Legislation introduced in the Mississippi House of Representatives would set up “Magnolia Student Accounts” (MSA), an education savings account (ESA) program open to all Mississippi K–12 students.
These accounts would cover tuition, fees, and curricula for eligible children at private and parochial schools, as well as textbooks, uniforms, private tutoring services, school-provided extracurricular activities, and educational therapies. Funds could also be used to cover the fees required to take national standardized achievement tests, such as the SAT, CLT, ACT, or AP examinations. Any unused funds left over from when the student graduates high school could also be used to pay for college tuition or job training programs.
The program would begin with the 2027–28 school year, and would be capped at 12,500 participating students. This cap would grow by 2,500 students each successive school year until 2030–31, after which the state will have the option of expanding the program by a 2,500 students annually if the MSA program is at 100 percent capacity.
The bill would also increase funding to remove the waitlist for the Magnolia State’s other ESA program, the Equal Opportunity for Students with Special Needs Program (EOSSNP).
The implementation of MSAs is much-needed in the Magnolia State, as Mississippi has fallen behind neighboring states like Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee who have already enacted their own universal ESA legislation.
While Mississippi does currently provide an education choice program the EOSSNP, the program is very small. Only 345 students made use of the program during the 2024–25 school year. Mississippi also provides two other choice programs, both voucher programs, for disabled students, but like the EOSSNP, they are both very small. The Nate Rogers Scholarship for Students with Disabilities Program, dedicated solely to children with speech therapy needs, serviced only ten students during the 2023–24 school year, while the Mississippi Dyslexia Therapy Scholarship for Students with Dyslexia Program, serviced just 246 students in the 2024–25 school year.
Altogether, only seven percent of Mississippi children are eligible for these program, and they only provides families, averaged together, with 67 percent of the funding that would have gone to their child in one of the state’s public schools.
Copious empirical research on school choice programs like ESAs makes clear these programs offer families improved access to high-quality schools that meet their children’s unique needs and circumstances. Specifically, these programs improve academic performance and attainment while delivering quality education at lower cost than traditional public schools.
To cite just one example, a 2024 analysis by EdChoice found EOSSNP and the Dyslexia Therapy Scholarship for Students with Dyslexia Program, even as small as they are, have cumulatively saved Mississippi taxpayers between $31.1 million and $48.1 million through Fiscal Year 2022. This works out to a savings of between $7,193 and $11,119 per each student participating in the programs.
Additionally, education choice benefits public school students and taxpayers by increasing competition, decreasing segregation, and improving civic values and practices. Research also shows students at private schools are less likely than their public school peers to experience problems such as alcohol abuse, bullying, drug use, fighting, gang activity, racial tension, theft, vandalism, and weapon-based threats. There is also a strong causal link suggesting private school choice programs improve the mental health of participating students.
Education choice programs like ESAs are not only good policy—they are also broadly popular. EdChoice’s Public Opinion Tracker, last updated on December 15, shows 64 percent of all Mississippi adults and 73 percent of Mississippi parents with school-aged children are in favor of ESA programs.
While the serious academic gains in mathematics and reading from students in Mississippi’s public schools over the last decade are being rightfully celebrated, it is still objectively truly that the state’s public school system is habitually failing most Mississippi children.
In 2024, only 38 percent of Mississippi’s public school fourth-graders and 22 percent of eighth-graders tested “proficient” to grade-level proficiency in mathematics on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) examination, colloquially known as the “Nation’s Report Card.” Just 32 percent of fourth-graders and 23 percent of eighth-graders tested “proficient” in reading.
Essentially, and embarrassingly, even with all the improvements of the last ten years, the state’s public schools are still failing to educate roughly eight out of 10 Mississippi children to grade-level proficiency in reading and math by the time they are about to enter high school.
The goal of public education in Mississippi today and in the years to come should be to allow all parents to choose which schools their children attend, require every school to compete for every student who walks through its doors, and make sure every child has the opportunity to attend a quality school that best fits their unique needs and circumstances. There has not been a time when providing these opportunities has been more urgent and more needed than right now.
Simply put, states with robust and expansive school choice programs will be more attractive to families who have the ability to migrate to the state of their choosing. How many will decide against moving to Mississippi because it doesn’t offer their children the opportunity to attend the school that best suits their educational needs? Legislators should recognize this and realize Magnolia Student Accounts fixes this problem and allows all current and future Mississippians as many options as possible to get their children the education they need and deserve.
The following documents provide more information about education choice.
The 2025 EdChoice Friedman Index
https://www.edchoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025-Friedman-Index.pdfTo measure how much K–12 choice is available in a given state, EdChoice has created the EdChoice Friedman Index which evaluates three key factors: student eligibility; flexible use of funds; and funding parity.
The 123s of School Choice (2025 Edition)
https://www.edchoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/123s-of-School-Choice-2025.pdf
This report from EdChoice is an in-depth review of the available research on private school choice programs in America. Areas of study include: private school choice program participant test scores, program participant attainment, parent satisfaction, public school students’ test scores, civic values and practices, racial/ethnic integration and fiscal effects.
Fiscal Effects of School Choice
https://www.edchoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Fiscal-Effects-2024.pdf
This EdChoice analysis of 48 private educational choice programs in 25 states plus D.C. summarizes the facts and evidence on the fiscal effects of educational choice programs across the United States and finds they have provided up to $45.6 billion in net fiscal savings to state and local taxpayers through Fiscal Year 2022. The programs in the analysis include five education savings accounts programs (ESAs), 22 school voucher programs, and 21 tax-credit scholarship programs.
The Public Benefit of Private Schooling: Test Scores Rise When There Is More of It
https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa830.pdf
This Policy Analysis from the Cato Institute examines the effect increased access to private schooling has had on international student test scores in 52 countries. The Cato researchers found that a 1 percentage point increase in the share of private school enrollment would lead to moderate increases in students’ math, reading, and science achievement.
Nothing in this Research & Commentary is intended to influence the passage of legislation, and it does not necessarily represent the views of The Heartland Institute. For further information on this subject, visit The Heartland Institute’s website.
The Heartland Institute can send an expert to your state to testify or brief your caucus; host an event in your state; or send you further information on a topic. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if we can be of assistance! If you have any questions or comments, contact Heartland’s Government Relations department, at [email protected] or 312/377-4000.
Tim Benson joined The Heartland Institute in September 2015 as a policy analyst in the Government Relations Department.
