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Mississippi’s former welfare director testified Wednesday that a leadership program at the heart of a criminal case against former WWE wrestler Ted “Teddy” DiBiase Jr. was done in accord with a federal faith-based initiative during the first Trump presidency.

John Davis, the former Mississippi Department of Human Services director awaiting sentencing for his role in the brazen welfare heist, has repeated this refrain multiple times during the four days he’s held the witness stand so far in the DiBiase trial.

In fact, when answering how he first met the wrestler, Davis described attending a 2017 meeting at the Governor’s Mansion, where he said Gov. Phil Bryant discussed new faith-based initiatives on the federal level. Davis said DiBiase’s brother, Brett, was there, and told the governor how his dad’s Christian ministry called Heart of David could be involved. Their dad is famed professional wrestling heel Ted “The Million Dollar Man” DiBiase, who delivers his testimonial about overcoming temptations during his time with the World Wrestling Federation by recommitting to Jesus.

Davis’ explanation provides some context for his communication with the DiBiase brothers, which was laden with references to God and scripture. “You are God sent,” Teddy DiBiase said in 2017 in one of his earliest messages to the welfare director. 

Davis frequently told the brothers, “I love you” and “God loves you,” though on Wednesday, Davis testified that he messaged many people in that manner, including the two nonprofit directors that funneled grants to the wrestlers.

The DiBiase family secured a total of nearly $6 million in federal grants through Davis’ agency, the majority coming from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Teddy DiBiase is facing 13 criminal counts including conspiracy, wire fraud, theft of federal funds and money laundering. Brett DiBiase pleaded guilty to charges in connection with the scheme; the father was not charged criminally; and all three DiBiase men are facing a civil lawsuit brought by the welfare department to recoup the funds. 

MORE TRIAL COVERAGE:

DAY 6: Wrestler carried out welfare-funded workshops in broad daylight, defense testimony asserts

DAY 5: Welfare director texted wrestler who was his high-paid aide about ‘money bags,’ testimony shows

DAY 4: Feds ask disgraced former welfare director ‘million-dollar question’: Why? Loneliness and love

DAY 3: Wrestler’s multimillion dollar ‘self-help curriculum’ helped crack open a wider welfare scandal

DAY 2: Opening statements in welfare scandal trial paint former director as villain who doled out millions over infatuation

DAY 1: 83 witnesses could enter the ring in Mississippi welfare scandal trial

TRIAL PREVIEW: Ex-WWE wrestler faces feds in first – and potentially only – criminal trial in Mississippi welfare scandal

TANF funds are meant to alleviate or prevent poverty through a number of possible ways – direct cash assistance to help families care for children in the home; the promotion of job preparation, work and marriage; reducing out-of-wedlock pregnancies; and the formation or maintenance of two-parent families. Auditors questioned tens of millions of dollars worth of purchases under this program from 2016 to 2020. 

When prosecutors asked Davis last week about why his agency transferred TANF money to Heart of David, Davis said it was part of the faith-based initiative that “the governor wanted us to do.”

The scope of services in one of Heart of David’s subgrant agreements included several items geared toward young people, including trying to “increase the number of adolescents who live a life of servanthood” and “strengthen attitudes and expectations towards community, family and their US citizenship.” The second agreement was more pared down, with Heart of David agreeing to “establish a network of partnerships, services and resources throughout Mississippi communities for faith-based and self activities,” according to a forensic audit.

In the first report detailing the misspending, the State Auditor’s 2019 MDHS Management Letter, the authors explain that TANF rules allow states to direct funds to faith-based organizations as subgrants, but they must include restrictions on explicitly religious activities. Auditors found that grant agreements between DHS and Heart of Davis did not feature such restrictions.

In October 2017, about four months after DiBiase began working on his first welfare-funded contract to create a leadership development program, he received an invitation to visit the White House from Jay Strack, a motivational speaker and then-member of President Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory board. The letter, shown to the court Wednesday, referred to DiBiase as “one of the best and brightest the nation has to offer.”

In 2018, Trump signed an executive order establishing the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative, which stated that the administration wanted faith-based organizations to compete on an equal playing field with others for federal funding.

The same year, Trump signed the Family First Prevention Services Act, which Mississippi leaders vowed publicly to adopt and set up committees to carry out. The Act aimed to prevent family separations by allowing states to use child welfare funds on items that a family may need to keep a child safely at home. DiBiase sat on the state advisory council for the state’s Family First Initiative. Churches and faith-based organizations were part of the approach to coordinate prevention efforts across sectors. But the state didn’t submit its plan under the Act to the federal government until years after the scandal led to the effective dismantling of the initiative. 

As part of DiBiase’s work with the welfare department, the agency recorded him delivering what were supposed to be weekly inspirational messages to DHS staff – the people who work on the ground level to administer federally-funded assistance to needy Mississippians. He called the mini-lectures “Tuesday Turnaround.”

“We’re going to enhance our culture. We’re going to create a community and a family that is about growing, that is about loving, because if we can love ourselves and love each other, then we can love our clients at a greater level,” DiBiase said in one of the videos.

DiBiase went on to tell the story of Shamgar, an Israeli farmer who slaughtered 600 Philistines using an ox goad – “a stick with a nail on it,” DiBiase explained – and delivered Israel.

“Now this is in a book I read; I can’t talk about it. You know, I ain’t preaching,” he said in the video. “So what’s the lesson there? Just a simple farmer, right? Who picked up a stick with a nail on it and he delivered a nation. How awesome is that? Here’s the lesson. Start now. Ok? Use what you got. Do what you can. We know that we have issues in our offices, maybe the printers aren’t working, maybe somebody’s got a negative attitude. But that doesn’t mean you have to have a negative attitude, does it? You could respond in love. The printer doesn’t work, I’m sorry. Guess what? There – somebody – don’t let that affect you.”

Wednesday was a short day of trial, with U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves announcing after lunchtime that he had matters to handle in other cases. He paused the proceedings until Friday, when the defense is expected to continue its cross examination of Davis.

The criminal trial of DiBiase may be the only one to occur within the larger Mississippi welfare scandal. 

At one point while Davis was speaking on the witness stand this week, seven blocks away, Attorney General Lynn Fitch and various volunteers were bundling suitcases, part of a partnership with Focus on the Family. The evangelical Christian parachurch had donated 1,350 satchels for some of Mississippi’s roughly 4,000 foster children. 

The organization’s concept is that when children are neglected – the most common reason being poverty – or abused, and are taken from their families by state child protection officers, they often don’t possess any belongings, or if they do, they use garbage bags to carry the items. 

Laurie Todd-Smith, a former Bryant adviser, came to Jackson to promote the program. She now serves as deputy assistant secretary for early childhood development in Trump’s Administration for Children and Families, the agency that oversees TANF funding nationally. 

Each suitcase they planned to pass out to foster children contained a teddy bear and a Bible.

“I think Mississippi, of all the states I visited and all the states we’re working with, we are particularly a very faith-filled state,” Todd-Smith said during a Tuesday interview with Supertalk, a Mississippi radio network that received $600,000 in welfare funding during the scandal. “And I just feel so proud that we’re visiting a church today that the churches are engaging in this issue.”

The Mississippi Board of Education has authorized a takeover of the Wilkinson County School District because of its severe academic challenges. 

State officials also have serious concerns about the district’s financial health. Wilkinson schools’ full financial picture isn’t clear, officials said, because district officials have not submitted a financial audit since the 2023 fiscal year. The district did indicate a $1.7 million deficit in its budget outlook for the 2025-26 school year.

“We don’t have a choice,” state Superintendent Lance Evans said at a state Board of Education meeting Thursday. When a district hits rock bottom, he said, the state has to act. 

The board appointed Lee Coats as interim superintendent of Wilkinson County schools. Coats recently served as the assistant superintendent of Holmes County Consolidated School District, which the state took over in 2021.

Without intervention, there could be a “continuation of an inadequate educational environment, thereby denying the students enrolled in Wilkinson County School District the opportunity to learn, to excel, and to obtain a free and appropriate public education,” Paula Vanderford, chief accountability officer for the state Department of Education, said during the board meeting.

The school district has been rated F under the state’s accountability system for each of the past two years, state officials said. State accountability data shows that both Wilkinson County Elementary and William Winans Middle School are also failing. Wilkinson County High has a D grade.

The Wilkinson County district has the second-lowest graduation rate in the state. The district also has the state’s lowest proficiency rate in math and science as well as the second lowest proficiency rates in English and history, state education officials said. 

Those are just some of a long list of academic concerns state education officials mentioned Thursday.

Enrollment in Wilkinson County schools has also dropped by about half since 2019, and is now 648 students — a number that prompted state board Chairman Matt Miller to question whether the school district should be consolidated into another one.

Consolidation is not yet the top question for state education officials. The immediate first step of the takeover, Evans said, is for state officials to do a full audit of the Wilkinson County’s personnel and finances. Under the takeover, Wilkinson County’s school board is abolished and its superintendent is removed. 

Wilkinson County is the second school district the agency has taken over in less than three months.

The state Board of Education voted on Nov. 14 to take over Okolona schools for financial reasons, marking the district’s second time under state control in 15 years. Okolona schools officials had notified the agency on Oct. 30 that it could not make its November payroll. 

Dozens of other school districts across Mississippi could also be in financial trouble. The current finances are unclear for 47 school districts that are behind on submitting completed annual financial audits to the state Department of Education.

On Thursday, the state Board of Education unanimously approved a temporary rule that, among other things, spells out consequences districts will face if they fail to submit annual audits on time, starting with the March 31 deadline. Those districts will be designated as high-risk, face “enhanced monitoring” from the state education department, and their accreditation could be downgraded for with multiple outstanding audits.

At a Senate Appropriations Committee meeting on Wednesday, Evans said there is limited funding available to help provide technical assistance for additional school districts taken over by the state: $4.8 million. Since taking over Okolona schools, the agency has already spent $1.5 million. Evans asked lawmakers for additional funding for next fiscal year.

“It doesn’t take long to eat through that,” Evans said of the agency’s emergency fund. “One district that’s in serious trouble can completely wipe that out.”

For now, the state runs six school systems, called districts of transformation: Noxubee County, Holmes County, Humphreys County, Yazoo City, Okolona Separate School District, and now Wilkinson County. The latter two districts are also the first districts the state has taken over since gaining the authority in 2024 to take over a school district for academic or financial reasons without the governor first declaring a state of emergency.

On Thursday, state Board of Education officials touted Tunica County School District as a success story. The district was placed in a district of transformation in 2015 and is now rated a B, the highest grade among school systems in the Mississippi Delta. 

This story has been updated with additional details.

The Madison man accused of setting fire to Mississippi’s largest synagogue has now been indicted on a federal arson charge. 

The federal indictment returned Wednesday does not mean Stephen Spencer Pittman is facing a new charge, only that a grand jury has confirmed federal prosecutors have enough evidence to proceed with prosecuting the 19-year-old for burning the Beth Israel Congregation temple. 

Federal and state prosecutors have not announced how they will collaborate on Pittman’s court cases. His attorney, federal public defender Mike Scott, could not immediately be reached Thursday.  

In state court, Pittman is facing a charge of first-degree arson. Earlier this week, a Hinds County Circuit Court grand jury indicted Pittman on that charge and recommended his sentence be enhanced under a Mississippi law punishing “offenses committed for discriminatory reasons.”

The federal government has not filed hate crime charges against Pittman and it was not immediately clear whether those are being considered. He also has not made an initial appearance in state circuit court, nor has one been scheduled, according to a court administrator.

Pittman is being held in federal custody, though it was not immediately known where. 

If convicted, Pittman’s federal charges carry a punishment of up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The federal charges against him were released earlier this week in an affidavit from an FBI agent that alleged Pittman broke into the northeast Jackson synagogue before dawn Saturday, doused a lobby in gasoline and set it on fire. Later that day, he allegedly confessed to law enforcement that he targeted the synagogue for its “Jewish ties.” 

The blaze charred parts of the synagogue, left smoke damage throughout and destroyed two Torahs. The fire was set in the same part of the one-story brick building that Ku Klux Klan members bombed in 1967 because the congregation’s rabbi supported civil rights. 

The Hinds County indictment did not include a photograph of Pittman. Federal authorities also have not released a photo of him.

Pittman is scheduled to return to federal court for a preliminary hearing Tuesday.

Federal investigators quickly identified Pittman – a former high school and community college baseball player –  as a person of interest, according to the affidavit filed earlier this week, which included text messages he allegedly sent to his father in the course of setting the fire Saturday. The father pleaded for his son to return home, the affidavit says, but Pittman “replied back by saying he was due for a homerun and ‘I did my research.’” 

Pittman is alleged to have confessed to his father, who later contacted the FBI and provided GPS data showing Pittman was at the synagogue early Saturday morning. 

The son “laughed as he told his father what he did and said he finally got them,” said the affidavit from Nicholas Amiano, an FBI agent in the Jackson division. 

Less than 48 hours after terminating over $14 million of Mississippi mental health grants, the federal government informed organizations that their funding will be fully restored. 

The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration cancelled nearly $2 billion of grants across the country Tuesday, according to NPR. In Mississippi, government health centers, private nonprofits and universities were told to stop all work funded by those grants — mainly related to addiction and children’s services. 

By Tuesday evening, Mississippi Today had learned about roughly $9.2 million of cancelled Mississippi grants. Later that night, the state Department of Mental Health accounted for an additional $4.9 million that had been terminated to Mississippi State University, University of Southern Mississippi and the Mississippi Public Health Institute. 

Wendy Bailey, the mental health department’s executive director, said Wednesday night there could have been other terminated grants her agency hadn’t learned about yet. 

A Tuesday letter the federal mental health department sent to grantees said the cancellations were final because “no corrective action could align the award with current agency priorities.” But by Thursday morning, the agency sent the same organizations a short message to “disregard the prior termination notice and continue program activities as outlined in your award agreement.”

Nationwide, all $2 billion of the cuts from earlier this week were reversed, according to Roll Call. A spokesperson for the federal agency did not answer Mississippi Today’s call and email about the terminations and restorations.

Four of Mississippi’s 12 community mental health centers, local public organizations that serve people regardless of their ability to pay, were set to lose $8.7 million. Phaedre Cole, the Mississippi Association of Community Mental Health Centers president and the executive director of a center that serves the Delta, called the unexpected terminations and restorations “whiplash.” 

She said she was encouraged by the swift, bipartisan pushback to protect critical Mississippi mental health services that were already underfunded. But the previous 48 hours had left her and other executive directors frazzled. 

“It’s terrifying to us because we know we are the place of last resort for thousands of people across the state,” she said. “If we are to disappear, we will not disappear quietly.”

Shortly after receiving notice that the Department of Mental Health’s grant had been restored Thursday, Bailey said the last two days had been a whirlwind. But she’s grateful Mississippi mental health providers can continue providing important services. 

“We must remember that behind these dollars are services and supports that are being provided to our neighbors, friends, family members, and people throughout our communities,” she said.

Communicare, the community mental health center serving Oxford and the surrounding counties, was set to lose more than any other organization Bailey’s department heard from. Melody Madaris, Communicare’s executive director, said the losses would force her agency to cut back on preventing opioid overdoses, restructure services for school children and halt other planned programs. 

Thursday morning, before she had officially heard that the federal government would restore her grant, Madaris said services funded by federal grants are often the ones most people don’t notice unless they need them — transporting people from rural homes to receive antipsychotic medications, working with food banks to deliver meals to patients and other resource-intensive services. 

“Those are the things we do to keep our community healthy,” she said. “Without the federal funding, these are things that we won’t be able to do as much of.” 

Right after the federal government sent her an email restoring the funds, she texted Mississippi Today: “A sigh of relief and back to work as usual helping the citizens of Mississippi struggling with mental health and substance use issues.”

Correction 1/15/2026: This story has been updated to show that Wendy Bailey’s initial comments were made Wednesday night.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris spoke in Jackson at the newly reopened Thalia Mara Hall on Wednesday, stopping in Mississippi’s capital city for the second part of her book tour as she mulls another presidential campaign.

Harris was greeted with a warm reception from a packed audience at Thalia Mara, which had been closed since August of 2024 for renovations. Jackson Mayor John Horhn kicked off the event by awarding Harris a key to the city and announcing that he had signed a proclamation making Jan. 14 “Kamala Harris Day” in Jackson.

“Kamala, you don’t know what you mean to Jackson, Mississippi,” Horhn said. “You don’t know what you mean to America.”

Harris spoke for roughly an hour with Rita Brent, a comedian and writer from Jackson. Harris was in town to promote her book “107 Days,” which details what Harris called “the shortest presidential election in history.” Had she had more time to build her campaign — an opportunity denied by former President Joe Biden’s decision to keep running for re-election for a month after a disastrous debate performance — the election might have turned out differently, Harris said on Wednesday.

The then-vice president lost to Donald Trump in the popular vote and the electoral college. Her defeat ushered in an administration that is “corrupt, callous and incompetent,” Harris said.

Harris said she predicted what the administration would do, including efforts to eradicate the U.S. Department of Education and a widespread immigration crackdown. But she said she was caught off guard by the support President Trump has garnered from corporate leaders.

“I have predicted almost everything that’s happened,” Harris said. “But what I did not predict was the capitulation, the titans of industry, the powerful people who just bent the knee to the foot of a tyrant.”

Harris called the Trump administration’s agenda a “swift implementation of a plan that has been decades in the making.” She criticized what she said are economically damaging tariffs, the spread of disinformation and attacks on consumer protections.

At one point, when lamenting President Trump’s conduct and likening him to other demagogues, she appeared to confuse the home state of the white-supremacist politician Bull Connor, who is from Alabama.

“Mississippi knows it well, Bull Connor, I mean, we know, we have had figures throughout history that have been about destruction and have not elevated our best angels or our better angels,” Harris said.

The local crowd enjoyed a riff from Harris on the importance of participating in local government to help fix issues such as potholes, of which there are many in Jackson.

“Insurance doesn’t cover a flat tire,” Harris quipped.

Harris’s late-December decision to launch the second part of her book tour in the Deep South, where Black voters typically play a key role in the Democratic presidential primaries, sparked speculation about her future. She spoke in New Orleans on Tuesday and will also make stops in the critical primary state of South Carolina, along with appearances in Tennessee and Alabama.

Harris did not discuss her future plans on Wednesday. But she has said she has not ruled out another run for the White House and did not say anything that would dissuade attendees from assuming that.

She recounted writing her 2024 concession speech on the way to Howard University, adding one line: “Sometimes the fight takes a while.”

Mississippi mental health organizations say they lost at least $9.2 million when the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration terminated grants across the country Tuesday, a loss they say could be devastating for Mississippians. 

The federal agency cut hundreds of mental health and addiction grants that are estimated to be worth roughly $2 billion, according to NPR. The news organization reported many of these grants went directly to private nonprofit organizations. 

Melody Madaris, executive director of the North Mississippi community mental health center Communicare, said the cuts had also severely impacted organizations like hers. Four of Mississippi’s 12 community mental health centers had federal cuts to their organization totaling $8.7 million. 

About $3.7 million of those terminations are coming from grants for Communicare, Madaris said. Most of her organization’s cuts were for efforts to prevent addiction-related overdoses and to connect children with mental health services. 

Madaris said Communicare had consistently shown through measures such as job and housing placement data that it had used these types of federal grants to improve Mississippians’ mental health.

“This was completely shocking,” she said. 

With this cut, Madaris said she is nervous about how Communicare and other mental health centers will address needs in their communities. 

“I am terrified, to be honest,” she said. “We’re going to figure it out, we always figure it out. But it’s definitely going to be hard.” 

Madaris said the cuts would completely change how Communicare can help children in schools get mental health services and whether North Mississippians can access naloxone, the opioid overdose-reversing medication. It could also mean Communicare may have to reduce its staff. 

“We’re going to have to make some pretty significant changes across the agency,” she said. “It will include programs being stopped and reduction in some of the services that we have been providing for years now through the help of the SAMHSA funding.”

Phaedre Cole, president of the Mississippi Association of Community Mental Health Centers, said cuts to the other three public mental health agencies were also mainly for services related to children and addiction.

Unlike most private facilities, community mental health centers are expected to treat Mississippians regardless of their ability to pay. Cole said that model creates financial challenges that are furthered by SAMHSA’s cuts. 

“Even minor or surface-level cuts go very deep with regard to our long-term sustainability and being able to continue our mission,” she said. 

Mississippi Department of Mental Health spokesperson Adam Moore said the federal government terminated an additional roughly $440,000 from the agency that had been intended to help law enforcement respond to mental health emergencies. The department is aware of the community mental health center grant cancellations and is “still assessing the total impact of the cuts to the state,” he said.

The SAMHSA letter Madaris and the dozens of other organizations received says the federal agency is terminating the contracts to align its grant spending with its priorities. The priorities it lists — addressing mental illness, addiction, suicide and other societal challenges — are similar to what the community mental health centers told Mississippi Today they were doing with their now-terminated grants. 

The letter said the terminations are final. Spokespeople for the federal agency did not respond before publication to a Mississippi Today email asking how much money SAMHSA is canceling from Mississippi organizations, how the grants didn’t align with its priorities and whether new funding would replace these terminated funds. 

Sen. Nicole Boyd, a Republican from Oxford and a member of the state’s Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Council, lives in Lafayette County — a region served by Communicare. She said the organization does a fantastic job of addressing mental health problems in North Mississippi. 

“It’s devastating,” she said of the cuts. “They have been really aggressive and proactive in addressing mental health issues and concerns in our community.” 

Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee Chairman Hob Bryan, a Democrat from Amory, said it’s been difficult to keep up with what the federal government does on a day-to-day basis. He said he and other lawmakers would have to see how the federal mental health cuts play out.

“Obviously, it’s not good news,” he said after his committee met Wednesday. “But in order to know exactly what to do about it or what we might do about it, just have to wait until we get the details.” 

The federal government also cut funds directed to private, nonprofit Mississippi mental health centers, but neither community mental health nor Department of Mental Health officials who spoke to Mississippi Today knew of any as of Wednesday. An executive with one Mississippi nonprofit that received a SAMHSA subgrant administered by the University of Mississippi Medical Center said over $100,000 of its funding was cut Tuesday.

The executive asked not to be named because they had not spoken about the cut with UMMC yet. Patrice Guilfoyle, communications director for the medical center, said she had not heard about any cuts as of Wednesday but would look into them. 

Madaris said SAMHSA also cut nearly  $3 million from Hinds Behavioral Health Services, the community mental health center that serves Jackson. Nyaband Buong, the Hinds Behavioral executive director, said one of her canceled federal grants was $1 million to help navigate a complicated mental health system. 

In March, SAMHSA cut about $4.1 million from Mississippi community mental health centers, saying the funds were initially to address the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, the centers and their patients told Mississippi Today that those cuts would have life-or-death effects, such as eliminating ways for people recovering from addiction to sustain long-term sobriety. 

In the aftermath of the cuts last spring, Cole said she wasn’t expecting another round this year. 

“I thought we were past any more cuts,” she said. “I was really shocked by this.”

Proposed changes to how the state funds its eight public universities could harm historically Black institutions, some lawmakers said.

The funding formula updates, which legislators discussed with higher education officials in December, would tie state money to post-graduation student success such as the number of Mississippians attaining jobs and completing some form of education beyond high school. 

A delegation of Black lawmakers said that factoring graduation rates, post-graduation employment and degrees awarded by universities into their allotted funding would unfairly penalize historically Black colleges and universities for challenges tied to decades of underfunding. 

Black lawmakers spoke about the funding formula to a standing-room-only crowd of more than 160 alumni and supporters at Mt. Nebo Baptist Church in Jackson on Monday. The goal of the event, organized by Jackson Democrats Sen. Sollie Norwood and Rep. Grace Butler Washington was to educate and warn HBCU stakeholders about proposals the state Legislature is considering this session. 

It was also a rally to encourage supporters to stay engaged.

“We need to be cautious as we proceed forward,” said Rep. Bryant Clark, a Democrat from Pickens and a 1998 graduate of Mississippi Valley State. 

The Board of Trustees for the Institutions of Higher Learning, which oversee the state’s public universities,  uses a formula that equally distributes funding across the eight universities without factoring in performance or enrollment. 

HBCUs serve many students who lack resources and face more barriers to completing higher education. More than three quarters of the undergraduate student body at Mississippi’s three public HBCUs rely on Pell Grants — federal student aid provided to students who demonstrate exceptional financial need — to attend. By comparison, Pell Grant recipients make up about half of the student enrollment at only two of the state’s predominantly white institutions  — Mississippi University for Women (56%) and University of Southern Mississippi (52%). 

Mississippi settled a lawsuit over funding disparities at its public universities in 2002  —  the $500 million Ayers settlement — but chronic underfunding of higher education by the state means these funds have not caught HBCUs up to their PWI counterparts. 

The proposed funding formula success metrics could lead to closing Mississippi Valley State, Clark said. 

Valley State’s average six-year graduation rate is 27%, the lowest of Mississippi’s public institutions, according to IHL data. MVSU awarded 242 degrees in the 2023-24 academic year, the lowest among the state’s public universities, even similarly sized ones. Of almost 2,200 students enrolled at MVSU in fall of 2023, 985 received Pell Grants, federal financial aid awarded to students from low income households, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. 

Students who attend Mississippi Valley State have more barriers to get to the rural campus, including transportation, cost and affordability, Clark said. It is unfair for the Legislature and IHL to consider a funding formula that doesn’t take into account the disproportionate challenges to graduation that the students enrolled face, he said. 

Mississippi Valley State is also an “economic engine” for the Delta region, Clark said. The university contributes $75 million to the the state’s economy and produces more than 980 jobs, according to a 2024 HBCU Impact report from the United Negro College Fund. 

Instead of focusing on closing them, the Legislature and IHL should view the state’s HBCUs as a model of efficiency, doing more with fewer resources, Clark said. “We continue to educate our students at just a fraction of the cost.”

Alcorn State University and Mississippi Valley State alumni tend to remain Mississippi residents and enter the state’s workforce after graduation, said Rep. Greg Holloway, a Democrat from Hazlehurst. For predominantly white institutions such as the University of Mississippi or Mississippi State University, he said, “you can’t say the same thing.” 

“They don’t talk about us and our impact,” Holloway said to thunderous applause. “This new formula is about a money grab. Displacing resources from one place to another. We should be talking about how to provide quality education for our HBCU students. We deserve more.” 

Students should pay attention to the threat of closing one of Mississippi’s HBCUs, said Camrynn Wimberly, a senior studying political science at Jackson State. Wimberly rallied a few of her classmates to attend the town hall. She shares policy issues and information on her social media. 

“Our schools, we’re more than just football, partying and pledging fraternities and sororities,” Wimberly said. “We’re history.” 

At the end of the event, Rep. Zakiya Summers, a Democrat from Jackson, encouraged HBCU alumni to send emails, call and pressure lawmakers to pay attention to their concerns. Summers also led a call and response chant, and participating lawmakers and audience members locked arms. 

“When we fight,” Summers shouted into the microphone. The audience shouted back, “We win!”

The House Education Committee on Wednesday advanced its chamber’s omnibus public education overhaul — but only by a few votes. 

It signals the battle to expand school choice in Mississippi, including spending millions of tax dollars on private schooling – Republican House Speaker Jason White’s pet issue this session – is far from over. Senate leaders have said the House bill is a nonstarter, and White has had to wrangle with reluctance or opposition from some of his own Republican caucus in the House.

But the school-choice movement has gained momentum in Mississippi, thanks in part to efforts from national think tanks and mounting pressure from the Trump administration. School choice refers to a number of policies that fund education outside of the public school system with public dollars in the name of giving parents more power over children’s education. 

Watch the full committee meeting here.

READ MORE: FAQ: What is school choice? What are Mississippi lawmakers considering?

The House’s expansive bill, which came after months of hearings and names White as a principal author, was unveiled Jan. 7. House Bill 2 makes changes across the state’s education system, including adding financial literacy requirements for students, permitting homeschooled students to play public school sports and encouraging prayer in school. 

Most notably, the legislation establishes an education savings account program in Mississippi that would allow students to pay private school tuition with public dollars. It’s the most expansive form of school choice. The bill also makes it easier for students to transfer out of their assigned public school districts, which is called “portability.” It also loosens regulations on where charter schools can expand.

The Republican-led Senate has taken a very limited approach to school choice legislation. The chamber recently passed its own portability bill, and Senate leaders say they won’t consider establishing a voucher program in Mississippi.

Despite intense efforts from White, the House bill doesn’t appear to have overwhelming support. In a small room with posters of A-rated public school districts on the wall, dozens of onlookers watched Wednesday as the panel debated the 553-page bill for over an hour, demonstrating clear discord in the chamber. 

In particular, Republican House Education Committee Chairman Rob Roberson and Rep. Cheikh Taylor, chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party, both heavy hitters in their respective parties and both from Starkville, lobbed questions back and forth, representing the ideological divide over school choice. 

“If we divert these funds from public education, we’re also diverting funds from the entire philosophy that gives advancements to most families,” Taylor said. “That’s problematic because I don’t see any remedy to replace the funds going to public schools. So I have a ton of heartburn.”

Roberson argued that the money should be going toward educating children, no matter where they attend school, and that parents have students’ best interests in mind, not the government. 

“This bill is not the end all to fix all for schools, never has been,” he said. “It is a piece of a puzzle that we need to continue working on. Public schools, or schools in general in this state, have to continue being looked at, and we need to keep promoting and putting money into these systems.”

But Roberson has previously brushed the argument aside that public schools continue to struggle because of historic underfunding. 

The state’s public-school system has been nationally lauded for its reading improvements in recent years. House Democrats questioned why Republicans would want to make changes to the education system now, after the public school system has found surer footing. 

“Anytime you raise the standard, the water that comes into any system … makes all ships rise,” Roberson said. 

Rep. Jansen Owen, a Republican from Poplarville who c0authored the bill, teamed up with Roberson to defend it in committee and echoed the free-market idea that proponents often use to promote school choice. They argue that more schooling options means public schools will have to improve in order to keep students. 

In some places, research shows that addition of charter schools has slightly raised the performance of public schools. 

READ MORE: Lawmakers want to expand ‘school choice’ in Mississippi. Here’s what it looks like in neighboring states

The panel of lawmakers also voted to modify two portions of the original bill during the committee meeting. 

The original bill allowed charter school establishment in any district without regard for the local public school district’s rating. But after amendments on Wednesday, the new bill limits new charter schools to areas with D- or F-rated schools. Current law only allows new charter schools in areas with D- or F-rated districts, so the amended bill would still greatly expand areas charter schools could open statewide. 

Tweaks to the state’s student funding formula were also removed during the committee meeting. Roberson said those changes will be presented in a new bill. 

Harness offered an amendment to strike all of the language in the bill and replace it with a teacher pay raise, but after assurance from Roberson that the House will consider a teacher raise in another bill, he withdrew his amendment. The omnibus bill omits a teacher pay raise, though it includes one for assistant teachers. Roberson said this was an intentional decision to avoid political bargaining over teachers’ livelihoods.

The Senate approved a teacher pay raise last week.

After Republican Rep. Kevin Felsher of Biloxi encouraged the committee to advance the measure so the full body of the House could debate it, representatives revealed their votes one-by-one, thanks to a roll call vote request from Rep. Percy Watson, a Democrat from Hattiesburg. 

The bill passed the committee 14-11. Two lawmakers were absent, and two Republicans — House Education Committee Vice-Chairman Kent McCarty from Hattiesburg and Rep. Dana McLean from Columbus — voted against the measure. 

It can now be brought up on the House floor, and will likely be debated by the full chamber by the end of the week. The vote, despite White’s best efforts, could be tight. 

Felsher acknowledged during the meeting that the bill was imperfect and said that while he voted for the measure in committee, he is not certain how he will vote when it comes before the full House.

“I was committed to moving the bill out of the Education Committee to the floor for further discussion,” he said. “I am still deliberating.” 

Owen said he expects there will be lots of attempts to amend the bill when it comes before the full House. But he said the House leadership is not open to further amendments at this point. 

“All of the amendments we intended to make, we made in the committee substitute,” Owen said. “Everything is where it needs to be at this point.”

I wrote this lament, which mentions our beloved Beth Israel, nearly a month ago in the days following the Bondi Beach Hanukkah massacre in Australia. It originally appeared in the Baptist News Global before the attack on the Beth Israel Congregation synagogue in Jackson. As a former Jacksonian, and a friend of Beth Israel, I offer it today, acknowledging the fact that it is timebound to December of 2025 and grieving the fact that it remains, tragically, relevant to January of 2026.

Many mornings, I go on a long, slow, sunrise prayer walk – what the mystics call “goal-less walking” or “life lived at three miles an hour.”

These days, in the neighborhood where I walk, there are a number of delightful inflatable front-yard Christmas decorations: Santas, Rudolphs and Frostys, joined a few days ago by a new, minority inflatable among the many Yuletide blow-ups– a massive, 8-foot-tall Hanukkah bear, complete with a dreidel, a star of David and, of course, a menorah with nine inflated flames, one each for the eight days of Hanukkah, with the taller Shamash candle in the center, from which each of the eight others receive their light.

In other years, I might have walked past the whimsical, inflatable Hanukkah bear with little more than a passing glance. But, needless to say, not this year.

In the aftermath of the Bondi Beach Hanukkah Massacre of five days ago, every time I have passed the huge happy bear holding her HAPPY HANUKKAH sign beneath her brightly burning blow-up candles, I have stood still in the dawn and offered to God a prayer of solidarity with the two Beth Israel synagogues in my life – one in Macon, Georgia, the other in Jackson, Mississippi – and with all Jews in all congregations throughout the world; a sidewalk prayer of solidarity and lament.

Solidarity, lament and repentance.

Whenever there is another act of antisemitic violence, I always think, with deep sadness and quiet repentance, of all the ways the church has sown the bitter seed of bigotry against the Jews.

Hitler did not create the ghetto; we did. It was the church which, as early as the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, called for Jews to be segregated into confined quarters, the forerunner of the much later Nazi ghettos.

This, of course, came after the forced baptisms, synagogue burnings and massacres of Jews by Christians in the seventh through 11th centuries, and before Martin Luther’s dreadful sermon of 1543 in which he declared that, “Next to the devil, Christians have no enemy more cruel and venomous than a true Jew,” and Pope Paul IV’s declaration in 1555 that, “God has condemned the Jews to eternal slavery”.

All of that antisemitic history was rooted in what I call “Christian onlyism,” the institutionalized arrogance of Christianity’s misguided assumption that we “replaced” Judaism, and that we – conveniently enough for us – are the only religion God recognizes, which has allowed us, at our worst, to dehumanize persons of all other faith traditions, including, especially, the Jews; all of which is all the more inexplicable when we remember that Jesus was, himself, a Jew, not only at his birth but also at his death.

Every Christmas, Jesus is born again in a barn, again, with parents who are Jews, again; parents who will take him to the temple to be dedicated, and, when he is 12, back to the temple for Passover; the same Passover meal he will eat the night before he dies.

And yet, somehow, with a Jesus who never abandoned his lifelong Judaism (and who, as far as we know, never mentioned starting a new world religion called “Christianity”), Christianity helped create the antisemitism which has borne the bitter fruit of anti-Jewish bigotry and persecution, all of which came back to me while watching a row of inflatable pretend Hanukkah lights standing in the heartbreaking Hanukkah shadows of the devastating Hanukkah massacre of last Sunday in Australia; antisemitic violence, not from Christians on Bondi Beach, but, sadly, on so many other times.

So, before the waiting wicks of Hanukkah and Advent wear their last lights for another year, let us say, one more time, for the globe-circling, centuries-spanning church, to the globe-circling, centuries-spanning synagogue, “We are sorry.”

Amen.

Chuck Poole, former senior minister at Northminster Baptist Church in Jackson, retired in 2022 from 45 years of pastoral life during which he also served churches in Georgia, North Carolina and Washington D.C. The author of nine books, numerous published articles, one gospel song and the lyrics to three hymns, Poole has served as a “minister on the street” in Jackson, as an advocate for interfaith conversation, and as an ally to immigrant neighbors. Poole and his wife Marcia now live in Birmingham, Alabama, where he serves on the staff of Together for Hope.

Tomekia Luckett’s journey to becoming a mental health nurse practitioner — pursuing a bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degree while raising triplets — was made possible by federal student loans and scholarships. But she fears proposed new caps on those loans could make the path she took more treacherous for the next generation of nurses.

Beginning in July, graduate students across all disciplines will face stricter limits on federal loans under a provision in last summer’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. 

The law directed the U.S. Department of Education to identify “professional degree” programs, which will be eligible for higher loan caps. A draft rule released by the agency excludes graduate nursing programs from the designation, a decision that could subject such students to tighter borrowing limits. These programs train nurse practitioners and certified nurse anesthetists, professionals who help fill critical gaps in Mississippi’s physician workforce.

“I am very concerned as a person who was a first-generation college student,” said Luckett, who treats patients across rural southwest Mississippi and has taught nursing for more than a decade. “If those caps had been in place, there would very likely not be a Dr. Luckett today.” 

Luckett, who spoke to Mississippi Today in a personal capacity, serves as the associate dean for nursing continuing professional development at Walden University and as director of the Mississippi Nurses’ Association’s Council on Nursing Education. 

The federal Department of Education plans to finalize the rule classifying professional degree programs “early this year,” according to its website. But experts and advocates warn that the draft rules — which halve the amount of federal student loans nursing students can receive compared to doctors, dentists and lawyers — could create barriers for nurses seeking advanced education and threaten the stability of the nursing workforce nationwide.

“By limiting the loans, that will make it more difficult for people who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to be able to afford going to nursing school and a career in nursing,” said Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, a nurse practitioner and executive director of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing Institute for Policy Solutions. 

Under the draft rules, “professional degree” programs will be capped at a $200,000 borrowing limit. Nursing graduate students would be capped at half that amount — a maximum of $100,000, or $20,500 a year. Current borrowers will be permitted to continue receiving loans under existing rules for three years or the length of their program. 

The Trump administration said not classifying graduate nursing as a  “professional degree” — a decision that has caused outrage among some nurses — is a technical and regulatory decision, not a “value judgement about the importance of programs,” according to a post on the U.S. Department of Education website.

The department said the new caps on loans won’t have a widespread impact, noting that 95% of nursing students borrow below the annual loan limit, according to the agency’s data, and that 80% of the nursing workforce does not have a graduate degree. 

Since 2007, graduate and professional students have been allowed to borrow up to the full cost of attendance through the federal Graduate PLUS program. These changes have allowed schools to inflate their tuition and saddle students with debts, the Trump administration said.

The changes could make the nursing workforce less representative of the people they serve, and contribute to existing health care workforce shortages, Guilamo-Ramos said. Studies show that a representative and diverse health care system improves health outcomes and access to care for patients. Researchers have shown that patients are more likely to receive preventive care they need and agree to recommended care when their doctors have a similar racial or cultural background to them.

Antonia M. Villarruel, the dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, said in a statement to Mississippi Today she expects the new loan caps to have “devastating effects” on the preparation of graduate-level nurses and nursing educators, and that these limits will contribute to increased shortages of primary care providers, especially in rural areas.

“This impacts both access to care for all Americans and the ability of schools and universities to continue to educate this group of professionals that will result in faculty shortages,” Villarruel said. 

Crystal Joslin, a registered nurse from Corinth who works at a rural hospital and a nursing home, said she aims to advance her career by becoming a psychiatric nurse practitioner. Working shifts at the hospital’s medical-surgical unit and emergency room, she often sees patients with serious mental health needs, and she hopes to further her education to assist her community. 

News of the proposed federal loan caps made her second guess her plan to attend a master’s program at the University of North Alabama later this year. She considered delaying her career plans to save up. But she said she has decided to persist — and will pay the portion of her tuition that is not covered by loans out-of-pocket — in order to help her community and advance her career. 

“I didn’t really want to wait the extra couple of years,” she said. “Of course, my work as an RN, I can definitely be doing that. But I feel like there’s nurses to educate out there, and there’s patients to help. …There’s more things that I could be doing with my education and my knowledge that I wouldn’t be getting to do.”

Critics of the caps argue that while the changes may limit students’ debt, they will also limit students’ access to education.

“It would be nice if I could have less debt, but at the same time, I wouldn’t have the education I have,” Luckett said. 

Guilamo-Ramos said he does not expect universities to lower their tuition as a result of the changes. Nursing education must comply with strict requirements that make programs more costly to run, like student-to-faculty ratios. 

“I think what will happen is that over time just people who can afford to attend will attend,” Guilamo-Ramos said. “And that’s bad for all of us.”

The draft loan caps have generated bipartisan dissent. In a Dec. 12 letter to U.S. Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent, a bipartisan group of nearly 150 congressional lawmakers expressed support for including nursing degrees in the department’s definition of “professional degree.” The effort was spearheaded by several lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, co-chair of the Senate nursing caucus. 

“At a time when our nation is facing a health care shortage, especially in primary care, now is not the time to cut off the student pipeline to these programs,” wrote the group of U.S. senators and representatives. 

Mississippi has one of the lowest rates of physicians per capita in the nation, and the gap is expected to grow over time. In rural areas, nurse practitioners often fill gaps left when there is not a physician.

National research shows that the share of Medicare visits delivered by physician assistants and nurse practitioners nearly doubled between 2013 and 2019. Rural family physicians are more likely to partner with these clinicians to meet patient care needs.

Certified nurse anesthetists also help address critical care shortages, performing about 70% to 90% of procedures compared to their physician counterparts in Mississippi, according to Public Health and Human Services Chairman Rep. Sam Creekmore, a Republican from New Albany, speaking during a House floor session last year. 

Mississippi is currently facing a shortage of nurse anesthetists, and that gap is expected to grow over the next decade, according to data from Health Resources and Service Administration. Today, Mississippi is lacking about 90 needed nurse anesthetists, but by 2035, that figure is expected to grow to 140 — meaning only 76% of needed positions will be filled.

Guilamo-Ramos said he hopes that the new student loan provisions will spur nursing schools to consider ways to make tuition costs affordable for more students apart from loans. 

“Schools of nursing need to take a hard look at the cost of tuition and make it more affordable,” he said. “And we need to improve our scholarships, and we need to improve other kinds of aid besides loans.”

Graduate nursing programs in Mississippi range in cost. The Mississippi University for Women offers one graduate nursing program, for family nurse practitioners. The program costs about $4,300 per semester and takes about three semesters to complete, according to the school’s website. Because the cost of the program is below the cap, the draft rule would not impact students attending this program. 

Brandy Larmon, the dean of the College of Nursing, said the school is assessing the potential risks of the loan caps, but is not currently concerned due to the short length of the program and low cost of attendance. 

Other graduate nursing student programs, and especially nurse anesthesia programs, can be more costly and take more time to complete. The University of Southern Mississippi’s graduate nurse anesthesia program costs about $30,000 annually, according to a spokesperson, and takes three years to complete.

If enacted, Guilamo-Ramos said he expects the proposed caps on student loans to affect advanced practice nurse staffing levels and exacerbate faculty shortages as soon as within the next one to two years. 

He added that the impact could be especially significant in Mississippi and across the South, where workforce shortages are already severe and health outcomes lag behind other regions.

“It worries me deeply that we would be losing nursing workforce in the very places that we need to have more people,” Guilamo-Ramos said. 

Education reporter Candice Wilder contributed to this report. 

This coverage is supported by a grant from Press Forward Mississippi, part of a nationwide philanthropic effort to strengthen local news so communities stay informed, connected and engaged.