Committee
Education
Author
Kent McCarty
Session
2025 Session
Latest Action
On January 30, HB 1142 passed the House Education Committee. HB 1142 is awaiting House floor action.
Explanation of the Bill
HB 1142 requires all public charter school pre-K teachers in Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) grant-funded pre-K classrooms to meet the same qualifications as traditional public school pre-K teachers in other state-funded pre-K programs. According to current state law, 75% of Mississippi public charter school teachers are required to be licensed schoolwide. However, to ensure that all state-funded pre-K programs continue to meet all ten National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) benchmarks, this legislation removes exemptions for licensure and teaching standards for pre-K teachers in public charter schools.
HB 1142 is a consequence of the $20M line item inserted into the education budget for “other early learning programs” during the 2022 legislative session. The legislative intent paragraph asked the MDE “to provide grant opportunities for Other Early Learning Programs through public schools including other public school preschool programs not participating in Early Learning Collaboratives.”
As a result, MDE created the State Invested Pre-K (SIP) program. Traditional public schools and public charter schools could apply for $100,000 in funding per pre-K classroom. Districts were encouraged to partner with their local Head Start and childcare providers. If a district partnered with a Head Start, they would receive an additional $25,000 per pre-K classroom. The grants last three years and programs are required to meet all ten National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) benchmarks.
Mississippi First has written extensively about the risk SIP poses to Mississippi’s wider early childhood landscape (see our case study, Transforming Pre-K in Mississippi). Due to SIP’s lack of legislatively required program standards, including no requirements around collaboration with Head Start to coordinate enrollment, the program could put communities at risk of losing federal dollars for early childhood program seats that serve children aged 0-5. However, one positive outcome of the creation of SIP was the opportunity for public charter schools to serve pre-K students. Because public charter schools are often much smaller than traditional districts, they do not often have the resources to use Title I funding to create pre-K classrooms or match funds through the ELC program. Because SIP does not include a matching requirement, several charter schools applied for and received grants.
Date | Details |
---|---|
1/30/25 | On January 30, HB 1142 passed the House Education Committee. HB 1142 is awaiting House floor action. |
1/20/25 | On January 20, HB 1142 was referred to the House Education Committee. |