The Mississippi Ethics Commission says charter school board members are subject to state ethics laws, which prohibit conflicts of interest that could lead to the misspending of public dollars.
But several operators and advocates of Mississippi charter schools, which receive taxpayer funding, say they should be exempt from those laws.
The conflict was brought to light by Ethics Commission opinions filed in 2020 after two charter schools were discovered to be spending their public funding with board membersâ employers.
The revelations highlight long-standing tension between charter school and traditional public school advocates, who say charter schools need to be held to the same standards as other public governing bodies.