Legislative watchdog report says most private school tax credits are not being spent on education

By Devna Bose | Originally published by Mississippi Today

The money private schools receive through a statewide tax-credit program is mostly being spent outside of the classroom, according to a report. 

The Children’s Promise Act, championed by House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, has been incentivizing Mississippians to donate to private schools since 2020. The program gives donors a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for up to 50% of the donor’s state tax bill. 

Lamar, a Republican from Senatobia, originally billed the program as a way to give money to nonprofit organizations that care for foster children, but a provision to give tax credits to private school donors was included in the bill. This past year, the Legislature increased the total amount of tax credits available to Mississippians by $6 million.

Private schools must have a student in the foster care system, a student with a chronic illness or disability or a student who is eligible for free or reduced-price meals to qualify for the program.

According to Mississippi law, the money private schools receive through the program must be spent on “educational resources, staff and expenditures and/or other purposes provided for” in state law. 

But Mississippi Today found in 2024 that the state Department of Revenue, which administers the program and certifies that private schools that are eligible to receive funds through the Children’s Promise Act, did not track how the program’s money was spent.

An analysis requested by Rep. Daryl Porter, a Democrat from Summit, and shared with Mississippi Today shows that schools using the money “to directly support educational services tended to be the exception rather than the norm.”

After interviewing 15 private schools in 2024, staff from the Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review, a nonpartisan committee that analyzes state agency programs for the Legislature, found that only three schools — Brookhaven Academy, Laurel Christian School and Madison-Ridgeland Academy — self-reported spending the money to directly support educational services. This spending included purchasing new electronic blackboards and providing tutoring for students and professional development for staff. Another six said they used the funds for capital projects, such as installing shaded areas on the playground and renovating school buildings.

PEER staff also found that two schools used the money for projects that may not meet the statute’s requirements. 

According to the report, North Delta School used the Children’s Promise Act money to create a scholarship endowment program and install new lights for the school’s football and baseball fields, and Brookhaven Academy constructed a new parking lot with the funds.

“(The Department of Revenue’s) website states that providing scholarships does not qualify as educational services while funding parking lots and lights for athletic fields do not appear to support educational purposes,” the report reads. 

While administration at Brookhaven Academy did not respond to questions, North Delta’s director of institutional advancement, Ashley Johnson, said the school didn’t use the Children’s Promise Act money for those projects.

“We got a grant we used for the lights, not that that’s any of the Legislature’s business,” Johnson said. “All of the funds that we’ve gotten we have used in accordance with the law.”

PEER executive director Ted Booth told Mississippi Today that PEER staff directly spoke to someone at the school who gave them the information about the lights and scholarship program. 

“The worry if you do it that way is if they sent us to the right person,” Booth said. “But I can back this up that someone at your school told me this.”

Lawmakers might argue that it is their business, given that they increased the money in the Children’s Promise Act program earlier this year, allowing Mississippians to claim up to $24 million in tax credits in total through the program starting in 2027, up from $18 million.

In an email to Mississippi Today last month, an agency spokesperson said that state law does not require that the department track that information. Additionally, while schools have to provide the number of students they have in each of those categories that make them eligible for the money, the agency would not release that information without a judicial order or consent from the schools. 

Mississippi Today reached out to leaders at the 15 private schools that received the most money from the program last year, nearly $5 million altogether, to ask how many students they had in each of those categories. Most schools did not respond to multiple requests for comment, while others declined to provide the information requested by presstime.

This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Source: Original Article