Victory for Educational Freedom: On May 2, 2024, the Mississippi Supreme Court issued a ruling enabling MAIS’s private independent schools across the state to access $10 million in emergency relief funds, which the state legislature set aside for their use.
Case Background: Since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, the federal government set aside relief funding for both public and independent schools to help navigate the resulting challenges. Unfortunately, opponents to non-public schools repeatedly tried to prevent these schools from receiving one-time, emergency relief grants.
States were tasked with handling the logistics of distributing the federal funds to public and independent schools. In Mississippi, the state legislature instructed the state to allocate the $10 million to independent schools such as those in the Midsouth Association of Independent Schools (MAIS). The Midsouth Association of Independent Schools represents 90 percent of non-public schools in Mississippi. Its member schools and 6,500 teachers worked throughout the COVID-19 crisis to provide quality, in-person, college preparatory education. Like public schools, MAIS schools serve the children of Mississippi and federal taxpayers and face infrastructure and modernization needs brought on by the pandemic crisis.
Parents for Public Schools, Inc. filed a lawsuit in June 2022 to block these grants. The group, represented by the ACLU, relied on the notorious post-Civil War “Blaine Amendment” in the Mississippi state constitution to stop the program. The provision was designed a century ago to discriminate against racial and religious minorities by withholding education funding for independent schools in the state—a legacy that continues to this day.
The Midsouth Association of Independent Schools was represented by attorneys from the Liberty Justice Center, a national nonprofit, Supreme Court-winning law firm committed to protecting educational opportunity for all.
Representing MAIS’s 125 member schools and 45,000 students in Mississippi, the Liberty Justice Center fought for these federal COVID-19 relief funds to reach the independent schools they were meant for. Senior Attorney Buck Dougherty argued that opponents of the program cynically attempted to use a century-old provision of the state constitution that was motivated by racial and religious prejudice to stop federal support for independent schools. The Liberty Justice Center’s legal action sought to end this discrimination against non-public schools and students, and to stop Parents for Public Schools, Inc. from using the Blaine Amendment to block COVID-19 funds from going to independent schools.
In February 2024, the Liberty Justice Center presented oral arguments before the Mississippi Supreme Court, successfully urging the Court to allow the federal relief funds to reach independent schools as the Mississippi Legislature intended.
In a ruling issued on May 2, 2024, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that Parents for Public Schools did not have standing to sue and vacated a lower court order that blocked MAIS’s access to emergency COVID relief funds on behalf of its private member schools. The decision enabled MAIS’s private independent schools across the state to access $10 million in emergency relief funds, which the state legislature set aside for their infrastructure use.
“We are thrilled with the Court’s ruling in favor of Mississippi students at MAIS’s private member schools,” said Buck Dougherty, Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center. “The allegations made by the petitioners against independent schools relied on an unconstitutional and unconscionable Blaine Amendment, historically used to discriminate against racial and religious minorities. The Court was right to set aside that claim and focus on the fact that the money should be used for what the Mississippi Legislature set it aside for: independent schools’ infrastructure.”
“Today’s ruling is a win for Mississippi students and schools, and for educational freedom across the country,” Buck Dougherty concluded.
Buck Dougherty is a Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center, where he litigates in trial and appellate courts on behalf of everyday citizens in order to protect their civil liberties and preserve their constitutional rights.
(Mississippi Clarion Ledger)—Closing a recent case in which public school advocates went up against private schools, the Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled in the favor of private schools, allowing them the use of one-time federal pandemic relief funds. In the 2022 legislative session, Tate Reeves signed two bills approving the...
(Clarion Ledger)—In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, much has been discussed about the tremendous learning loss that students all across the country experienced. When schools closed their doors and navigated the uncharted waters of virtual learning, it negatively impacted the ability of students to connect with their peers, their...
(Supertalk Mississippi Media)—The Midsouth Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) is seeking a state judge’s approval for independent schools in the Magnolia State to receive the federal COVID-19 relief funds that were set aside for them by the Mississippi legislature. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government distributed relief money to...