Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. Though school choice talks have stalled this session, bills regarding a state tax program that incentivizes Mississippians to donate to private schools have now passed both chambers of the Legislature and head to fi nal negotiations.  Since 2020, private schools and foster care organizations have been receiving money through the Children’s Promise Act, which gives donors a dollar-for-dollar tax credits for up to 50% of the donor’s state tax liability.  The program, passed in 2019, was originally billed by House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, a Republican from Senatobia, 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 quietly included in the bill.  READ MORE: House tax credit bill would send more public dollars to private schools Half of the program’s tax-credits are earmarked for people and organizations that donate to foster care service organizations. The other tax credits are available to donors to private or special purpose schools that have any students in the foster care system, students with chronic illnesses or disabilities or students who are eligible for free or reduced-price meals. Lamar has unsuccessfully tried for years to raise the cap on the program, which is currently set at $18 million a year in total. This year’s attempt — a provision in House Bill 1944 that would’ve increased the program’s cap to $40 million by 2028 — has failed thus far.  The Senate on Tuesday passed an amended version of House Bill 1944, Lamar’s bill, that removed the provision that would have raised the cap on the tax credit program. However, the amended bill would still add money to the program by creating a separate category and allowing more tax credits for the state’s special purpose schools. The amendment would separate schools in the second category, creating three buckets of eligible organizations — nonprofit foster care organizations, special purpose schools and private schools — and creating an additional $6 million in tax credits for special purpose schools. That means next year nonprofit foster care organizations would be eligible for $8 million, private schools would be eligible for $8 million and special purpose schools would be eligible for $6 million. An amendment offered by Democratic Sen. David Blount of Jackson would have removed private schools from the program, but kept nonprofits that serve foster youth and kept special purpose schools that serve students with disabilities. “By setting up a separate bucket for the special purpose schools, the effect of that is you are giving more tax credits to private schools because they’ve got their own bucket,” he said. “What the amendment would do is it would protect and completely hold harmless the nonprofit groups in your community that you care about.” Blount’s amendment failed by a thin margin. House Bill 1944 will now head to negotiations between the two chambers, where it can still be amended — a concern longtime Sen. Hob Bryan, a Democrat from Amory, voiced on the floor.  “I’m very confused about the finances of the state,” he said. “We’ve got to be careful about how much money we send to school teachers now because the budget’s real tight and we can’t afford that, but now we’re back on another tax credit to send money to private schools and suddenly we’ve got enough money to do that. You can understand why I’m confused.” The bill’s passage comes at the tail end of a legislative session headlined by education policy. School choice proposals that would allow parents to spend state tax dollars on private schools have died, but teacher pay raise bills in both chambers have been hotly contested and remain alive.  And another bill passed by the Senate on Tuesday appears to include language pertaining to the Children’s Promise Act. House Bill 4067, a bond bill that would potentially fund millions of dollars in projects across the state, includes the section of state law about the Children’s Promise Act. That means it could also be amended during negotiations between the chambers.  Additionally, an amendment that would have added language pertaining to the Children’s Promise Act was rejected on the House floor last week. Lamar on Tuesday couldn’t recall where else he had filed that language, but told Mississippi Today that he has filed the bill in multiple ways because there’s a great need for the program across the state.  “If you’ve been around this process a while, it’s the same reason a diaper tax just got put in the tractor tax,” he said, referring to amendments on the House floor on Tuesday that included an exemption on sales taxes for diaper purchases. “It just happens … I don’t know what to tell you.” Lamar tried similar tactics in 2025, when he inserted the Children’s Promise Act in various Senate bills after the original bill was killed.  “It’s just a great piece of legislation that does a lot of good and hurts no one,” he said. “It defies common sense and logic for anybody to be against the bill.” ...read more read less