Legislation to expand Mississippi’s successful Education Scholarship Accounts (ESA) has been introduced in both the state House and Senate.

The new bills, Senate Bill 2623, sponsored by Sen. Gray Tollison (R-Oxford), and House Bill 1339, sponsored by Rep. Charles Busby (R-Pascagoula), will make the ESA program available to most students in Mississippi, while maintaining a preference for students with special needs.

An ESA empowers parents to make the educational choice that best fits their child. Parents are given direct control over their child’s portion of state education funding to use for tuition, tutors, curriculum, therapies, and other educational services. 

The expansion bills would make all students who are in public schools; have an Individualized Education Plan; are in or adopted out of foster care; have a parent in the military; are entering kindergarten or first grade; or have a sibling in the program eligible for an ESA.Catholic Education Partners is actively working with school leaders in the Dioceses of Jackson and Biloxi to highlight the support of the Catholic community. More than half of the Catholic schools in Mississippi serve a current Special Needs ESA student, and all schools are eager to serve parents seeking a faith-filled education for their child.