MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

2022 Regular Session

To: Education

By: Representatives Karriem, Taylor

House Bill 849

AN ACT TO REQUIRE THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION TO DEVELOP A CIVICS CURRICULUM TO BE TAUGHT IN THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS; TO AMEND SECTION 37-13-151, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REQUIRE THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION TO DEVELOP A HIGH SCHOOL HOME ECONOMICS CURRICULUM; TO AMEND SECTION 37-13-153, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REQUIRE SUFFICIENT STATE FUNDING TO BE APPROPRIATED IN THE ADEQUATE EDUCATION PROGRAM AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION APPROPRIATION BILLS TO PROVIDE FOR NO LESS THAN ONE HOME ECONOMICS INSTRUCTOR IN EACH HIGH SCHOOL; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

     BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1.  The State Board of Education shall develop a civics curriculum to be incorporated into the existing curriculum mandated for all public high schools.  The civics curriculum must be designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills that are critical to the responsibilities of citizenship in the constitutional democracy of the United States.  The board shall require each school district to implement the civics curriculum in the 2023-2024 school year.

     SECTION 2.  Section 37-13-151, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

     37-13-151.  * * *Before July 1, 1997, The State Board of Education shall develop a home economics curriculum to be implemented in the public high schools by all local school districts * * * shall provide programs of education in home economics, in Grade 10, 11 or 12, which in the 2023-2024 school year.  The home economics curriculum must include, at a minimum, course work in responsible parenting and family living skills.  The * * *se programs shall contain curriculum also must provide instruction to prepare students to understand children's physical, mental, emotional and social growth and development as well as to assume responsibility for their care and guidance, with emphasis on nutrition, emotional health and physical health.  * * *All such programs shall be subject to the approval of the State Board of Education pursuant to Section 37‑31‑205(1)(d).

     SECTION 3.  Section 37-13-153, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

     37-13-153.  State funding for the home economics programs required in Section 37-13-151 shall be * * *phased in over a period of three (3) school years, beginning with the 1994‑1995 school year.  In the minimum provided in the adequate education program and vocational education appropriation bills * * *for fiscal year 1994‑1995, there shall be a line item specifying the amount that is to be expended to employ no less than one (1) instructor in each high school in no less than one‑third (1/3) of the school districts in the state.  In the minimum education program and vocational education appropriation bills for fiscal year 1995‑1996, there shall be a line item specifying the amount that is to be expended to employ no less than one (1) instructor in each high school in no less than two‑thirds (2/3) of the school districts in the state.  In the minimum education program and vocational education appropriation bills for fiscal year 1996‑1997, there shall be a by line item specifying the amount that is to be expended to employ no less than one (1) instructor in each high school in each school district in the state.  Any funds so appropriated by line item which are not expended for this purpose in the vocational education appropriation may be expended for other related home economics vocational purposes during the fiscal year for which those funds were appropriated. * * *  The State Board of Education shall determine which districts shall receive funds for the home economics programs during each of the three (3) years of the phase‑in period.

     SECTION 4.  This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2022.

---