JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Oral arguments will be heard in Mississippi’s State Supreme Court in an appeal that challenges the constitutionality of private schools receiving public funds.

The case stems from 2022 when the Mississippi Legislature provided $10 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for private schools in the state.

The Jackson-based nonprofit, Parents for Public Schools, challenged the allocation in court and emerged victorious when Hinds County Chancery Court Judge Crystal Wide Martin found it unconstitutional to provide public money for private schools.

The state appealed the decision from October 2022, claiming the Legislature is well within their rights to allocate the federal funds to private schools.

Mississippi Center for Justice Attorney Rob McDuff, who represented the nonprofit, spoke to WJTV 12 News about the appeal.

“Private schools need to be funded on their own, and public money, taxpayer money that goes to education should go to public schools. That’s what section 208 of the Constitution stands for. The attorney general is bringing the appeal on behalf of the state and is arguing primarily that Section 208 doesn’t apply because this originally was federal money. We disagree completely. It is, it began as federal money. It’s federal money that went to the state. Once the state has that money, once the money’s in the public treasury, the Legislature is bound by the requirements of the Mississippi Constitution, including the requirement in section 208 that all public money for education should go to public schools, not private schools,” McDuff stated.

The Attorney General’s Office released a statement that read, “Mississippi’s independent schools stand to gain at most $10 million total, an amount dwarfed by the $1.62 billion in ARPA grant funding already given to Mississippi public schools.”

The oral arguments have been set for February 6, 2024.