Mississippi Supreme Court rules private schools eligible for emergency relief funds
The Mississippi Supreme Court has sided with a group of private schools and reversed a lower court ruling that prevented those institutions from accessing COVID-19 relief funds.
The state's high court ruled in favor of the Midsouth Association of Independent Schools last week by determining that the group can access federal funds. The court's decision reverses a lower court opinion siding with the organization Parents for Public Schools, which sought to block the group of independent schools from obtaining the funding.
"The funds at issue in this case are not derived from state or local ad valorem taxes, but from federal treasury funds distributed to the state from the federal government for specific purposes unrelated to education," the majority opinion, written by Justice Robert P. Chamberlain, states.
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"Therefore, PPS is unable to establish standing based on its members' position as taxpayers."
Buck Dougherty, senior counsel with the Liberty Justice Center, which represents the private school association, said his organization is "thrilled" by the court's ruling.
"The allegations made by the petitioners against independent schools relied on an unconstitutional and unconscionable Blaine Amendment, historically used to discriminate against religious and racial minorities," Dougherty said in a statement.
"The Court was right to set aside the petitioners' claim and focus on the fact that the money should be used for what the Mississippi Legislature set it aside for: independent schools' infrastructure."
Two bills passed by the Republican-controlled Mississippi Legislature and approved by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves in 2022 created the Independent School Infrastructure Grant Program Act.
The program enabled independent schools to "apply for reimbursable grants to make necessary investments in water, wastewater, stormwater, broadband and other eligible infrastructure projects to be funded by the Legislature using Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Funds made available under the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)." The total amount of funding available to private schools by the legislature amounted to $10 million.
Parents for Public Schools alleged that funding the Midsouth Association of Independent Schools violated Section 208 of the Mississippi Constitution, which prohibits appropriating state funds to non-public schools. The Mississippi Supreme Court determined that Parents for Public Schools did not have standing to bring the lawsuit, as they were not directly harmed by the provision of funds to the private schools.
Justice Leslie King authored a dissenting opinion, joined by Justice James Kitchens.
"PPS alleges that it has standing due to an adverse effect its members experience
because the bills give a competitive advantage to private schools over public schools as well as due to taxpayer standing," King wrote. "The chancery court declined to address taxpayer standing because it found that PPS had standing under traditional notions of standing, holding that PPS experienced an adverse effect from the bills."
"This case begs the question: if parents of public school children are not sufficiently
adversely impacted to challenge this government action, who is?" the dissent continues.
The litigation surrounding the funding authorized by the Mississippi Legislature dates back to June 2022, when Parents for Public Schools asked a judge to set aside the laws establishing the Independent School Infrastructure Grant Program Act because of concerns that they violated Section 208.
Later that summer, the Midsouth Association of Independent Schools filed a motion to intervene, challenging the constitutionality of Section 208. Dougherty denounced Section 208 as unconstitutional earlier this year when arguing on behalf of his client before the Mississippi Supreme Court.
"This case begins and ends with a century-old provision in the Mississippi constitution that was born of racial and religious discrimination," he said at the time. "Section 208 was enacted in 1890 and designed to prevent independent schools like those affiliated with MAIS from accessing educational funding."
"Mississippi's Blaine Amendment targeted independent schools that dared to teach Catholic immigrants and newly freed slaves to read and write, and there's no way to sidestep that ugly past. Ultimately, the tension between this discriminatory provision in Mississippi's constitution and the U.S. Constitution has been festering for a century."
The Midsouth Association of Independent Schools contends that Section 208 of the Mississippi Constitution violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Last week's Mississippi Supreme Court ruling did not resolve that issue, as the entire ruling focused on Parents for Public Schools' standing.
The case involving the Midsouth Association of Independent Schools is not the first example of a court deciding that private schools can use taxpayer dollars.
In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state of Maine cannot bar parents from using a state tuition assistance program to send children to religious schools.
