Our education freedom alliance with ALEC has been on a roll with school choice sweeping through red states across the country.

We hit a bump in the road earlier this week when the Mississippi Senate Republicans rejected an ambitious voucher proposal that would have offered $12,000 to low income students (and more enrollees in future years), and up to $7,000 to attend a private or religious school.

By killing the bill, Republicans handed a big win to the state’s teachers unions at the expense of disadvantaged children – many of whom are black.

Mississippi has made big gains in reading, leaping to 9th in the country by adopting reforms such as charter school and phonics. Math scores have improved too.

But we know from other states that creating school choice and competition would lead to further gains in one of the nation’s poorest states.

GOP Governor Tate Reeves and GOP House Speaker Jason White vowed to make school choice the centerpiece of their 2026 legislative priorities. Unfortunately, the GOP-majority State Senate Education Committee killed the bill by voice vote after less than 90 seconds of discussion.

GOP Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, declared that choice is “not on the table” in Mississippi and worked to kill it. God forbid that Delbert should ever become governor.

Governor Reeves blasted Hosemann on X in one of the harshest tongue lashings of a colleague you will ever hear.

Reeves should call for a special session to force a roll call vote in the State Senate. Time to see who really cares about children.

Btw, the unions are against the vouchers, but Republican voters are not. A poll conducted by Cygnal last month found that 70% of GOP primary voters would support a pro-school-choice candidate, while only 15% would support one opposed to school choice.