In Mississippi, where there’s already a dearth of 50,000 or more affordable homes for extremely low-income residents, that number could grow in the next five years.
Housing units available under the federal Low Income Tax Credit program could lose their affordability by 2030 — a number estimated nationwide to be 350,000 with 2,917 in Mississippi, alone; 496 in the state already have.
The federal program responsible for most of the nation’s affordable housing is expiring.
The Low Income Housing Tax Credit, introduced as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, provides for developers to buy, build and restore low-income housing units. Under the deal, the housing only needs to stay low-rent for 30 years. Construction began in the early 1990s.
Some LIHTC housing will remain affordable due to other subsidies, nonprofits, state law and individual landlords.
“I think the low-income housing tax credit has done everything that it can to address the need for affordable housing around the state,” said Scott Spivey, executive director of the Mississippi Housing Corporation, a state office that administers the program and works with the state government and those in the affordable housing industry to create and support affordable housing
Spivey supports the proposed Affordable Housing Credit and Improvement Act, a federal bill that would expand upon the low-income housing tax credit in several ways, including giving developers more credit for certain projects for low-income households and changing tenant eligibility rules.
While housing has become a major issue for Americans, getting legislation passed has been challenging. “Everybody knows that housing is an issue, but it gets caught up with everything else…and it kind of gets lost in the shuffle,” said Spivey.
This issue is especially important in Mississippi, where demand for housing is high across all incomes.
“All the market studies that we see that come with the applications tell us that there’s a huge need for affordable housing across the state at all the income bands” said Spivey.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, almost a third of Mississippi renters are extremely low income; 65% of them are severely cost burdened, meaning they spent more than half their income on rent. The majority of these households are seniors, disabled people, single caregivers of young children, people enrolled in school, or other.
Director of Housing Law at the Mississippi Center for Justice, Ashley Richardson said housing problems worsened after Mississippi stopped participating in the federal rental assistance program in 2022.
MCJ’s work on housing includes a statewide eviction hotline, investigating instances of housing discrimination, and more.
Richardson praised the LIHTC program, but echoed Spivey’s concerns. “Even with the affordable housing we do have in Mississippi, we are still at a lack,” she said.
The National Housing Preservation Database estimates Mississippi is short 52,421 affordable and available rental homes for low-income people. The National Low Income Housing Coalition puts the figure at 49,478.
Richardson wants the state to deal with issues like providing more tenant protections and rental assistance. There’s also a need to improve homes that are rundown or in poor condition, and many housing nonprofits are running out of funding.
Spivey said people should talk to their property managers and learn about their rights. MHC’s website has resources for homebuyers and renters.
As the housing crisis goes on, there are options for people struggling to find and keep affordable housing and an effort to take action at the federal and state levels.
Some aspiring low-income homeowners may qualify for Habitat for Humanity, a program that builds homes for families in need. Families who qualify work on the homes alongside volunteers, pay an affordable mortgage and receive financial literacy education.
New applicants must meet the qualifications, including a good debt-income ratio, 125 hours of sweat equity and taking classes on financial literacy, home repairs, and being a good neighbor.
Merrill McKewen, executive director for Habitat for Humanity Mississippi Capital Area, emphasized the importance of housing to individuals and communities.
“There are untold studies that have been done that, you’ve gotta have a safe, decent, affordable place to live. The children are better students, the parents are better employees…it grounds you to a community that you can contribute to and be a part of. It is the American dream, to own a home, which is what we’re all about,” she said.
Mississippians will go to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 5, to elect federal and state judicial posts and some local offices, such as for election commissioners and school board members.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday. To find your polling place, use the secretary of state’s locator, or call your local county circuit clerk.
The following is a list of the candidates for federal and judicial posts with brief bios:
President
Kamala Harris, current vice president and Democratic nominee for president. Her running mate is Tim Walz.
Donald Trump, former president and current Republican nominee. His running mate is J.D. Vance.
Robert Kennedy Jr. remains on the ballot in Mississippi even though he has endorsed Trump. His running mate is Nicole Shanahan.
Jill Stein is the Green Party candidate. Her running mate is Rudolph Ware.
Five other candidates will be on the Mississippi ballot for president. For a complete list of presidential candidates, see the sample ballot.
U.S. Senate
Ty Pinkins is the Democratic nominee. He is a Rolling Fork native and attorney, representing, among other clients, those alleging unfair working conditions. He served 21 years in the U.S. Army, including combat stints, other overseas deployment and posts in the White House,
Roger Wicker is the Republican incumbent senator. He resides in Tupelo and has served in the U.S. Senate since late 2007 after first being appointed to fill a vacancy by then-Gov. Haley Barbour. He was elected to the post in 2008. He previously served in the U.S. House and as a state senator. He is an attorney and served in the United States Air Force.
House District 1
Dianne Black is the Democratic nominee. She is a small business owner in Olive Branch in DeSoto County.
Trent Kelly is the Republican incumbent. He was elected to the post in a special election in 2015. He previously served as a district attorney and before then as a prosecuting attorney for the city of Tupelo. He is a major general in the Mississippi Army National Guard.
House District 2
Bennie Thompson is the Democratic incumbent. He was first elected to the post in 1993. Before then, he served as a Hinds County supervisor and as alderman and then as mayor of Bolton.
Ronald Eller is the Republican nominee. He grew up in West Virginia and moved to central Mississippi after retiring from the military. He is a physician assistant and business owner.
House District 3
Michael Guest is the Republican incumbent and is unopposed.
House District 4
Mike Ezell is the Republican incumbent first being elected in 2022. He previously served as Jackson County sheriff.
Craig Raybon is the Democratic nominee. Raybon is from Gulfport and began a nonprofit “focused on helping out the community as a whole.”
Central District Supreme Court
Jenifer Branning currently serves as a member of the state Senate from Neshoba County.
Byron Carter is a Hinds County attorney and previously served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Armis Hawkins.
James Kitchens is the incumbent. He has served on the state’s highest court since 2008.
Ceola James previously served on the Court of Appeals.
Abby Gale Robinson is a Jackson attorney. She previously was a commercial builder.
Southern District Supreme Court
Dawn Beam is the incumbent, having been first appointed in 2016 by then-Gov. Phil Bryant and later winning election to the post. She is a former chancellor for the Hattiesburg area.
David Sullivan is an attorney in Harrison County and has been a municipal judge in D’Iberville since 2019. His father, Michael, previously served on the state Supreme Court.
Northern District Supreme Court seats
Robert Chamberlin of DeSoto County is unopposed.
James Maxwell of Lafayette County is unopposed.
Court of Appeals 5th District seat
Ian Baker is an assistant district attorney in Harrison County.
Jennifer Schloegel is a Chancery Court judge for Harrison, Hancock and Stone counties.
In 2016, Jarrius Adams’ absentee ballot never arrived at his apartment in Oxford, so the then-19-year-old at the University of Mississippi was left with one option to vote: Skip all his classes and drive four hours home to his polling place in Hattiesburg.
Faced with a similar situation, the reality is most college students would decide not to vote, said Adams, who now works with the nonprofit Mississippi Votes.
“For some students, it’s just as simple as eating three times a day now that you have no supervision,” he said. “To add voting for the first time?”
It can be hard to cast a ballot in Mississippi, where state voting lawsconsistently rank as among the strictest in the nation.
But for the state’s tens of thousands of college students — many of whom are voting for the first time while also trying to stay on top of homework, classes, chores and having a social life — the barriers to the ballot box faced by all Mississippi voters pose an even greater challenge.
Mississippi is one of just three states without early voting. This means college students who choose to vote in person most likely have just one day to get to the polls, which are not always on campus. According to a list provided by the Secretary of State’s office, three of the eight public universities in Mississippi lack an on-campus polling location for this election.
When college students turn 18 in Mississippi, they are not automatically registered to vote if they have a driver’s license, a law on the books in 23 other states.There’s no same-day voter registration, which voting experts say can pose an issue for college students whose addresses, and therefore precincts, change more often than other voters. And Mississippi doesn’t have online voter registration for new applicants.
Mississippi “pretty much has all the things that make it hard to vote,” said Jennifer McAndrew, the senior director of strategic communications for Tisch College at Tufts University, which houses the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement.
Nevertheless, colleges and students who have been working all semester long to encourage their peers to vote say that young Mississippians pursuing higher education are motivated to turn out this Election Day.
“Our young Mississippians are the future of our state,” Secretary of State Michael Watson, who has visited colleges across the state to talk to students about voting, said in a statement. “It is important for them to educate themselves not just on the voting process, but also the policies and issues affecting the state and nation..”
At Ole Miss this semester, the Center for Community Engagement has registered more students to vote before the deadline in an election year than it ever has before: About 350 students, according to William Teer, the program director for student leadership programs and financial well-being.
Now, it’s just a matter of getting these students to the polls.
The UM Voting Ambassadors registered students in front of the student union during National Voter Registration Day on Sept. 17, 2024. Credit: Courtesy the University of Mississippi
“Everyone hears about how young people and college students in particular don’t vote in huge numbers for whatever reason,” said Marshall Pendes, a senior math and economics major who serves as a voting ambassador at Ole Miss. “I get a chance as a student to try and change that.”
Pendes cited a study that Tufts’ National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement conducted of student voting at Ole Miss, which found that about 15,000 students — more than 75% of campus — were registered to vote during the last presidential election.
That’s in part because of the efforts of voting ambassadors like Pendes. In his four years at the university, Pendes estimated he’s helped register more than 600 students. He’s helped students complete the Mississippi Secretary of State’s paper registration application all across campus, at fraternities and sororities, before and after class, during student government meetings, in the Circle and at meetings for all kinds of political clubs.
But not so much on in the Grove.
“During games, people aren’t really interested in doing paperwork,” Pendes said.
The goal is to educate students on how, where and why it’s important to vote, Pendes said, whether that’s in-person in the county where they attend school or at home through an absentee ballot.
“One of the great things about voting as a college student is you have so many choices,” he said. “Every person’s situation is different.”
Even though college students qualify for an absentee ballot in Mississippi, students say it’s far more common for their peers to register to vote in their college’s county.
“It’s more common for students to register on campus,” said Avantavis TyMon, an elementary education major at Alcorn State University who is also a Mississippi Votes’ Democracy in Action fellow. “It’s easier, and it’s more accessible … especially for the out-of-state students who don’t have cars.”
Alcorn State University is one of five public universities that will host on-campus precincts this year, along with Mississippi Valley State University, Mississippi State University, the University of Southern Mississippi and Jackson State University.
Though Delta State University does not have an on-campus voting location, there is a precinct across the street.
On Election Day, TyMon said he and other student leaders plan to canvass the dorms and ask students if they want to join a “stroll to the polls” event, which will involve a short walk to the on-campus precinct.
“It’s a little bit of a walk from where students live,” TyMon said, adding that in previous years, “we would meet up and all walk together.”
Mississippi’s absentee ballot process, which experts describe as onerous, may be another reason college students register to vote in-person in greater numbers.
“It is an unbelievable barrier for college students who don’t live in Mississippi or are voting absentee in Mississippi,” McAndrews said.
First, a voter must request an absentee ballot application from their circuit clerk’s office, according to a step-by-step guide from the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office. Once they receive the application in the mail, the voter must have it witnessed by a notary, unless they are disabled. When a voter gets a ballot, the next step is finding another notary to watch the voter fill it out.
“You can do your taxes in one day,” Adams said. In Mississippi, “you cannot vote by mail in one day.”
Even some notaries think Mississippi’s absentee ballot law could be eased.
Bill Anderson, the vice president of government affairs at the National Notary Association, said that, of the handful of states that involve notaries in the process, Mississippi’s law is the strictest.
“You’d expect us to be supportive of states that allow or create a role for notaries in absentee ballots,”Anderson said. “We think this is a good idea. … These states, including Mississippi, want there to be a layer of security that is absent for voters voting absentee.”
Nonetheless, Anderson said he is hoping to work with Mississippi lawmakers next year on some issues he sees with what he called the “non-notarial functions” required by the state’s law.
For instance, Mississippi’s law requires notaries to sign the back of the envelope containing the voters’ ballot, something Anderson said is not expressly permitted by the notary laws of his home state in California. And Mississippi doesn’t oblige notaries to affix their seal to the envelope, which Anderson said other states require notaries to do.
“You can just imagine the poor voter,” Anderson said. “They’re out here, and the California notary is trying to find their state law and doesn’t want to get in trouble with the Secretary of State of California and says look … I’d love to do this for you, but I can’t.”
For his part, Pendes said he thinks students who want to vote absentee are motivated to find notaries, which can be relatively easy to do on a college campus.
“In my experience, people usually aren’t defeated by the notarization part,” he said.
At Mississippi State, the student government association and the Division of Student Affairs held an event called “Notary Day” last week. More than 70 students had their absentee ballots notarized, said Carson McFatridge, the student association president.
“When I think of a notary, I think of someone at the bank,” she said. “That can be a challenge just not knowing who has the capability to do that … so it was really, really cool to be able to see people like our dean of students volunteer an hour of his time to sit out there and help people.”
McAndrew said it’s important for colleges to make voting as a student as simple as possible, because even the perception that voting is complicated is itself a barrier.
“There’s so much out there about strict voter ID laws, it becomes this ghost barrier on top of the actual barrier,” McAndrew said.
“Anything we can do not only to reduce the complexity but to reduce the intimidation and anxiety factor is really important,” she added.
To that end, many professors have canceled classes to give students the day off to vote, and universities across the state are offering rides to the polls. At Ole Miss, buses will leave from the Walk of Champions and behind Ole Miss Bike Shop from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day.
This does more than help students without cars, Pendes said.
“The other thing to consider is that parking spaces on our campus are extremely hard to come by,” he said. “Do you want to move your car and lose your parking space to try to go vote? Because that isn’t necessarily something that’s always guaranteed to you, especially in commuter spaces.”
This semester, the Center for Community Engagement was also successful in finding a solution to an issue that has troubled student voters for years at Ole Miss, which is that residence halls and Greek Life houses are not considered acceptable mailing addresses at which to register.
Teer, the program director, said he worked with the Lafayette County Circuit Clerk’s office to establish the center as a mailing address for students who live on campus.
“We’ve had students coming in daily because they’ve received an email from us that their voter information cards had arrived,” Teer said.
Every Thursday, students at Alcorn State held a voter registration event at the campus chapel. TyMon also helped organize a voter registration block party that featured food trucks. These efforts resulted in more than 400 students registering to vote.
TyMon said he thinks student leaders have an important role to play in setting an example for their peers.
“When they see that we’re serious, they get serious,” he said.
That’s why A’Davion Bush, a sophomore political science major at Ole Miss, is going to drive home to Indianola not just to vote, but to volunteer at the polls. The Mississippi Votes’ Democracy in Action fellow said he’s going to post about his plan on social media so his friends who are still in high school will be inspired to vote when they turn 18.
“The older population is not doing anything to influence young people in my county,” he said.
McFatridge, the student body president at Mississippi State, said she recently registered a student to vote who had just become a U.S. citizen, which reminded her that while voting is a right, it’s also a privilege not had by everyone around the world.
Not voting in the U.S. is “kind of like looking a gift horse in the mouth,” McFatridge said.
“It’s a silly phrase,” she added, “but I truly believe that when given the opportunity to share your own thoughts and beliefs, I don’t know why you wouldn’t.”
An Arkansan, McFatridge had intended to vote early in her hometown of Searcy during fall break, but a family emergency prevented that.
It’s too late for her to order an absentee ballot, so now she’s driving home to vote before Election Day, 4.5 hours away.
James Tatsch had no criminal charges pending against him when he died in jail from a complication of diabetes.
Tatsch, who was 48 years old, was jailed while waiting on mental health treatment during Mississippi’s involuntary commitment process. When he was found unresponsive in his cell in Corinth on Jan. 17, he had been detained for 12 days.
His death was caused by diabetic ketoacidosis, a condition that develops when a person’s body does not have enough insulin for blood sugar to provide energy to its cells, according to the findings of the state medical examiner’s autopsy report.
Jail staff knew Tatsch was diabetic, Alcorn County Sheriff Ben Caldwell told Mississippi Today. He does not believe the jail is at fault for Tatsch’s death.
“From everything that I’ve seen and all the reports and all the information that I’ve checked on, it appears that my staff was doing what they needed to do,” he said. “It’s a tragedy.”
Alcorn County Sheriff Ben Caldwell Credit: Alcorn County
Alcorn County Correctional Facility does not have a written or uniform policy for treating diabetic patients, said Caldwell. Rather, the facility’s medical staff – a doctor, registered nurse and a licensed practical nurse – creates an individualized procedure of care for each patient.
Death by diabetic ketoacidosis is preventable, said nurse practitioner KC Arnold, owner of The Diabetes Center in Ocean Springs.
Illness, missed insulin shots, a clogged insulin pump or the wrong insulin dose are the most common causes of diabetic ketoacidosis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Arnold said people in custody with diabetes are often given a combination of intermediate and rapid-acting insulin twice a day.
“It’s not the best care, but that would keep him out of (diabetic ketoacidosis) if he had known diabetes,” she said.
Jails and prisons should have written policies and procedures for diabetes care and provide training to medical and non-medical staff, said the American Diabetes Association in a statement published earlier this year.
“These policies would ensure that detainees have timely access to necessary treatment at all appropriate levels of care,” the statement said.
Tatsch is one of at least 15 people who have died after being jailed through Mississippi’s involuntary commitment process. Nine of them committed suicide.
During the process, people who pose a threat to themselves or others can be ordered to county jails while they await mental health evaluation or treatment.
Laws allowing people with mental health concerns to be involuntarily taken into custody exist in every state. But reporting from Mississippi Today and ProPublica revealed that no other state jailed people in the civil commitment process without criminal charges with such frequency, and often for days or weeks.
The state revised its civil commitment law earlier this year. It now requires a screening to be completed by the local Community Mental Health Center before a person is jailed and for other treatment options be considered first.
Because Tatsch’s death is under investigation, Mississippi Today could not access jail records. Caldwell, however, provided an account of what happened that day.
The morning of the day he died, Tatsch began “acting erratically,” Caldwell said. He was moved from a standard housing unit to the jail’s “segregation” area, where he was locked in a cell alone and checked on by guards every 30 minutes.
His blood sugar was checked at 12:08pm. It was high, and he was given insulin.
A guard checked on Tatsch, spoke to him and observed him eating from a jail-issued snack bag less than half an hour before he was found unconscious. He was found unresponsive within 30 minutes and transported to Magnolia Regional Health Center, where he was pronounced dead.
The incident time was 10:40pm, according to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation incident report.
Caldwell was not certain what other diabetic care Tatsch received on the day of his death. He first told Mississippi Today that the midday blood sugar check was the result of a complaint made by Tatsch, but later said it was a regular mealtime test. He was unsure when Tatsch’s blood sugar was checked at other times during the day.
He said he could not share details about Tatsch’s treatment regimen or say when he last received insulin because he turned all relevant documents over to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, including statements from officers on duty.
The agency began looking into Tatsch’s death after Caldwell asked for an investigation. He made the request less than an hour after Tatsch’s death occurred, according to the incident report.
The investigation will be presented to a grand jury, or a group of citizens who review evidence to determine whether someone should be tried for a crime, in November.
The grand jury proceeding was requested by former Alcorn County District Attorney John Weddle. Current District Attorney Jason Herring said he could not comment on pending matters, but that the county presents all in-custody death cases to a grand jury.
Caldwell reviewed the incident for any possible policy changes that could have prevented the death but found none, he said.
“This is a tragedy, but this is not representative of the care they provide the inmates here. That’s our number one priority, obviously the safety and security of the public as well as the inmates that are here and their safety and wellbeing.”
Arnold said symptoms of diabetic ketoacidosis arise before a patient is in critical condition and can include vomiting, frequent urination, weakness or nausea.
“Any medical practitioner would recognize that,” she said.
Greta Martin, litigation director for Disability Rights Mississippi, said she sees a statewide failure in jails and prisons to properly treat diabetes, which qualifies as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Incarcerated people with diabetes often do not receive timely medication, regular chronic care check-ups or prescribed diabetes diets, said Martin.
“Diabetes unchecked and untreated can cause a myriad of problems that could be significant and life threatening,” she said.
Seventeen people have died in state custody from diabetes-related causes since 2015, according to Department of Corrections records. This number does not include people who are in counties’ custody, like Tatsch.
Jail and medical personnel have been held liable for an incarcerated person’s death from diabetes in Mississippi before.
Sheriffs are responsible for providing proper medical care to people incarcerated in county jails, including people held in jail during civil commitment, said Cliff Johnson, the director of Mississippi’s MacArthur Justice Center, an organization that advocates for people who are incarcerated.
“Sheriffs have consistently complained to us that the burden of Mississippi’s inadequate mental health system has fallen on them,” he said.
“They concede that they’re not trained to take care of people with mental illness and they wish they didn’t have to. The reality for sheriffs … is that they owe everyone in their jail a duty to keep them safe, to provide them with the medical care and the mental health care the law requires.”
It is unclear if Tatsch was ever evaluated by a mental health professional or had a hearing during his 12-day incarceration. At the time, the law required a hearing to be held within seven to 10 days.
Alcorn County Chancery Clerk Keith Settlemires, whose office is responsible for coordinating the civil commitment process, declined to speak to Mississippi Today about Tatsch’s case.
Jason Ramey, the executive director of Region IV, the local community mental health center that provides screening during the civil commitment process, said that Region IV has communicated with the Alcorn County Chancery Clerk’s office about the services the center provides, including a crisis stabilization unit.
Crisis stabilization units offer stabilization and treatment to people with severe mental illness or who are in psychiatric crisis and provide an alternative to incarceration for people in the civil commitment process.
Mississippi Today reached out to several of Tatsch’s family members but did not reach any who knew him personally.
Highly respected and highly successful Hattiesburg High football coach Tony Vance, whose Tigers are 8-0, joins the podcast. Vance’s Tigers head to the metro area this Friday to face Terry. Hattiesburg is ranked No. 1 in Class 6A and led by quarterback Deuce Vance, Tony’s son. Tony will also coach Mississippi in the annual Mississippi-Alabama All-Star football game.
A ninth grader places his cellphone into a phone holder as he enters class at Delta High School, Friday, Feb. 23, 2024, in Delta, Utah. At the rural Utah school, there is a strict policy requiring students to check their phones at the door when entering every class. Each classroom has a cellphone storage unit that looks like an over-the-door shoe bag with three dozen smartphone-sized slots. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Many state lawmakers want to take action on teen mental health and say they believe restricting cellphone use in schools is a solution. But opinions and research on the topic are mixed.
Among those who oppose a full ban: Two high school students from opposite ends of the state.
Kate Riddle, a senior from Lafayette County School District, told Mississippi Today that her social media experience has always been “positive and uplifting.”
“Social media can be a positive or negative tool; it just depends on how you use it,” she said.
Riddle said she uses it for communication, news and entertainment.
Crosby Parker, a junior from the Gulfport School District, also said social media hasn’t had a “tangible impact” on his mental health and that he uses it on a “need-to basis” to talk to friends.
Neither supports a full cellphone ban. But Riddle acknowledged that “phones are an immense problem in school districts and finding a way to navigate the challenges that they will bring in the coming years is vital to the success of all,”
Riddle supports a phone ban for elementary school students, but not necessarily for older students. She suggested schools restrict cellphone use without banning phones entirely, such as taking them up before class.
Parker supports his school’s current policy, where students can use their phones anywhere except during class.
“This allows students to stay in communication with their family throughout the day, and it limits the phones to any time that doesn’t distract others from learning,” he said.
Earlier this month, the state youth mental health task force released their recommendations. Among them was that all school districts implement policies on cellphones and social media use in classrooms.
House Rep. Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, listens to discussions regarding the cost of Medicaid expansion, during a public meeting held at the state Capitol, Tuesday, April 23, 2024. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
At the same time, Rep. Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, a task force member, is drafting a bill to ban cellphones in schools statewide with possibly leaving it up to each of the state’s 144 school districts to determine how to do that..
“As we recognize the importance of technology, we also have to recognize the importance of our children’s health, which includes mental health,” he said.
Cellphones are ubiquitous in American culture. Pew Research Center found that 95% of American teenagers between 13 and 17 have a smartphone and 23% reported using social media for four or more hours a day.
Many educators, parents and researchers fear phones are driving the nation’s youth mental health crisis with 72% of high school teachers telling the Pew Research Center in June that they think cellphones are a major problem in classrooms.
Jonathan Haidt’s “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” describes howteen mental health has declined sharply since 2010. In 2020, teen suicide rates increased 91% for boys and 167% for girls. The percent of teens who reported having at least one episode of major depression increased 145% for girls and 161% for boys. Haidt and many other researchers attribute this decline to the rise of social media and cellphone use.
Last year, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released a report warning about how social media harms teen mental health, citing statistics that 46% of teens said social media makes them feel worse about their body image and 64% said they were “often” or “sometimes” exposed to hate content.
Creekmore said Haidt’s book and the surgeon general’s report are major influences for his bill.
According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Sept. 30-Oct. 6, 68% of American adults support banning cellphones from middle and high school classrooms. Eight states have passed bans and/or restrictions on cellphones in schools so far.
“Vast research connects the decline in mental health among children and adolescents in part to the near constant use of smartphones and social media,” Lt Gov Delbert Hosemann said in a statement to Mississippi Today.
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann answers questions during a press conference after a special session at the Mississippi Capitol in Jackson, Wednesday, November 2, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Touching on the concerns about school safety in the wake of multiple school shootings, he said, “School safety and ensuring parents can stay connected with their children are also important concerns. We are confident local districts can negotiate these competing concerns and implement policies protecting instructional time from distraction.”
Cellphone bans have their drawbacks. They can be difficult to enforce, and some parents want to be able to reach their children for pick-ups and emergencies. However, the National School Safety and Security Services says that using a phone during an emergency can actually cause more trouble by distracting people, overloading cellphone systems, disrupting evacuation efforts and more.
The research on cellphone use and its impact on teens is more mixed. There are several places where the research is lacking, including what types of content cause the most harm and how exactly social media creates/exacerbates mental health problems.
The National Academy of Sciences’ report on the topic pointed out the positives to using social media, such as communication, learning and connection. The surgeon general’s report also found that 58% of teens said that social media made them feel more accepted.
Lynda Stewart, a mental health counselor and director of the Division of Children and Youth Services at Mississippi’s Department of Mental Health, is also part of the state task force. While she said she has no opinion on cellphone bans, she pointed out that they’re not the only factors harming youth mental health.
“Adolescence is a very, very difficult time. It’s a time when children are growing and changing,” she said.
Stewart cited the pandemic and academic and social pressures as major problems. Young people are also more aware about mental health and are less afraid to reach out for help than previous generations.
“One thing we know about our youth today is that they’re strong and they’re brave,” she said, “and they’re more willing than any other generation of youth to let somebody know when they’re not okay.”
The task force made several recommendations, including more schools partnering with community health centers, more mental health professionals on school staff and universal mental health screenings for students.
Stewart advised parents to check in with their kids daily and look out for behavioral red flags. This includes them always being alone, dropping hobbies they used to love, getting bad grades, and drastic changes in their style and friend groups. Mental Health Mississippi provides information on mental health providers in the state. For mental health crises, dial the national suicide and crisis line at 988. You can also dial the DMH helpline at 1-877-210-8513 for help and information about mental health services.
State Auditor Shad White on Monday released a study he commissioned to find government waste, saying it identified more than $335 million in government fat that could easily be trimmed without tanking services to taxpayers.
White paid a Massachusetts-based consulting group $2 million for the study. He gave Boston Consulting Group the directive to find at least $250 million in wasteful spending among the 13 state agencies it examined.
It appears White and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann — who have each indicated they have 2027 gubernatorial aspirations and have sparred with each other politically — will have dueling government fat-trimming initiatives. Hosemann said recently he wants legislation to reorganize and consolidate state government.
In a livestreamed press conference and public presentation Monday, White called his study long overdue and, “A roadmap for a leaner, more modern state government that saves money … to make sure we are getting the biggest bang for our bucks.” He said the study had “No criminal findings … but we found inefficiency.”
Mississippi has more than 200 agencies, boards and commissions, and a more than $7 billion state-support budget.
White’s report recommends the state consolidate its purchasing and look for better deals when it buys goods and services. For instance, the study noted that when the state buys Dell computers, it “pays a higher price than individual consumers could find from Dell’s consumer website” in some cases. It noted state agencies were paying $245 for a computer monitor that the public could buy for $195 and that could be had for $130 through a federal government purchasing deal available to state and local governments.
Much of the Boston consultant’s report for White covers potential savings or overspending that others — including White — have pointed out in the past. This includes spending on state buildings and office space, which some lawmakers and others have questioned over years, and government travel, which media has examined. It also noted potential savings from consolidating purchasing and back-office functions, which others have in the past championed, usually with minimal success.
The report found that, compared to other states, Mississippi government is spending too much on office space and insurance for state buildings and on advertising and public relations for state agencies.
White said some government offices have 800 square feet per employee and, “We are a lot of times leasing space we don’t need to be leasing.”
White also said Mississippi could sell the state’s airplane, do like 18 other states and make officials rely on commercial or charter flights, and save over $1 million a year.
The consultant’s study focused on some of the state’s largest agencies, including the Departments of Education, Corrections, Revenue, Medicaid, Public Safety and Finance and Administration. Most examined are agencies that report directly to Gov. Tate Reeves. White on Monday praised the governor for his cooperation in the study.
Much of White’s proposed savings in the “Project Momentum” report would require legislative action. He said Monday that numerous lawmakers have been anxiously awaiting his report and he is hopeful “they will look at this very closely.”
Neither Hosemann, who oversees the state Senate, nor Speaker Jason White, who oversees the House, immediately responded to a request for comments sent to their offices Monday.
The report recommends the state “operate more like a business,” and that Mississippi leaders “ruthlessly eliminate or alter failing programs” to save taxpayers money.
“The nature of government is people forget what happened yesterday and forget what went wrong yesterday, and that nature of government is to do nothing,” White said.
