OurTupelo

In recent months, Mississippi made fewer errors when determining payment for its food assistance program, according to the most recent data from the Mississippi Department of Human Services. 

Mississippi will still owe the federal government at least $80 million to continue running the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, based on its latest data tracking error rates and changes to federal law. However, that amount could rise to $120 million if the state distributes too much – or too few – benefits to people enrolled in the program.

Under the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump last summer, the cost of food assistance benefits will shift from the federal government to states. A state’s payment is based on its error rate for the SNAP program. A payment error rate measures how accurately each state determines the number of SNAP dollars an eligible person receives.

Experts say the metric does not comprehensively measure the program’s success and that it wrongly incentivizes states to deny eligible people. Some experts warn states may be unable to afford to keep their programs running at all. 

“When in doubt, states could err on the side of just cutting or denying a household, because the fiscal penalty of approving and issuing benefits that are in the wrong amount far outweigh denying that household,” said Joseph Llobrera, senior director of research for the Food Assistance Policy team at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 

A payment error rate includes when states pay too little or too much toward benefits, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but Llobrera said this rate does not include inaccurate denials.

While payment accuracy is important, Llobrera said the success of the SNAP program hinges on its ability to balance multiple priorities, including accessibility. Llobrera sees the federal law as shifting these priorities out of balance. 

“It has put all the emphasis on that payment accuracy measure and lowering those payment error rates, without any guards against making access worse for people who need that food assistance,” Llobrera said. 

Already, Mississippi is one of the nation’s hungriest states. Nearly one in five Mississippians are food insecure, according to data from Feeding America, a national network of food banks and related services. 

At what cost? 

In fiscal year 2024, the most recent publicly available data, Mississippi had an error rate of 10.69% – below the national average, but still putting the state on the hook for the maximum penalty. A state with an error rate over 10% will have to begin paying 15% of its SNAP program benefit costs, previously covered by the federal government. Twenty-one states with error rates over 10% are in that position. 

But Mississippi is now at 9.43% according to unpublished data from the first quarter of fiscal year 2026, said Mark Jones, director of communications at the Mississippi Department of Human Services. States will only be judged for fiscal year 2025 or 2026 – whichever is lower. If the downward shift continues, Mississippi will qualify for a lesser penalty of $80 million – though that amount will still be a huge hit to the state’s budget. 

The department has reduced errors by providing more training for staff who determine if people are eligible to receive SNAP and by reminding recipients about the importance of updating income changes to ensure their paperwork is accurate, Jones said. 

On May 13, during an interview with SuperTalk Mississippi, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves applauded the reduction. Reeves said it is proof that his decision to make Mississippi the only state in the nation to ban what’s called “simplified reporting” and shift to a more complicated system called “change reporting” has been successful in combatting fraud. 

A simplified reporting system allows recipients to wait until their six-month redetermination to report minor changes to their income, household size or address. A change reporting system requires recipients to report all changes within 10 days. 

“You should become ineligible the day you become ineligible,” Reeves said during the segment. “With simplified reporting, they only check eligibility –  it depends, but every six months, every nine months, every 12 months.”

But experts have said Mississippi’s error rate would be even lower if the state did not use a system that generates so much additional paperwork. This year, lawmakers tried to adopt a system to simplify reporting the way every other state has, but the measure ultimately failed. 

Fraud has been proven rare in the SNAP program, which has one of the most rigorous systems to determine eligibility and payment accuracy among safety net programs, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.  

What’s next?

Nationwide, fewer people have enrolled in SNAP since 2024. But that “troubling” trend of decline has been expedited since the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill took effect in July, according to Theresa Lau, senior policy counsel at the Southern Poverty Law Center. 

Between January and July of 2025, SNAP participation dropped by about 4% in Mississippi. But in the six months after the federal law took effect in July, that decline more than doubled to over 8%. 

There’s no way to tell if this is due to an increase in denials, Lau said. But she believes at least part of it can be attributed to the federal law. In addition to the penalty for error rates, it also expanded work requirements for older adults, which experts believe is causing eligible enrollees to get kicked off or not apply to the SNAP program. 

The federal changes place burdens on beneficiaries and states, Lau said. It will be difficult for states to shoulder the increased paperwork, while paying tens of millions of dollars more from their budgets each year, and still maintain access. For families, that will mean going without food. 

“You’re talking about a lot of kids and families having to pick between buying food or paying rent or going to the doctor,” Lau said. “It’s going to have a huge impact on those who are struggling to make ends meet.”

DEKALB — A Kemper County chancery judge on Tuesday allowed a petition to remove three members of the Porterville Water Association to move forward after nearly 100 customers signed on.

The rural water provider has come under fire from local residents and officials in recent months over what they describe as repeated service issues, namely extended outages, low pressure and poor water quality. Members of the association have largely pointed blame at the water association’s leadership.

“It’s been quite a challenge, the water pressure, the quality,” said Paul Howard, a member of the association who lives near Scooba. “It’s gotten exponentially worse in the last year.”

Howard and others pointed to poor-tasting and darkly colored water from their taps, as well as a lack of notices when water pressure gets low or goes out altogether.

“We’re in a situation where we need some federal help,” said David Bryan, another member.

The complaints include those from a couple in their 80s, Willie and Pauline Thompson, who said they haven’t had running water at their home for nearly a year.

Mose Fleming, a water customer and former board member from 2022 to last October, said he witnessed the association losing money during his time on the board, both from aging infrastructure and a lack of training for system operators. Fleming and Howard also pointed to the wide geographic coverage of the water system for a relatively small population.

While state records indicate Porterville Water Association serves over 2,000 people, attorneys on Tuesday said the association has about 950 members in good standing, meaning they were up to date on their water bills. Rural water associations are run by the members they serve and governed by an elected board.

State nonprofit law allows members to force board members out if enough people sign a petition. In this case, the petition needed 95 signatures, or 10% of the association’s membership. Members of the Pearl River Central Water Association underwent a similar process earlier this year. The state Legislature put a spotlight on issues facing rural water systems this past session, creating new measures of accountability to keep those utilities on top of their finances.

Sixth District Chancery Court Judge Doug Crosby called Tuesday’s hearing to discuss a temporary restraining order he had ordered preventing the association’s members from holding a special meeting. The utility’s attorney, Dustin Markham, objected to a previous petition started by members because it included signatures from people who he said “didn’t fully understand what they were signing.”

After Markham and Mark Baker, the attorney representing the petitioning members, tracked down the needed 95 signatures from attendees at the hearing and elsewhere, Crosby ordered Markham to present the petition to the utility’s seven-member board at its next monthly meeting on Monday. After that, the board will have to set a special meeting within 21 days to discuss replacing the three board members, which include board president Cervera Davis.

The Porterville Water Association directed any questions about the system to Markham. The utility’s attorney told Mississippi Today after the hearing he was “glad we came to some resolution so that we can protect the integrity” of the Porterville Water Association. Markham acknowledged some of the association’s struggles, while also pushing back on some complaints, including by the Thompsons.

“ Porterville Water faces the same challenges as other rural water associations,” he said. “ They attempt to do what they can with what they have, and they are limited as far as their resources like any other rural water association.”

Markham said the utility twice unsuccessfully applied for funding through the American Rescue Plan Act, which sent money to upgrade water infrastructure throughout Mississippi. With aging water lines, it’s inevitable that the water association will have to soon raise rates.

“ Whether or not you remove members from the board is not gonna change the challenges that they face with funding, with the ability to hire qualified workers, and it’s not gonna stave off the possibility of increased water rates,” he said, explaining that the system’s challenges were 50 to 60 years in the making.

Estimates he received from the Mississippi Rural Water Association suggest the system needs about $25 million in support to fix its main issues, Markham said, adding that such funding would require a mix of state and federal support.

The attorney repeated that Porterville Water Association’s issues are similar to those facing other rural systems.

“ If you talk to anyone in rural water, Porterville is not the only entity that’s having the issues,” Markham said. “Everyone around us is facing the same issues as well. It’s just not broadcast because they have a few less disgruntled members.”

Mississippi Today previously reported on the Thompsons’ complaint about their ongoing water outage, a story that other local outlets have also reported on. Markham, though, disagreed with the couple’s description, saying the Thompsons signed an agreement when they moved into the home accepting lower water pressure.

Since the couple raised alarms about their last year of service, the utility has since contacted an engineering firm to improve the Thompsons’ pressure, Markham said. From the water association’s perspective, nothing has changed in its service to the Thompsons over the last year, he said.

While acknowledging the agreement, Pauline Thompson disagreed with Markham’s description. When they moved into the house about 20 years ago, she said the couple had to pay to build a new line connecting to the system and sign an exception allowing them to receive lower pressure. But the water was still usable, Thompson said, and it wasn’t until three years ago they started seeing extended outages. Then since May of last year, the water has stopped coming out of the tap altogether, she said.

Markham said the Porterville Water Association has worked closely with the Mississippi State Department of Health, which oversees the state’s drinking water systems.

When contacted by Mississippi Today, MSDH spokesperson Andrea Dilworth gave the following statement: “We will be pursuing the appropriate action with the association to resolve this specific matter regarding the couple and the other deficiencies that the water supply team has found. This might be one (for) the next hearings for the Bureau if they fail to supply sufficient details of action.”

Dilworth declined to provide any details about the utility’s “deficiencies.” Mississippi Today requested a copy of the agreement between the Thompsons and the water system from MSDH and is waiting to hear back.

All six members of Mississippi’s congressional delegation signed a letter urging President Donald Trump to approve a major disaster declaration to assist recovery from tornadoes and severe weather that struck the state on May 6 and 7. Gov. Tate Reeves sent the declaration request on Tuesday.

The request seeks individual and public assistance for Franklin, Lamar, Lawrence, Lincoln and Wilkinson counties. The storms, which included at least seven tornadoes, damaged 425 homes and injured 26 people. Of those homes, 88 were destroyed and 112 received major damage.

“Several of the tornadoes caused catastrophic damage, including an EF3 tornado that, at times, exceeded a mile in width and remained on the ground for nearly 70 miles,” said the letter sent on Wednesday from U.S. Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, and U.S. Reps. Bennie Thompson, Trent Kelly, Michael Guest and Mike Ezell. “Communities across the impacted region continue to face significant recovery challenges in the aftermath of these storms.”

In addition to the tornadoes, the storm event included straight-line winds, hail and flash flooding, the governor’s request said.

This marks the second such request Mississippi has sent the federal government in 2026. To aid recovery from Winter Storm Fern in January, the Trump administration approved the state’s request for public assistance in February and for individual assistance in April.

“The magnitude of the destruction has placed extraordinary strain on state and local resources, and the capabilities of volunteer and charitable organizations alone will not be sufficient to meet the long-term recovery needs of affected communities,” the letter added.

A federal judge on Thursday agreed to dismiss a lawsuit that claimed billionaire Tommy Duff, his brother and their companies improperly obtained over $6.7 million in federal pandemic loans.

The billionaire brothers are the two wealthiest people in Mississippi, and Tommy Duff is a potential candidate for governor. They were being sued by California-based attorneys on behalf of the federal government based on allegations about the Paycheck Protection Program loans.

The attorneys filed legal paperwork on Wednesday to voluntarily dismiss their lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Kristi H. Johnson agreed to the dismissal on Thursday morning. The lawsuit’s withdrawal came just over two months after attorneys for the Duffs successfully had the case transferred from a California federal court to a Mississippi federal court.

In a statement, Matt Miller, an attorney for the Duffs, celebrated the dismissal as a “complete and total victory for the Duff brothers” in a lawsuit he said was “recklessly” filed by attorneys looking to cash in on a settlement.

“From the beginning of this baseless case, we have stated that the facts show that the Duffs, under the guidance of competent accounting and legal professionals, always followed the law in obtaining PPP loans during the COVID-19 pandemic to help protect their employees,” Miller said. “The Duffs remained focused throughout COVID on supporting their 16,000 employees, many of whom were kept employed, even when many Duff businesses were forced to cut back. Tommy and Jim Duff have always, and will always, continue to do what’s in the best interest of the people here in Mississippi who are part of their family of businesses.”

The plaintiff in the case is Relator LLC, a group formed, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, by California attorneys Anoush Hakimi and Peter Shahriari. The notice of voluntary dismissal filed by attorney Kristen Nelson, who is representing the California attorneys, cited the federal government’s decision to avoid litigating the case itself, and said the factual claims in the lawsuit had not been a factor in the dismissal.

“The dismissal is not the result of any settlement or payment, and no party has paid or agreed to pay any consideration in connection with the dismissal,” Nelson wrote. “No claims have been adjudicated on the merits, and Relator has elected to dismiss its claims without further amendment.”

Nelson did not immediately respond to a request for more information on her client’s decision to withdraw the lawsuit. Reached by phone, Grafton Eric Bragg, a Mississippi-based attorney who had been working with Nelson as local counsel, said he was not authorized to comment on the case.

The lawsuit, which was filed under seal in the U.S. Northern District of California in 2024, claimed the brothers took advantage of a program designed to help small businesses cope with the pandemic. Attorneys for Duff sharply contested the claims, arguing the lawsuit relied on “inflammatory rhetoric” instead of facts.

The suit was filed under the federal False Claims Act and alleged the Duffs and their companies falsely claimed eligibility for the loans. The suit was brought by a “relator,” a legal term for a private entity suing as a whistleblower on behalf of the government to recover money.

The Justice Department investigated the allegations in the complaint and in June of 2025, federal prosecutors declined to intervene. But the federal prosecutors allowed the private attorneys to file the lawsuit on behalf of the U.S. government.

After the California attorneys asked to withdraw the lawsuit on Wednesday, Baxter Kruger, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, said acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche consented to the dismissal of the lawsuit “based on its determination that such a dismissal is commensurate with the public interest and that the matter does not warrant the continued expenditure of government resources” to pursue the case.

Kruger, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2025, also requested that all sealed documents in the case remain under seal, and Johnson agreed.

Before reversing course, the attorneys who filed the case had argued in legal filings that the Duffs “falsified loan documents” to the Small Business Administration in order to obtain taxpayer-funded payments through the PPP. Congress created the program in March of 2020 to keep businesses afloat as the global economy shuddered to a halt at the outset of the pandemic.

The Duffs applied for loans under the program, and some of their businesses received a total of over $6.7 million, according to court records. The plaintiffs said the Duffs should never have received the loans because they had access to substantial money through their multi-billion-dollar conglomerate. The Duffs then “doubled down on their misappropriation by seeking loan forgiveness” for a program they were never eligible for in the first place, the attorneys argued.

In subsequent court filings, the Duffs’ legal team rejected all the allegations and said their clients obtained the loans lawfully for the purpose of keeping “hard-working people employed and paid.” A memo outlining the Duffs’ motion to dismiss filed last week said the Duffs complied with all requirements laid out by the federal government for companies and franchisees applying for PPP loans.

The Duffs’ legal team has also pointed out that the California attorneys have filed similar lawsuits against others, some of which have also been dismissed. They argue the lawsuit is the product of trial lawyers looking to cash in on confusion surrounding pandemic-era government programs.

Court records show the Duffs and the plaintiff lawyers have agreed to pay for their own attorneys’ fees in the case. In his statement, Miller said the Duffs continue to “evaluate all available legal remedies” against the plaintiff due to “the incredibly frivolous nature and outrageous false allegations set forth in the lawsuit.”

Tommy Duff, 69, and Jim Duff have built a multi-billion-dollar business empire that started as a small tire shop. Thomas Duff has been a political power broker in Mississippi and a philanthropist. He served an eight-year stint on the board of the state Institutions of Higher Learning, first appointed by then-Gov. Phil Bryant, and has been a major contributor to many Republican campaigns in Mississippi.

Tommy Duff has said he is considering running for governor in 2027, but has not announced a decision.

Clarke County Sheriff Anthony Chancelor reinstated two of his deputies days after he said they were part of “an attempted internal coup” when they joined others in leaving the force and expressing concerns with how the department is run and the sheriff’s priorities. 

The two full-time deputies who are now back in service are Sgt. Kenneth Holifield and Deputy Peyton Kennedy, Chancelor said Wednesday evening in a statement shared with local media. 

On Monday, the sheriff said Holifield, Kennedy, Sgt. Andy Lafferty, Sgt. Steve Whitaker, Deputy Ellis Ray Dogget and Don Moore had resigned. 

Those who have not been reinstated held full- and part-time positions.  

Five of the six deputies who initially left signed an open letter saying they would resign from the sheriff’s office due to pressing issues, which they did not elaborate. 

“We are concerned about issues that we don’t have any control over,” they wrote. “We all share the concern of where our priorities of the administration lies. The integrity of us five deputies are being questioned by our community that we are sworn to uphold and protect.”

Whitaker’s resignation letter made allegations of on- and off-duty misconduct by the sheriff and raised issues with how administrative staff work. 

During a Monday Clarke County Board of Supervisors meeting, Chancelor was answering questions from the board when Whitaker interrupted to say he was resigning.  

“Everybody knows why,” Whitaker said before he eventually left the room. 

Chancelor could not be reached for further comment, and efforts to reach the deputies involved were not successful.

Almost half of Mississippi’s 138 school districts have not submitted at least one year of financial audits, leaving their finances murky. 

As of Tuesday, 61 districts have not submitted the audits for fiscal year 2025, which ended June 30, according to records requested by Mississippi Today from the Mississippi Department of Education. Additionally, 29 of those districts are also missing financial audits for fiscal 2024, and 13 are also missing them for fiscal 2023 — risking an immediate accreditation downgrade. 

Districts on probation must  develop plans to come into compliance. Eventually, districts may have their accreditation withdrawn, which comes with sanctions, including limiting extracurricular activities. 

Okolona Municipal Separate School District  hasn’t turned in audits for the past four years. 

Okolona school leaders reached out to the state education agency last year because they could not make the following month’s payroll. The state Board of Education voted to take over the district in November.

The interim superintendent, Chad Spence, would not comment on how Okolona is working to get up to date on audits, but agency spokesperson Jean Cook said the Education Department is working with Okolona to secure a contract with an external auditing firm to complete the outstanding audits. 

Following the Okolona takeover, state leaders have ramped up accountability for delinquent districts. In January, the board changed a rule that would put school districts with two or more outstanding audits on probation or downgrade their accreditation. Before the rule change, districts could have missed filing four consecutive annual audits before potentially losing accreditation.  

Schools have been turning in their audits since the agency tightened its rules and upped the consequences — districts missing audits for fiscal years 2024 and 2023 have fallen from 47 in December to 32 in March and to 29 in May, according to state officials.

Even so, Paula Vanderford, the agency’s chief accountability officer, said the issue of missing financial audits remains a top concern for the state Education Department. 

“I would consider this very serious,” she said. “We have to be concerned about whether we can be faced with another Okolona and be caught by surprise.”

State leaders dip into a specially allocated emergency fund when they take over a district, but that pot of money is limited. State Superintendent Lance Evans has said the agency already spent $1.5 million since taking over Okolona, meaning $4.8 million remains for future district takeovers. 

If that money runs out, the agency would need to “have a conversation with the Legislature,” Vanderford said.

“That doesn’t give us the ability to walk away from a district in need,” she said. 

READ MORE: ‘We don’t want any more Okolonas.’ State officials say their crackdown on schools with missing audits is working

Federal law requires public school districts to submit annual audits. Missing audits can mask urgent financial problems at school districts, which leaders have warned could lead to more emergencies and sudden takeovers. 

District leaders must submit audits to the Office of the State Auditor for review before they can be submitted to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse. The education agency monitors district compliance with the audit deadline. 

Because of the audit backlog, the Office of the State Auditor is prioritizing the review of fiscal 2025 audits, Cook said.

Still, although a number of districts submitted their fiscal 2025 audits to the state auditor’s office in March, the office didn’t clear those audits for release before the March 31 federal deadline. 

That’s because a four-person team reviews school district audits and is managing over 40 school, county and community college audits, said Jacob Walters, spokesperson for the Office of the State Auditor. 

The team had warned schools’ audit firms to submit the reports by Dec. 31 to get approved by March 31. Many districts submitted audits within the last few days of March, making it impossible for the team to review them in time, Walters said.  

Another reason for the delay was that the federal Office of Management and Budget issued compliance requirements for those audits in November. Audit firms held the reports until then to ensure compliance with the standards, Walters said. 

The office staff are prioritizing the audits, he said. State Auditor Shad White has approved hiring an additional employee to address the school audit backlog.

State education leaders have said the factors driving missing audits include school administrative turnover, too few district business managers, auditor staffing shortages and the burdensome federal funding portion of the audits. 

Some districts are having problems finding accounting firms that have the capacity or ability to complete these audits. 

The education agency is struggling to keep up, too. Because of limited capacity, the department can’t sanction every district, Vanderford said. Districts found out of compliance must have due process and show-cause hearings, depending on whether they risk being put on probation or having their accreditation withdrawn.

“We’re going to have to triage these districts,” Vanderford said. “While they’re all at risk, we don’t have the capacity to inform a dozen districts at one time they have to have a hearing.”

The Family Dollar store at the busy intersection of Cooper and Terry roads will be closing its doors by the end of May, further limiting options for people to buy groceries, school supplies and cleaning items in south and west Jackson. 

The store’s closure was announced internally to employees toward the end of March. Signs went up shortly after, informing people of the store’s closing sale. Items have been discounted up to 70% this month to eliminate remaining inventory. 

Bobby “Bulldog” Rhymes lives a few blocks from Family Dollar and shops at the store several times a month. He said he wasn’t aware of the closure until he approached the store and saw the going-out-of-business signs that cluttered the windows.

Rhymes said he often has to go to the Cash Saver in west Jackson to get groceries because of the lack of stores in his neighborhood. 

“They’re leaving us without local service. Without being able to go get what you want,” Rhymes said. “Instead of 15 minutes, you’re talking 40 or an hour.”

Mississippi Today reached out to Family Dollar Corporate along with the district manager of the Terry Road location for comment about the closure. Neither responded before publication. The chain will have 10 stores remaining in south Jackson after the closure.

Acire McDonald serves as the assistant store manager. A transfer from another Family Dollar store in Brandon, McDonald has been working overtime at the Terry Road location. A manager asked her to help fill in as the store’s employees quit or were fired. 

“No context, not telling us if the old employees are going to be able to go to another store or anything like that,” McDonald said. “So we just filling in from other stores.” 

Mississippi Today spoke with two other employees, who both went through similar experiences.

When asked about the recent closures, Jackson Ward 6 City Council Member Lashia Brown-Thomas said a Roses discount store will soon be opening near the Family Dollar that is closing. She urged residents to remain patient while the council works to “bring south Jackson back together.”

Ward 7 Council Member Kevin Parkinson said he and Thomas had met with several groups who were planning projects in the area but could not provide information about them.

The closure of the nearly decade-old store is just one of many across Jackson in recent years. The continuous closures have primarily affected south Jackson. The most recent closure in the area was the Food Depot at the intersection of West McDowell and Terry Road. The grocery store closed in December, creating an even bigger problem for food access in south Jackson. 

A resident of Willowood for 28 years, Lula Green is one of the many residents affected by the scarcity of stores.

“Its very difficult, because we don’t have anything around in this area,” Green said. “Now everything is moving out of the area, and we have to go way out in order to get something.”

Green told Mississippi Today that when she can’t get groceries at the local Cash Saver, she has to travel nearly 7 miles to the Kroger on I-55 in northeast Jackson to get what she needs. She goes to Walgreens in Clinton to buy her medication. Green says it is more convenient than the local Walmart, despite the nearly 6-mile difference.

Mississippi is one of the top states in the nation for food insecurity. Nearly 1 in 5 people faced food insecurity in 2023 in Hinds County, where Jackson is located.  

The area has limited grocery options aside from a traditional store. Residents Dewaskii Davis, Jina Daniels and Matt Casteel have a network of gardens across the Jackson area. Additionally, other options – such as the Mississippi Farmers Market in Jackson – are helping residents find food for lower prices.

Astel Ellis has worked at the farmers’ market for 11 years. 

“The vendors we are getting our food from, they’re consolidating in a way that makes running a small grocery store unsustainable each year,” Ellis said. “Local communities that can come together and make food will be a more and more important resource in the future.”

Scott Crawford, a disability rights activist who lives in the Fondren area of north Jackson, said while he has the privilege of living near a grocery store, he’s concerned for people who don’t.

“It’s absolutely vital that they have a grocery store much closer to them, because they don’t have a car and can’t just load groceries into a trunk,” Crawford said. “It is way more difficult than most people understand.”

The Mississippi Department of Human Services on Wednesday set aside $5 million to pay for a childcare program in crisis for over a year. 

That funding would cover vouchers, or coupons that make childcare more affordable for low-income families, and the money would be enough to provide for about 800 children. Over 6,000 families remain on a waitlist for these vouchers, according to the department.

“Childcare is not a luxury – it is the infrastructure that makes work possible for Mississippi families,” said Bob Anderson, executive director of the department, in a press release. 

Anderson called the investment “targeted,” “responsible” and said it reflects the department’s “commitment to deploying public resources where they make a real difference.”

This move comes a month after lawmakers failed to appropriate any money toward childcare, despite pleas from early childhood educators who are going without salaries and providing free care for thousands of families that have been on the voucher waitlist over the last year. For years, the childcare voucher program relied upon pandemic-era federal funds that dried up in early 2025. 

The additional $5 million comes from a pool of unspent money from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program – a spending solution advocates proposed a year ago. 

In 2025, MDHS officials said it was not possible to use more federal TANF money than the state already devoted to childcare. Currently, Mississippi transfers the maximum 30% of TANF funds to the state-run voucher program. 

However, advocates pointed to other states that have legitimately and successfully steered additional TANF funds to child care vouchers without interfering with the 30% limit. In January, state officials changed course and said they were exploring the model’s viability. 

One of the most vocal advocates who has been calling for this funding is Carol Burnett, executive director of the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative. Burnett described this development as a “fabulous move in the right direction” and said while the amount of money is low compared to how much is needed, it establishes a precedent. 

“It’s a development to celebrate because it sets something in motion that we can build on as we move forward,” Burnett told Mississippi Today Wednesday. “There was no way we could build on it until DHS agreed they could do it. And now that happened.”

The agency is taking a “fiscally conservative stance” on this initial investment, Mark Jones, director of communications at the state Department of Human Services, told Mississippi Today.

“In October, MDHS will make consideration of a future increase,” Jones said.

Blocks away from where state lawmakers will consider redrawing Mississippi’s political maps to reduce Black representation in government, thousands of people gathered Wednesday in Jackson to protest those efforts and mobilize people to vote in November.  

The energy from the crowd was so palpable and raucous at times that some of the event’s speakers had to pause their remarks to let the attendees participate in rounds of chants, shouting, “No justice, no peace.”

FAQ: Mississippi redistricting. Why does it matter? What’s being considered?

Wednesday’s rally was a rebuke of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling weakening the federal Voting Rights Act and efforts by Republicans across the South to redraw electoral districts to weaken Black voting strength. The participants protested those efforts by sporting shirts that called for fair political districts and waving signs that said, “No Jim Crow maps.” 

The target for some of the redistricting efforts in Mississippi is U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, the state’s lone Democrat and Black member in Congress, who frequently draws the anger of Mississippi Republicans and President Donald Trump. 

“I’m mad as hell about them calling Congressman Thompson a terror,” said U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson, a Democrat from Illinois who attended the rally. 

Jackson, son of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, was referring to a comment Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves made on a radio show earlier this month, where he said that Thompson’s “reign of terror” in the state’s 2nd Congressional District would soon end. 

Thompson told the crowd on Wednesday that GOP leaders will soon have a “fight on their hands” if they want to redraw the state’s congressional districts by slicing up the majority-Black Delta and Jackson metro area and putting those regions into majority-white districts. 

“We can’t let short-minded people turn us back,” Thompson said. “Now, we don’t have to act like the crazy folks did on January 6, but you’re going to know we’re upset.”   

READ MORE: ‘We’re going backwards.’ Mississippians share experiences of voter suppression, dread of redistricting battle

Some Republicans in the state and the Trump White House have pushed for Mississippi lawmakers to redraw the state’s four congressional districts to make it difficult for Thompson to win reelection. 

But several politicians at the rally, such as Scott Colom, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate this year, criticized Reeves’ comments, noting Thompson has a history of sending federal dollars to Mississippi, one of the poorest states in the nation. 

“The issue with that is I don’t remember Gov. Reeves sending back the money that Congressman Thompson voted to give for infrastructure,” Colom said. 

For now, Reeves has cancelled a special legislative session for lawmakers to redraw the state’s Supreme Court voting map. The session was supposed to have begun Wednesday. But Reeves said in an interview earlier this month that he expects the Legislature to redraw Mississippi’s congressional, state legislative and judicial districts before the 2027 state election cycle. 

House Speaker Jason White on Wednesday said he expects the governor to call lawmakers into a special session soon to redraw state legislative districts. 

Historians, state lawmakers, national advocates, members of Congress and civil rights attorneys spoke at Wednesday’s rally, called Day of Action, aimed at bring generations of voters together to rebel against the redistricting efforts and mobilize them to vote during the upcoming midterm election.

“We will not be erased,” said state Rep. Kabir Karriem of Columbus, chairman of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus. “We’re not going anywhere. And if you think you’re going to get rid of us, you’ve got another thing coming.” 

Southern states, led by white Republicans, have raced to redraw their congressional districts and erode majority-Black districts after the recent high court ruling. 

“In the 250th year of the country, the nation has decided to double down on the idea that it is a white republic,” said Eddie Glaude, a nationally recognized academic and political pundit who grew up in Moss Point. 

The Rev. Jerry Jefferson, president of the Okitibbeha County Branch of the NAACP, drove over two hours from Starkville to attend the rally. Jefferson, donning a “I FIGHT FOR VOTING RIGHTS” shirt, said the memory of prior civil rights struggles still looms large for him and many other attendees at the Jackson Convention Center on Wednesday.

“Once again, every time we try to go up the social ladder, political ladder or whatever it is, there’s always somebody who’s going to come try to cut our feet from under us and put us down to where we were before. But we refuse to go back,” Jefferson said.

The rush of some Southern states to redraw districts ahead of midterm elections caused several speakers to compare the erasure of majority-Black districts to fights during the Civil Rights Movement to gain voting rights for Black people and to the end of Reconstruction in the Deep South, when the federal government returned control to state leaders and they began enacting discriminatory laws and trying to intimidate Black voters. 

Rep. Bryant Clark, a Democrat from Holmes County whose father Robert Clark in 1967 became the first Black person elected to the Mississippi Legislature in the modern era, said today’s efforts to reduce Black officials mirror the decision of white lawmakers in the 19th century to disenfranchise Black voters by enacting Jim Crow laws. 

“It’s the same fight, same song, second verse,” Clark said. 

The national NAACP has responded to this by calling on Black athletes and fans to boycott the athletic programs of public universities in states that are taking steps to reduce Black representation in politics, including in Mississippi.

If Black athletes participate in the boycott, it could drain rosters for powerhouse football programs and deplete revenues.

Derrick Johnson, the national NAACP president, on Wednesday at the rally compared predominantly white universities using many Black student athletes as a revenue source while not standing up for Black voices to a type of “sharecropping.”

“We don’t believe in sharecropping,” said Johnson, who lives in Mississippi. “We should not perform on the football fields or basketball courts where they cannot generate a profit.”

The rally ended with Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones urging the participants to channel their anger against efforts to reduce Black voting strength into voting in the federal midterm election on Nov. 3. 

“If you can get 5,000 people together on a Wednesday in the rain, then I believe you can get so many more on a Tuesday in November,” Jones said.

Mississippi Today reporter Michael Goldberg contributed to this report.

Eddie Glaude is a member of the board of directors for Deep South Today, parent company of Mississippi Today.

About 99 students in Canton could lose their school by August if the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board agrees to revoke its charter. 

At a May 14 hearing, an attorney for the board argued that SR1 College Preparatory and STEM Academy should lose its charter because leadership mismanaged the school, particularly its finances, violating state law and its contract.

Tamu Green, the school’s founder and chief executive officer, contended that mistakes were made because his staff lacked promised training and technical support from the charter board. He said he didn’t know all the relevant federal and state requirements.

“It’s a guessing game a little bit,” Green said of finalizing the school’s financial paperwork by the close of the fiscal year. 

“I mean, my unwritten rule was we just spent,” he said. And he didn’t know that financial paperwork had to “look really good” by the end of the fiscal year.

Hearing officer Kim Turner, who regularly serves as the State Agencies director at the attorney general’s office, will recommend whether SR1 CPSA should keep its charter. If Turner recommends revoking the charter — and if the authorizer board accepts her recommendation — SR1 CPSA would become the first charter school the state forces to close.

The board’s main concerns about SR1 CPSA involve school spending, accounting and money management. The school has received over $2 million in local and state tax dollars since it opened to students in August 2023.

How did school leaders spend taxpayers’ dollars?

The board voted in December to start the process of shutting down the school in part because it had one day’s cash on hand — $24,000. The board requires charter schools to have enough money available to cover 30 to 60 days of operations. 

Jamie Travis, an attorney for SR1 CPSA, said school leadership never missed payments.

He also argued that the school now has $600,000 in the bank, which he said was evidence it is financially viable.

But Tolliver McMullen, a certified fraud examiner and public accountant who was an expert witness for the authorizer board, testified that money in the bank doesn’t alleviate all concerns about the school’s finances — how the money is spent and whether school officials can account for their spending are important factors, too. 

SR1 CPSA leaders spent around $800,000 in a year when the school had about 15 students, he said. That breaks down to roughly $53,000 spent per student in its first year, or roughly five times the amount that Canton Public School District spent per student in 2023-24.

The state also raised questions about how the school’s leaders documented their spending, such as $55,080 in Amazon purchases charged to two credit cards. School officials had not disclosed the credit cards to the state as required. 

“The issue is that SR1 lacked clean, complete, readily verifiable documentation with the oversight required,” said Dillon Pitts, the attorney representing the state charter authorizer board.

READ MORE: Financial shortfall may cost Canton school its charter

The charter authorizer board also noted concerns that SR1 CPSA has experienced significant turnover in its business office since it opened in 2023. The school has a different business manager since the charter board started investigating in earnest in December.

Green and his team did not provide all documentation on the contractors from whom they buy cafeteria food, lease student transportation and acquire equipment at the school, according to Pitts.

Green told the charter authorizer board that the documents belong to SR1 (Scientific Research), a nonprofit organization Green owns, which has a separate governing board and is not under the board’s purview, according to Pitts. But Pitts argued that SR1 signed a contract with the charter authorizer board and is also subject to board monitoring. Several school leaders failed to provide the board with statements of economic interest, which disclose whether school contract money goes to companies they have a financial interest in.

Green said his impact should not just be measured by numbers.

“Unfortunately, I look at people as people. I don’t look at this monetary value,” Green said of his school’s past budgeting.

State questions school officials’ compliance with federal laws related to students with disability and food service

Pitts said the board also has evidence that SR1 CPSA leaders also violated federal guidelines that ensure safe food for students and classroom accommodations for students with disabilities. Pitts submitted the documentation to the hearing officer for review.

A food services provider inspected the cafeteria and found portion sizes, food temperature and nutritional values were out of compliance with federal standards, Pitts said. Food safety reports were missing, too. Staff members were eating meals intended for students without paying.

SR1 CPSA is one of two charter schools that operate their own cafeterias. Most charter schools partner with a local school district or the Mississippi Department of Education.

Another inspection of records revealed that seven out of 11 Individualized Education Plans, or IEPs, were missing parent or guardian signatures, according to Pitts. These plans outline how school officials are accommodating a student’s disability.

Dorlisa Hutton, chief operating officer at SR1 and vice president of SR1 CPSA, said the state education department didn’t find any instances of noncompliance in the school’s special education department. That’s because the agency has not monitored those records yet, said Jean Cook, an Education Department spokesperson.

The struggle to enroll students in an underserved community

Student enrollment also ties into some of the financial troubles of SR1 CPSA. The school has fallen short of its enrollment goals for three consecutive years. Green delayed opening the school twice because he couldn’t enroll enough students. 

Despite that recent history, Green said he anticipates a significant enrollment jump: from around 99 students to 300 by July.

“We want this thing to grow,” Green said of his future plans for his school. “I really am blessed that families still trust in us to say, ‘Hey, like the old spiritual: we’re going to be all right.’”

Public schools receive funding from the state Education Department based on how many students school leadership intends to enroll for the upcoming year. The department recoups the money for the students not enrolled the following year, which hurt SR1 CPSA financially.

By overprojecting enrollment in previous years, SR1 CPSA received much more state funding than it would otherwise. But the Education Department requires charter schools to repay money they received for overprojected enrollment. SR1 CPSA had overspent its revenue for both years of operation, which caused the school to enter its second year with a negative cash flow. 

It’s difficult to open a school in an underserved community like Canton because building trust with locals takes time, Green said during the hearing. “Generational trauma” also makes recruiting students difficult, he said.

Green said his school should get another opportunity to improve its financial reporting and management because the board didn’t offer technical support in preparing financial paperwork and other services. Pitts, the attorney for the authorizer board, argued that the school had been offered assistance and already been given another chance.

Pitts told the hearing officer that the authorizer board moved to shutter SR1 CPSA in its first semester in 2023 after it enrolled roughly 15 students but requested money to serve 150. The authorizer board didn’t proceed with closing the school in part because SR1 CPSA leaders pledged to improve management.

Turner will next review the hearing transcript in addition to hundreds of documents, which the state charter board argues will prove fiscal mismanagement in violation of state law. 

Turner will then issue a recommendation on whether to revoke the school’s charter. Charter board members have the final vote on whether to accept the recommendation and effectively shutter the school.

Travis indicated plans to appeal the case to the Hinds County Chancery Court, which could keep the school’s final fate uncertain for longer.