Point/CounterPoint – Ford explains his YES on School Choice, a recent district graduate rebutes

VICKSBURG, Miss. (VDN) — House Bill 2 on School Choice passed on a 60-58 vote, with local statehouse representative for District #54, Kevin Ford (R) voting in the positive. Ford then posted online his rationale for voting in the affirmative, presented below. The Vicksburg Daily News reached out to Emily Tingle, a recent district graduate who wrote a Letter to the Editor on this topic. Her response is presented below Ford’s.

Ford’s online post

Do I agree with every part of the bill? No.

But I do believe HB 2 contains several pieces Mississippi needs, and voting YES today keeps us in position to strengthen the parts that need tighter guardrails and clearer accountability.

HB 2 keeps parents in the conversation. When families are treated like partners instead of spectators, students win. I want us moving toward a system where parents have a voice, clear information, and meaningful choices, and where schools are supported and held accountable.

Here’s what I support in HB 2:

1. Financial literacy that prepares students for adulthood. Students should graduate knowing how money works: budgeting, credit, debt, and basic life decisions.

2. Stronger JROTC access. JROTC helps students build discipline, confidence, and leadership, and it works especially well for students who need structure and direction.

3. Common sense steps to address teacher shortages. Allowing retired teachers to return and teach can help fill classrooms quickly with experienced educators while we strengthen the long-term pipeline.

4. Retirement stability for public servants. Mississippi can’t recruit and keep great teachers and first responders if the retirement pathway feels like a moving target.

5. A pay raise for teacher assistants. Teacher assistants do important work every single day supporting students and teachers, and better pay helps us keep good people in our schools.

6. Removing unnecessary testing requirements so we can spend more time teaching and less time preparing for tests.

Now, I know the part many people are focused on is the school choice section. Here’s where I land:

Warren and Yazoo Counties are fortunate. We have strong public schools and so many educators and staff who truly care about kids. I’m proud of that.

But across Mississippi, there are communities where schools have struggled for years. In those situations, parents have been asking for options.

Districts are not forced into a one size fits all approach. They can set standards and limits, or choose not to participate.

And here’s what I’m not doing. I’m not pretending the bill is finished. Advancing HB 2 means the work continues, tightening accountability, strengthening guardrails, and making sure dollars follow results.

That’s why I voted YES.

CounterPoint by Emily Tingle

HB 2: Playing a Risky Partisan Game with Public Tax Dollars

In any election year, one typically hears Warren County politicians tout the difference between our politics and the rest of the state. One of the most common phrases we hear during a campaign season is that party does not matter and that our legislators vote on what is best for Vicksburg rather than on partisan interests.

Support for HB 2 is a clear violation of that promise. For the past 40 years, polling has consistently shown that Mississippians want more funding for public schools. Some of our most popular governors, such as William Winter, are remembered for their commitment to supporting our public education system rather than dismantling it. Voucher programs and school choice are just the latest policy proposals promoted by outside think tanks and lobbyists and pushed upon our state legislature as part of a game of partisan politics. Education policy should not be a partisan issue. Rather, it should be carefully crafted by analyzing peer-reviewed empirical research and case studies from other areas that have implemented that policy, not by partisan lobbyists.

HB 2 is not only out of step with what most Mississippians want, but it also poses a policy risk, with likely no effects or, at best, minimal improvements. This is a key issue that many Republican Representatives have failed to address. Effectively, this is a major policy gamble, far from taking a “conservative” position.

Furthermore, the bill’s design appears intended to push through the unpopular school-choice policy by drawing attention to more popular policies. This is demonstrated by some of their own explanations of this vote, which focus on other aspects of the bill that most of us would agree with, including retirement stability, pay raises for teacher assistants, and the removal of unnecessary testing requirements. The House barely passed HB 2 on a 61-59 vote, with many Republicans breaking ranks, further demonstrating the weakness of school choice policy. If school choice had been voted on as a solo issue rather than being
crammed into an “everything-but-the-kitchen-sink” style bill, it likely would not have passed. If school choice is sound enough for us to implement, let it stand on its own without being pushed through by the popularity of other policies.

Furthermore, our state has a sketchy history of dispersing public tax dollars. One need only point to Nancy and Zachary New to question whether the state has the capacity to effectively distribute and audit public funds allocated to private entities. By pushing public dollars into private hands, how does this help provide guardrails and effective oversight of our education system?