Legislative leaders sneaked $2 million into legislation during the last days of the 2019 session. This money will be available for next school year. The Department of Education will soon announce the process by which parents can apply for vouchers. Representative David Baria, of Bay St. Louis, and Senator Derrick Simmons, of Greenville, are the House and Senate Democratic leaders. They have withdrawn requests from Attorney General Jim Hood for opinions on whether the $2 million can be spent. The legislation that provided the money was incorrectly named the program. The program was renamed Education Savings Account in the final session of March by the Senate and House. However, the legislation had to be “enrolled” before it could be sent to Gov. Phil Bryant corrected the name. Baria stated that he received a call from the Attorney general’s office stating that ‘we must base the opinion on bill as it was submitted to the governor’. Baria stated that he didn’t see the need to continue with the matter based on this information. Simmons agreed. Some members of the House leadership were silently questioning whether the Department of Education had the “spending authority” necessary to appropriate the funds. The state Constitution requires that every appropriations bill must “fix definitely the maximum amount” that can be spent. The problem is that the extra money was hidden in the budget for the Department of Finance and Administration and transferred to the Department of Education for use on the voucher program. Some people wondered if the Education Department was allowed to spend more than $3 million in the Special Education Account budget. It turned out that the Legislature gave the Education Department more spending authority than it actually had. According to different sources, this meant that the agency could spend more than it was authorized to. Many questions regarding the misnaming of program and whether spending authority exist highlight the problems of sneaking controversial program into legislation during the final days of session. Baria stated that this was not the best way to run a railroad. “The business of the people should be open. This is what happens when you get involved in secret conference committees. “People have ill motives and they sneak it in and you have something similar to this happening.” Opponents claim the program takes money from public schools that are underfunded. The funds are used to help students with special needs who cannot be met in public schools. The accountability measures associated with the program were questioned in a report from the Legislature’s Performance Evaluation and Expenditure review Committee. Those concerns were not addressed by the Legislature during the 2019 session. The majority of legislators, including John Read, R.Gautier, House Appropriations Chair, and Richard Bennett, R.Long Beach House Education Chair, denied that the Education Scholarship Account funding was included in the budget for Department of Finance and Administration. Lt. Governor. Tate Reeves was a strong advocate for the program and said that it was “typed in, just like any other project.”