Mississippi

AMENDMENT LANGUAGE

State Constitutional Provision

Miss. Const. art. 8, § 208: "No religious or other sect or sects shall ever control any part of the school or other educational funds of this state; nor shall any funds be appropriated toward the support of any sectarian school, or to any school that at the time of receiving such appropriation is not conducted as a free school."

RELEVANT CASES

State Courts

Chance v. Mississippi State Textbook Rating and Purchasing Board, 200 So. 706 (Miss. 1941).

Federal Courts

· Norwood v. Harrison, 413 U.S. 455 (1973) (United States Supreme Court found that a Mississippi statutory program under which textbooks were purchased by the state and lent to students in both public and private schools violated the Mississippi constitutional provision prohibiting public support of sectarian schools, because the program was a form of financial assistance to the private schools).

REPEAL EFFORTS

See the Heritage Foundation website for a list of state contacts.