.
• Requires the consolidation of the Hazlehurst City School District and the Copiah County School District effective July 1, 2028.
• In addition to sweeping changes and new laws, HB 2 brings forward extensive sections of current law for unspecified purposes, opening vast portions of education statute to possible revisions without appropriate study and consideration.
• Original version of HB 2 reduced formula funding to public school districts by revising the definition of “net enrollment” in the Mississippi Student Funding Formula to limit to students in kindergarten through grade 12; removing pre-k students from enrollment counts would result in a reduction in funding formula allocations for school districts. This provision was removed in the committee substitute version of the bill.