JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday in a dispute over a state law that would put $10 million of federal pandemic relief money into infrastructure grants for private schools.
Hinds County Chancery Judge Crystal Wise Martin blocked the law in October 2022 after Parents for Public Schools sued the state. The nonprofit group argued the grants would give private schools a competitive advantage over public schools.
“Any appropriation of public funds to be received by private schools adversely affects schools and their students,” Martin wrote. “Taxpayer funding for education is finite.”
The lawsuit cited a section of the Mississippi Constitution that prohibits the use of public money for any school that is not “a free school.”
During the 2022 legislative session, Mississippi’s Republican-controlled House and Senate made plans to spend most of the $1.8 billion that the state received for pandemic relief.
One bill signed by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves created a grant program to help private schools pay for water, broadband and other infrastructure projects. Another allocated the $10 million of federal money for the program as of July 1, 2022.