Ellington

The after hours of debate, the Senate passed a bill this afternoon to loosen the rules for creating charter schools in Mississippi.

Senate Bill 2401, authored by Sen. Gray Tollison, R-Oxford, would allow people to found new, "open-enrollment" charter schools. The current law only allows charter schools to be converted from existing schools with consistently low test scores.

Republicans are optimistic that the bill will also pass the House.

"Charter schools are long overdue in Mississippi as true reform was killed year after year under the previous leadership in the House, but parents throughout the state will soon have an additional option in the public school education of their children," a statement from the Mississippi Republican Party said.