The Southern Poverty Law Center, representing the group, filed the lawsuit in Hinds County Chancery Court on Monday against Gov. Phil Bryant, the state education department and the district.
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The lawsuit calls for the court to strike down the funding provisions of the Mississippi Charter School Act (CSA).
Improving educational outcomes is one of the most important ways to lift children out of poverty, and charter schools offer that hope to parents who want a better future for their children.
To get public funding under the current constitution, schools are supposed to be supervised by these entities, and oversight authority for the state’s two charter schools now rests with the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board, funded with 3% of the dollars that go toward charters. It argues that charter schools violate the state constitution by making school districts share property tax collections with schools they don’t control. “These schools will no longer be able to provide MS schoolchildren the education that they are constitutionally entitled to receive”.
“If anything, they should be suing about Jackson Public Schools and the failure of them to provide an education to those students”, Tollison said, referring to a recent audit of the district that showed it was in violation of a majority of the state’s accreditation standards.
Charter schools are public schools-in that they receive public money-but they are run by individuals or groups and overseen by appointed nonprofit boards separate from the traditional district system. A third charter, Smilow Prep is scheduled to open in the fall (also in Jackson).
Bryant did not respond to requests for comment late Monday afternoon, and the state education department does not comment on pending litigation. There are now applications pending for four more charter schools.
Though named as a defendant in the lawsuit, the district has been publicly critical of the presence of charters.
“JPS could have spent $1.85 million on 42 teacher salaries, 18 new school buses, guidance counselors for 6,870 students, or vocational education programming for 6,672 students”, the complaint reads.
When JPS chief financial officer Sharolyn Miller spoke at a public hearing on education to members of Mississippi’s Legislative Black Caucus and House and Senate Democrats in April, she said the size of the district as well as its continued underfunding had inhibited its success.
Supporters say charter schools allow for greater innovation in curriculum and teaching styles.
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Sierra Mannie is an education reporting fellow for the Jackson Free Press and The Hechinger Report.
