The Mississippi Legislature is back in session, which means that big decisions will be made that affect this state in the coming weeks. Below is a breakdown of some bills that will affect colleges and students in the state.
H.B. 46 — This bill will allow students who transfer from an out-of-state college to one in Mississippi to be eligible for the Mississippi Eminent Scholars Fund scholarship, provided that the student meets the other requirements, such as GPA and residence. H.B. 46 has passed the House and is currently in the Senate.
H.B. 170 — This bill seeks to alleviate part of the burden of textbook prices by requiring professors to consider using cheaper editions of textbooks, so long as the educational quality is still acceptable, among other things. Parts of the bill focus on requirements for textbook publishers who are outside of the jurisdiction of Mississippi, though. The bill is currently in House Committee, with a sister bill in the Senate Committee (S.B. 2545).
H.B. 221 — This bill would create a tuition rebate program where students who graduate within four calendar years would receive $1,000 of their tuition back, so long as they have a minimum 3.0 GPA and have not attempted more than three hours in excess of the minimum requirements. For most degrees at Ole Miss, that would be no more than 127 hours. It is currently in House Committee.
S.B. 2052 — This bill allows for high school students who graduate with a 3.0 GPA (and meets other existing requirements) to receive the Mississippi Resident Tuition Assistance Grant equal to the total tuition of the institution. It also raises the minimum GPA for these students once in college from a 2.5 to a 3.0 after each semester. This bill is currently in Senate Committee.
S.B. 2406 — An individual with an ACT score of less than 20 cannot receive the Mississippi Resident Tuition Assistance Grant at a four-year university without having completed a program at a junior or community college. This does not include students who are already enrolled in a four-year university. This bill is currently in Senate Committee.
S.B. 2534 — This bill would create protection for any student organization that requires members or leaders to adhere to the organization’s stated religious beliefs. No religious organization can be denied any benefit that is available to any other organization. This bill is currently in Senate Committee.
These are but a few bills being considered in the Mississippi Legislature, and I strongly encourage students to look into bills that might affect them in any way, whether it be as college students like these or for other reasons. All legislation can be found at legislature.ms.gov along with information about each senator and representative. After all, an informed public is a free public.
Trenton Winford is a senior public policy leadership major from Madison.
