JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - A judge is weighing conflicting arguments on Mississippi’s charter-school law: from parents who say it’s unconstitutional and should be overturned and government officials who say the parents have no legal standing to sue.
Lawyers for a group of parents told Hinds County Chancery Judge Dewayne Thomas that the law is unconstitutional because charter schools divert property taxes from the Jackson district and are not overseen by a local or state superintendent.
“A school district can never send its tax revenue to schools outside its control,” said Will Bardwell, a lawyer for the Southern Poverty Law Center, who represents the challengers. He asked Thomas to permanently block the law.
State government and charter school supporters defended the law. They argue the parents represented by Bardwell don’t have legal standing to sue, that funding is transferred from district to district in other situations, and that schools aren’t required to be overseen by a state or local superintendent.
Thomas is likely to rule sometime after June 21.
Mississippi has three charter schools in Jackson attended by a total of 500 students. The schools have received $1.5 million in tax money from the Jackson district in the past two years. The law’s supporters warn that if Thomas rules for the challengers, those schools would close.
“If the court rules in favor of the plaintiffs, all sources of local, state and federal funds would be cut off,” said Michael Bentley, who represents Midtown Public Charter School.
Bardwell, though, said lawmakers could still find legal ways to run and fund charter schools if they want, but just can’t use the current structure.
“This is not a broad case about shutting down charter schools,” he said. “This is a case about shutting down unconstitutional government spending.”
The challengers cite two sections of the Mississippi Constitution, one that says districts can levy property taxes to support their schools, and a second that says state aid should only go to an institution conducted as a “free school.”
Bardwell argued that the first section means it’s illegal to send local property-tax money to charter schools, each of which is legally in a separate school district. He cites state Supreme Court rulings barring lawmakers from forcing the Pascagoula-Gautier school district to share property tax revenue from the Chevron Corp. refinery.
He said the second section requires a free school to be under the purview of state and local superintendents.
But Assistant Attorney General Krissy Nobile said districts have long shared local tax money with other districts through student transfers, with the sending district in some cases required to grant a transfer and send tax money to the receiving district. She also said that a free school means only one without tuition.
“Free means free,” she said. “Because public charter schools charge no tuition as a condition of attendance, they easily pass this test.”
After the lawyers argued, Thomas said that he doesn’t favor charter schools as a policy because only some students benefit, and not all students in a district. But he said his preferences wouldn’t impact his ruling.
“Everybody is entitled to an adequate and basic education and not just a select few, but that’s not what this case has to be decided on,” Thomas said.
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