Beginning this school year, the Long Beach School District (LBSD) began offering residents and businesses the chance to contribute to the district's Early Learning Collaborative, which supports the district’s PreK-4 program. Those who contribute have the added benefit of receiving tax credits on next year's tax filings.
The program got a large boost recently, when Alliance Health Center, Inc. stepped up and chose to make a difference by donating $10,000 to district’s collaborative.
"We are extremely grateful to receive this investment in our children by way of this organization that recognizes the value of providing an early childhood education to children in Long Beach," said LBSD Assistant Superintendent Kelleigh Reynolds Broussard, who oversees the program.
Superintendent Dr. Talia Lock also says she is thankful for the donation.
“I appreciate their generous donation investing in our students,” Lock said. “Partnerships like this are investments in the future of our students and, in turn, the future of our community. Businesses and individuals directing their tax credits to the district’s PreK-4 Collaborative is a wonderful opportunity to support our schools and, most importantly, support our children. We hope this is just the beginning of collaborations like this with businesses and individuals in our community.”
The tax credit gives residents and businesses the opportunity to benefit students by diverting their state tax liability to remain local in the district’s PreK-4 Learning Collaborative. The process is simple and requires a donation payable to Long Beach Early Learning Collaborative. The donation is then matched 1:1 on the state tax return.
Long Beach School’s Early Learning Collaborative was approved by the Mississippi State Board of Education in April of 2022, and the district received a $750,000 grant from the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) to begin the program with the 2022-23 school year.
Mississippi First, a non-partisan, nonprofit, public policy advocacy organization with a mission to champion transformative policy solutions, ensuring educational excellence for every Mississippi child, authored the “Leaving Last in Line” report in 2012, when Mississippi was one of only ten states without a pre-K program. The organization successfully advocated for the Early Learning Collaborative Act, which established state-funded pre-K in Mississippi in 2013.
The main goal of establishing Early Learning Collaboratives (ELCs) is to better prepare preschoolers for kindergarten. Since 2013, the legislature has appropriated over $70M for the Early Learning Collaborative Act. With these funds, MDE has approved thirty-five early learning collaborative programs across the state, and twenty-five percent of four-year-olds across the state have access to high-quality state-funded pre-K as a result. The law also established the 1:1 tax credit for individuals and corporations that support the local matching fund of an approved early learning collaborative.
To make a donation, contact Broussard at kelleigh.broussard@lbsdk12.com or Amber Geiser at amber.geiser@lbsdk12.com, or call the school district office at 228-864-1146.
