The Mississippi School of the Arts is being targeted forrelocation for the third consecutive year.

House Bill 42, filed in the House Appropriations Committee onTuesday, would close the arts school in Brookhaven and relocate itto the Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, alongsidesimilar residential high school the Mississippi School forMathematics and Science. HB 42 seeks to accomplish the same goals -and likely faces the same problems – as the previous attempts in2009 and 2010.

“Just pull out the stories from last year, change the date andput them back in the newspaper. It’s the same story,” said MSADirector Suzanne Hirsch.

Hirsch said MSA and its supporters would prepare a defense ofthe school similar to last year’s arguments, which focusedprimarily on the cost of readying aging and inadequate facilitiesat MUW for the influx of arts students. The college campus inColumbus has not updated its facilities since last winter, shesaid.

Other roadblocks to previous attempts to move MSA included thepotential for discrimination against female students based on lackof space at MUW’s female facilities, parental concerns aboutintegrating teenage students amongst college-age students and thefuture of millions of dollars worth of state property in Brookhaventhat would come under the city’s control via a reverter clause inthe property deed.

Hirsch said the facts from 2010 are unchanged in 2011, but thearts school has even more to lose this year.

“Our junior class is the largest ever. We are going to showgrowth if we can get another junior class in this year,” she said.”This always falls on top of the application process, which impactspotential students. Our application deadline is Feb. 1. The statewants us to grow, but they keep fighting us to stay open.”

Hirsch was planning to gather her approximately 130 students andbreak the news of HB 42 to them Friday morning. Those meetings arebecoming too common, she said.

“Last year when I went before them, I saw panic strike acrosstheir faces,” she said. “The juniors were worried, wondering, ‘WillI be able to graduate?'”

This year the arts school also has more potential for physicalimprovement, with grant funding to restore historic buildings atthe MSA campus – the site of the former Whitworth College – andfund student activities are in use or outstanding from the BowerFoundation, the Mississippi Arts Commission, the MississippiDepartment of Archives and History and the U.S. Department ofHousing and Urban Development.

But HB 42 could change everything.

House Education Committee Chairman Cecil Brown authored thebill. He also authored last year’s failed HB 599 and co-authored HB1555 in 2009, which was defeated on a vote of 73-43. Both previousbills would have sent MSA to Columbus.

It is unclear what Brown’s intentions are for filing the billfor a third straight year. He could not be reached for comment.

Brown cited cost-saving measures as the reason for the previoustwo attempts. Lawmakers this year are continuing to look for waysto make budget ends meet amid a difficult economic picture.

But MSA defenders proved moving the school would generate morecosts for the state, not save money, the previous two years.

Last year, a study by MUW officials revealed renovations toaccommodate MSA would cost $2.8 million. If that price remains,moving the school in 2011 would cost $300,000 more than its $2.5million budget in Brookhaven, which has already been cut 15percent.

If anything, the cost would be greater this year, said District92 Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven.

“It’s going to cost the state money that, frankly, we do nothave,” she said. “We’re not talking about saving money for thestate of Mississippi, we’re just talking politics.”

Currie questioned Brown’s motives for filing a bill that hasfailed twice in the last two years. She maintained it was not theLegislature’s will to close the school.

“It’s shameful that Rep. Cecil Brown continues to upset thesechildren who go there to plan their lives and careers, and theydon’t even know if they’ll be able to finish school,” she said.

Currie said she’d respond with legislation seeking to relocatethe math and science school to Brookhaven – legislation MSAdefenders latched onto last year.

Currie also disregarded the notion of locating a nursing schoolto the Homeseeker’s Paradise, pointing out such schools alreadyexist at Alcorn State University, Copiah-Lincoln Community College,Southwest Mississippi Community College, Southern Miss and OleMiss.

“What … would we do with another nursing school?” shesaid.

The multitude of questions surrounding HB 42 is working againstit, said District 53 Rep. Bobby Moak, D-Bogue Chitto.

“All those things will come into play. I don’t think theLegislature is poised this year to do this sort of house-movingidea from one campus to another,” he said. “They’re going to bereally interested in trying to maintain a minimum, bare amount ofservices to the public.”

District 39 Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith was also confident thelegislation would go nowhere.

“I’ve had several conversations with several key members, and Ifeel confident we’re going to get (the bill) killed, hopefully inthe House,” she said. “If it comes out of the House, we can get itkilled in the Senate.”