Mississippi high court declines to rule on questions of public funds going to private schools

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Supreme Court has declined to rule on whether the state is violating its own constitution with a program that would spend $10 million of public money on infrastructure grants for private schools.

The justices on Thursday ruled 7-2 that an advocacy group lacked legal standing to sue the state. Parents for Public Schools “failed to sufficiently demonstrate an adverse impact that it suffers differently from the general public,” the majority wrote.

Because of that finding, justices said they would not rule on the larger constitutional question about public money going to private schools.

In a dissent, Justice Leslie King wrote that Parents for Public Schools has proper legal standing because it represents parents of public school students. King also echoed the group’s main argument — that the Mississippi Constitution “forbids funds to be appropriated to schools that are not free.”

The Republican-controlled Mississippi Legislature voted to create the $10 million grant program in 2022, using part of the federal money that the state received for pandemic relief.

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