JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi is violating its own constitution with a law that would put public money into infrastructure grants for private schools, attorneys for a public education advocacy group argued Tuesday to the state Supreme Court.
But one attorney representing the state and one representing private schools argued that public schools were not harmed by the $10 million program that the Republican-controlled Legislature voted to create in 2022.
The grants have been put on hold during the yearslong court fight. They were to be funded with part of the money that Mississippi received from the federal government for COVID-19 pandemic relief, and private schools could receive up to $100,000 each for broadband, water or drainage projects.
“This does not involve state education funding,” Justin Matheny, deputy solicitor general in the Mississippi attorney general’s office, told a panel of three justices.
Rob McDuff, one of the attorneys representing the nonprofit group Parents for …