A bill that would establish a clear pathway for Mississippians seeking to become professional midwives passed the House after dying in committee several years in a row.
“Midwives play an important role in our state, especially in areas where maternal health care is scarce,” said Rep. Dana McLean, R-Columbus and author of the bill. “I’m happy that House Bill 927 passed the House yesterday and urge our senators to join us in passing this much-needed legislation.”
Despite the legislation imposing regulations on the profession and mandating formalized training, many midwives have voiced their support of the bill. They say it will help them care more holistically for women and allow them new privileges like the ability to administer certain labor medications – and will open the door to insurance reimbursement in the future.
“We have so few midwives integrated in the system and so few midwives practicing in the state,” explained Amanda Smith, a midwife in Hattiesburg who went out of state to receive her professional midwifery license. “We believe that licensure really will help create a clear pathway so people know exactly how to become a midwife in Mississippi.”
It isn’t guaranteed that the bill would make midwifery more accessible to low-income women. But licensure makes it more likely.
Currently, neither Medicaid nor private insurance reimburse for unlicensed midwifery services. Licensing professional midwifery wouldn’t necessarily mean that insurance companies would immediately start reimbursing for the services, but it’s the only way they might.
A new federal program is seeking to make midwifery reimbursable by Medicaid.
Mississippi is one of 15 states chosen by the federal government to participate in a new grant program called the Transforming Maternal Health Model, which began in January 2025 and will work to expand access and reimbursement for services – including licensed midwifery.
The bill has historically faced opposition both from those who think it does too much, as well as those who think it does too little.
To those who think it overregulates the profession, McLean says her loyalty lies with her constituents and making sure they have the most transparency when seeking birth options. Currently, anyone can operate under the title midwife in the state of Mississippi – with no required standard of training.
“We are legitimizing (professional midwifery) … As a legislator, it’s my duty to try to protect the citizens of Mississippi,” McLean said. “And by putting this legislation forward, it helps to inform those clients that would want the services of a midwife but don’t know how to choose.”
As for those who think it does too little, McLean says the bill would leave the details up to a board – established by the bill and made up mostly of midwives – who would be able to decide requirements for professional midwifery better than a room full of lawmakers.
“There’s a lot of men in here that know a lot about birthing babies,” McLean said during a lively floor debate Thursday.
Editor’s note: This essay, offered through the American Forum, examines how Black Mississippi women are disproportionately harmed by instances of cervical cancer.
Mississippi, a state known for rich culture and strong heritage, also faces some of the nation’s most glaring health disparities. Among them is the inequity in cervical cancer prevention and treatment, which is often shaped by racism and systemic discrimination in healthcare.
Black women are more likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer at later stages and have a lower five-year survival rate, meaning they are less likely to survive for five years after diagnosis. Mississippi, which has the highest cervical cancer death rate in the country, is a stark example of this disparity. In the state, Black women are nearly 1.5 times more likely to die from cervical cancer than their white counterparts, even though the incidence rates between Black and white women are nearly identical.
Barbara Brooks
I am a community-based researcher and health equity advocate with over 20 years of experience addressing healthcare disparities in the Mississippi Delta. My work has brought me face-to-face with the structural barriers that continue to disproportionately harm Black women in our state. These barriers, rooted in systemic racism, perpetuate cycles of mistrust and disengagement with the healthcare system, further exacerbating health inequities.
When Black women experience bias or dismissal, trust in healthcare providers erodes, leading to avoidance of care and worse outcomes. For many Black women I interviewed, generational mistreatment by medical providers and institutions has left a justified and chronic skepticism about the intentions and reliability of healthcare systems. This discourages them from pursuing needed gynecological services. This mistrust complicates efforts to promote preventive care, such as regular screenings and timely treatment for cervical cancer, leaving many women hesitant to seek care from a system that has marginalized them for generations.
One woman I spoke with shared her experience of severe cramping from an IUD, only to be dismissed by her gynecologist’s office. When she was finally seen, the care she received was rushed and aggressive, leaving her feeling unheard and mistreated. It wasn’t until she switched providers that her concerns were properly addressed.
Another interviewee recounted her decision to avoid local doctors altogether after enduring substandard care in Washington County. “When I left Washington County, I was provided with better health care, and my health increased tremendously,” she said. Her story reflects a painful truth for many Black women in Mississippi: equitable, compassionate care often feels out of reach.
These individual stories are part of a broader, well-documented pattern. Research consistently shows that healthcare providers are less likely to recommend preventive measures like HPV vaccinations to Black patients. Providers also frequently dismiss Black women’s health concerns, resulting in delayed diagnoses and subpar treatment. This pattern of medical racism is more than an injustice—it is a public health crisis.
Cervical cancer should not be a death sentence in Mississippi or anywhere else. The eradication of the entrenched racism and discrimination in our healthcare system will move us closer to a future where every woman has an equal chance at prevention, treatment and survival.
Addressing these disparities requires more than acknowledgment; it demands action. We need increased investment in community health clinics to bring quality care to underserved areas. Cultural competency training for healthcare providers is equally essential to combat implicit bias and foster better relationships with patients.
Mississippi has the opportunity to lead by example in dismantling the systemic inequities that have plagued its healthcare system for far too long. By prioritizing health equity and addressing these disparities head-on, we can ensure that every woman in our state—regardless of race or zip code—has access to the preventive care and treatment she deserves.
Barbara Rose Brooks is a community-based researcher and a lifelong resident of Leland. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Alcorn State University and has dedicated 20-plus years of service to eradicating health disparities. The first African American female mayor elected in Leland in 2005, she is currently Leland’s vice mayor and a community health advisor with the Deep South Network for Cancer Control. Formerly Brooks was Project Development Officer for Tougaloo College’s Delta Health Partners Healthy Start Initiative. In 2021 the Delta Health Center’s Leland clinic was renamed the Barbara Brooks Medical Center in her honor.
Mothers and advocates with the Black Women’s Roundtable gathered at the Capitol Thursday and called on the Legislature to prioritize women and children this year.
Speakers asked lawmakers to act on a range of issues from midwifery care to child care, but all their priorities centered around making women more financially secure in the poorest state with the worst maternal health outcomes.
Advocates brought with them “money bags,” which they said would be placed on the desks of all lawmakers.
“Inside those money bags are coins that represent access to child care, access to health care, higher wages for families and the need to move paid family and medical leave,” said Robin Jackson, director of policy advocacy for the Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable. “We are not asking you anymore – we are telling you ‘Secure the bag for Mississippi families.’”
Shequite Wilson-Johnson, a mother of five and assistant professor at Mississippi Valley State University, spoke about her struggle to birth her children safely and with job security – even when she worked her way up the social ladder.
Wilson-Johnson was a teenager when she had her first baby. By her second child, she was in college, working up until the day she gave birth. With her third, she was married. With her fourth, she had a master’s degree, and with her fifth, a doctoral degree. But she received no paid leave for three of her children, and she was laid off twice after giving birth – including with her last child.
“Understand this: No matter how hard I worked, no matter how hard I tried, no matter the education I had, no matter the standard of life, I was still told, ‘You don’t matter,’” Wilson-Johnson said.
There are currently two bills moving through the Legislature that would create the state’s first paid parental leave mandate for state employees. The bills wouldn’t help people like Wilson-Johnson, but they would be a start, and might encourage the private sector to follow suit and “do the right thing,” said Rep. Kevin Felsher, R-Biloxi, and author of the House’s bill.
But it isn’t just about the money. Studies show that paid maternity leave drastically benefits the health of mothers and babies – including reducing postpartum depression and infant mortality, and increasing bonding and breastfeeding.
There are a dozen states that mandate paid parental leave across both private and public sectors. But the majority of states offer paid parental leave to state employees.
Sen. Angela Turner Ford speaks at the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson, Miss., on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Sen. Angela Turner-Ford, D-West Point, voiced her support for paid leave during the press conference.
“Our state does lag behind, whether it’s welcoming a newborn, caring for an elderly loved one, or managing a personal health crisis,” Turner-Ford said. “… Come back next year if we have not passed this legislation, hold us responsible, make us do more.”
Wilson-Johnson, of Indianola, also struggled to find adequate and affordable child care for her children, even when she worked at a child care center – a common plight for mothers everywhere.
Two out of five child care workers in America make so little they need public assistance to support their families. In Mississippi, there are so few child care employees willing to work under the industry’s conditions that it’s affecting every other sector of the job market, with moms staying out of work because they can’t find a safe day care in which to place their children. It’s costing Mississippi $8 billion, according to a report from the Mississippi Early Learning Alliance.
Bills aimed at allocating funds from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant, or TANF, to create child care vouchers for needy parents died in committee.
Advocates commended lawmakers for passing 12 months of postpartum Medicaid coverage in 2023, calling it “a win” – but emphasized the need to do more, and quickly. Mississippi, the state with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the nation, was among the last states to ensure that these mothers could continue their Medicaid coverage for a year after they gave birth – the time during which most maternal deaths occur.
In fact, between 2018 and 2023, the Mississippi Legislature only passed four bills related to maternal health, according to a study by researchers at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann told Mississippi Today he recognizes the need for legislative action supporting women, and that’s why he founded the Women, Children and Families Study Group, a Senate committee tasked with reviewing the needs of women and children in the state, in 2022. He said more maternal health bills were passed in the last two years than ever before.
“This session, I hope to build on that progress by passing bills for paid maternity leave for state employees and enhancing postpartum depression screening to ensure more effective and efficient care,” Hosemann said.
Correction 2/13/2025: This story has been updated to reflect the correct number of times Wilson-Johnson was offered paid leave after giving birth.
Nearly a year after he disappeared after going on a walk in Jackson and his body was discovered counties away in the Pearl River, Dau Mabil has been laid to rest, but questions about his death remain.
The 34-year-old Belhaven resident was buried Sunday and a celebration of life ceremony was held and attended by family and friends from the area, said Spencer Bowley, the brother of Dau’s wife, Karissa.
However, several key members of Dau’s family, including his older brother and birth mother who traveled from a Kenyan refugee camp last year, were not present or informed beforehand. Bul Mabil said he learned about his brother’s burial through someone else – not a member of the Bowley family – and he hasn’t received a response from them since he reached out Sunday.
“Why wouldn’t they reach out to us?” Bul Mabil asked during a Tuesday interview.
Spencer Bowley defended his sister and family’s decision not to inform Bul Mabil ahead of time because they believed he would potentially make the funeral service difficult. Mabil has accused members of the Bowley family of murdering his brother a number of times publicly on Facebook, which the family has continued to deny.
“We frankly didn’t feel safe informing him of what we were doing,” he said Wednesday.
Karissa Bowley, left, stands with her brother, Spencer Bowley, and mother, Bonnie Bowley, as she is consoled during a press conference about the death of her husband, Dau Mabil, in Jackson, Miss., on Friday, June 14, 2024. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
The mother of Dau’s son was told about the funeral beforehand and they were invited, but she and the boy were not able to attend, Spencer Bowley said. She could not be reached for comment.
Dau was buried months after two autopsies and a Capitol Police investigation were completed.
Bul Mabil has raised concerns about whether his brother would be cremated, saying as early as last year that their culture does not permit it. Bowley said Wednesday that cremation was not part of the plan to put Dau to rest because his wife knew it was against his wishes.
Dau and his brother came to Jackson in 2000 as “Lost Boys” of Sudan who fled war. They were among 50 boys who came to Missisisppi through the help of local churches.
Karissa Bowley reported her husband missing March 25, 2024, after he left their Belhaven home to walk around an area in town where the couple was known to go.
Last image of Dau Mabil on Jefferson Street in Jackson, Miss., before he disappeared on March 25, 2024.
On April 13,2024, fishermen spotted a body in the Pearl River in Lawrence County – over 50 miles downstream from Jackson. A preliminary autopsy by local officials identified the body as that of Dau and the sheriff said there was no evidence of foul play.
Since the discovery of Dau’s body, Bul Mabil has questioned whether his brother was the victim of a homicide. That suspicion led him to file a lawsuit against Karissa Bowley to prevent the release of Dau’s body to her until an independent autopsy could be conducted.
In court, insinuationswere directed at Bowley and members of her family, and at one point Karissa Bowley’s attorney asked if she had anything to do with her husband’s death, to which Bowley responded no. The hearing in Hinds County Chancery Court was for a civil case rather than a criminal one.
Chancery Judge Dewayne Thomas later dismissed Bul’s lawsuit and affirmedthat Karissa Bowley, as Dau’s widow, was his next of kin who has legal authority over how to handle his remains.
Thomas did, however, allow an independent autopsy to be conducted at the “direction and expense” of Bul Mabil.
A second autopsy was completed in August in Florida by Dr. Daniel Schultz – a pathologist approved by Karissa Bowley over one proposed by Bul Mabil, according to court records.
In a recent email, Bul disagreed with previous reporting that he agreed with Karissa Bowley to use Schultz. Instead, he said the court forced him to use that pathologist “or else the second autopsy would not have been conducted.”
The second autopsy shared with Mississippi Today is longer and more thorough than the first completed by the state, but it arrived at the same conclusion: Dau died from drowning and his manner of death was undetermined.
It addresses allegations of a video showing what is believed to be Dau’s abduction and harm. Schultz wrote he watched the video repeatedly and didn’t find evidence to support the claims, noting that the video showed a blurred image from a distance likely moving but not a specific activity.
“And it is extremely important to also consider the context of the two independent autopsies (one by the state and one by a pathologist [myself] effectively hired by those who think that this might be a homicide and want to clarify),” Schultz wrote.
“My role is to be honest and neutral. And in that vein, there is no evidence of foul play.”
The report provides more context about how Dau ended up in the Pearl River. The place where he entered the water is unknown, but the report states a reasonable location could be the dam near the water treatment plant, which is an area where Dau walked.
Google Earth pictures included in the report show a 1.4-mile distance between where Dau was last seen in video surveillance and the dam.
The pathologist wrote Dau’s manner of death as undetermined because available information make it difficult to distinguish whether his death was an accident or by suicide.
To support that conclusion was a new finding of a bite mark on Dau’s tongue, which the pathologist said likely happened from a seizure from drowning after entering the river or before due to a seizure related to consumption of alcohol.
The report noted Dau had a “history of chronic alcohol abuse” supported by several pieces of information, including how his wife reported him drinking more than a dozen alcoholic beverages in a week and how he experienced shakes that could be a sign of withdrawal.
It also notes how a person who saw Dau in the early morning before he disappeared smelled alcohol on him, and how former coworkers at times saw him drunk at work.
Toxicology reports can’t pinpoint whether Dau had alcohol in his system at the time of his death because alcohol is a common byproduct of decomposition, the report noted.
Spencer Bowley said the family had some reason to believe alcohol may have been a contributing factor in Dau’s death, and the autopsy report supports that. Overall, he said they are glad to have more information that wasn’t available earlier on and in the previous autopsy report.
Bul Mabil disagreed with the report’s emphasis on Dau’s alcohol consumption and a years-old DUI charge, which he said made it seem like Dau caused his own death.
He also wanted to learn more about the bite mark in the report, which was called a deep muscular hemorrhage, and found a scientific journal article that suggested such injuries on the tongue could be evidence of strangulation from homicide.
Bul Mabil said he shared the journal article with the pathologist and asked if it could be incorporated into his findings, but the pathologist did not, andhe said it felt the information was dismissed.
Mabil said the emphasis on Dau’s drinking, findings about the tongue injury and what he sees as a failure to incorporate other evidence of a crime against Dau leads him to see the recent report as biased.
He is looking to hire a new attorney and a private investigator to uncover new information and a forensic pathologist to review the recent autopsy report.
“It’s very difficult for me to accept any report and to give up on my brother’s case,” Mabil said in a video posted on Facebook Sunday evening.
The House on Thursday will likely let a proposal that would restore voters’ right to sidestep the Legislature and put measures on a statewide ballot die without a vote.
House Constitution Chairman Price Wallace, a Republican from Mendenhall, told Mississippi Today that he would let the measure die by Thursday’s legislative deadline because he believed the Senate would not be receptive to any ballot initiative proposal.
“They’re not taking it up on that end of the building, so there’s no sense in us fighting about it down here,” Wallace said of the Senate.
This would be the fourth straight year that lawmakers at the Capitol have been unable to agree on restoring the ballot initiative after the state Supreme Court in 2021 ruled the state’s initiative was unworkable because of the signature-gathering process.
Despite the Mississippi Constitution explicitly stating that voters still have a right to offer amendments through an initiative process, citizens have no process to change state laws or the state Constitution.
Since the court’s ruling that the initiative process was invalidated, some lawmakers have questioned whether Mississippi needs an initiative and raised concerns that uber-wealthy out-of-state donors can use their wealth to manipulate voters through a ballot initiative.
During the 30 years that the state had an initiative, only seven proposals made it to a statewide ballot: two initiatives for term limits, eminent domain, voter ID, a personhood amendment, medical marijuana and a measure forcing lawmakers to fund public education fully.
Of those seven, only eminent domain, voter ID and medical marijuana were approved by voters. The rest were rejected.
Archie Manning remembers Kellen Moore coming to the Manning Passing Academy at Thibodaux, Louisiana, as a counselor during the summer of 2010, just before Moore’s junior season at Boise State.
Moore had just turned 22. But, said Manning, “He looked like he was 12.”
“I remember him as a really nice, polite kid, a left-hander” Manning said. “He was a coach’s son. His daddy was a legendary high school coach in Washington (state). I remember that he didn’t have the arm strength that a lot of the quarterbacks we bring in have. He wasn’t a big guy, but he was really accurate and he knew where to go with the ball. He impressed me as being really, really smart, ahead of the game. As so many coaches’ sons do, he really understood the game.
“I don’t know how much he got from us, but he must have enjoyed the camp and gotten something out of it because he came back the next year.”
Yes, and Moore has enjoyed south Louisiana a lot lately. Sunday, in the Superdome, he called the plays for the Philadelphia Eagles in their Super Bowl trouncing of the two-time defending NFL champion Kansas City Chiefs. He was back in the Crescent City Wednesday to start his new job as head coach of the New Orleans Saints.
Fixing the Saints will be much more difficult than torching the Chiefs, and we will get to that shortly. But first some more background on Moore, who will not turn 37 until July. Most college football fans will remember Moore for his remarkable four-year run as the starting quarterback at Boise. After redshirting as a freshman, he led the Broncos to a ridiculous 50-3 record over the next four seasons 2008-11. Southern Miss fans should recall that in 2008, Moore’s freshman season, Boise State came to Hattiesburg and trounced a good Jeff Bower-coached Southern Miss team 24-7. For his Boise career, he completed 70% of his passes for nearly 15,000 yards. He threw for 142 touchdowns, compared to just 28 interceptions. Clearly, he was really accurate and did know where to go with the football, which was quite often into the end zone.
Despite all those gaudy statistics, Moore was not drafted. He wasn’t quite six feet tall and, again, he lacked elite arm strength. He signed as a free agent with the Detroit Lions and played sparingly over six NFL seasons with the Lions and the Cowboys, retiring in 2017.
The Cowboys, who saw firsthand Moore’s football knowledge, hired him in 2018 as their quarterbacks coach. In 2019, at age 32 he was promoted to offensive coordinator. He has also served, successfully, as offensive coordinator of the San Diego Chargers (2023) and, of course, the Eagles last season. Perhaps the best way to put into perspective his contributions to the Eagles’ championship run is this: In 2023, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts threw 15 interceptions and had a passer rating of 89.1. Under Moore, Hurts threw just five interceptions and had a passer rating of 103.7. That’s a huge, huge jump.
No doubt, naysayers will point out that calling successful plays with Hurts throwing and running, A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith catching, and Saquon Barkley running should not be confused with inventing the wheel. And those same critics will correctly say Moore won’t have that many highly skilled weapons to work with in New Orleans. (He also will not have the same quality offensive line wearing black and gold as he had wearing green and silver.)
Other critics will question whether a guy who will have just turned 37 when the 2025 Saints begin training camp will have the experience (both football- and management-wise) to command an NFL coaching staff and football team. And, frankly, given the choice I probably would have at least gauged the interest of highly successful Baltimore Ravens’ offensive coordinator Todd Monken before hiring a guy 23 years younger and with far less experience, none as a head coach.
But we all know Sean McVay coached the Los Angeles Rams to the Super Bowl at age 32 and won it all at age 36. You don’t have to have a gray beard to coach football. That said, Moore is only a year older than Saints defensive stars Demario Davis and Cam Jordan. A bigger problem for Moore is that the league’s youngest head coach will inherit one of the league’s oldest rosters. At the risk of mixing cliches, the Saints are as long in the tooth as their new coach is wet behind the ears.
Manning, who still closely watches his hometown team, put it this way: “Kellen’s got his hands full. The Saints have some issues.”
The biggest of those: The Saints are a league-worst $54 million over the NFL salary cap. Some of those salaries must be slashed or eliminated. The league’s youngest head coach faces huge decisions, beginning with what to do about quarterback. Go with Derek Carr? Or start over and go younger? The Saints do have the ninth pick of the upcoming draft. That’s just for starters. As Manning put it, the Saints have issues, as in plural. It’s hard to get a whole lot better while chopping the payroll so drastically.
This all will be interesting to watch. And we should all remember what happened the last time the Saints hired a young, former Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator as their young head coach. Sean Payton, like Moore, had never been a head coach before he took the Saints job. That worked out pretty well, did it not?
Deep South Today is pleased to announce that it has received a $300,000 grant from The Kresge Foundation. This generous funding will be primarily utilized by Mississippi Today to establish a new Jackson Desk, dedicated to providing in-depth coverage of Mississippi’s capital city.
“This generous support from The Kresge Foundation strengthens the ability of our award-winning newsroom in Mississippi to further meet its mission to provide essential local journalism to the communities it serves,” said Warwick Sabin, President and CEO of Deep South Today. “It is particularly meaningful in that it will deepen Mississippi Today’s coverage of the state’s largest city during an important municipal election year, when the need for reliable information will be even more critical.”
“In a world overflowing with information, supporting local journalism is more important than ever,” said Kevin Gray, program officer with the Kresge Foundation’s American Cities Program. “Journalism bridges divides, amplifies diverse voices, and keeps us informed about the issues that matter in our communities – and the Kresge Foundation’s American Cities Program is proud to support Deep South Today as it continues its work of telling community stories with integrity and care.”
Mississippi Today’s Jackson desk, led by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anna Wolfe, will focus on four reporting themes that get to the heart of the needs of Jacksonians:
Quality of life: infrastructure, schools, crime, mental health
Cost of living: jobs, wages, poverty, housing
Culture and resilience: entrepreneurship, community outreach, arts, civic engagement
Government: voter apathy, corruption, distrust in institutions
“In every way, Jackson matters,” said Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today editor-in-chief. “It’s a capital city with the future of a struggling state on its shoulders. The most populous city in our state, it’s too often defined by its problems and not nearly enough by its successes and opportunities. It’s our home, and its progress and success means everything to each and every Mississippian. It’s really as simple as the age-old Magnolia State adage: As goes Jackson, so goes Mississippi.”
About Deep South Today and Mississippi Today
Deep South Today is a nonprofit network of local newsrooms that includes Mississippi Today and Verite News. Founded in 2016, Mississippi Today is now one of the largest newsrooms in the state, and in 2023 it won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. With its regional scale and scope, Deep South Today is rebuilding and re-energizing local journalism in communities where it had previously eroded, and ensuring its long-term growth and sustainability.
About The Kresge Foundation
The Kresge Foundation was founded in 1924 to promote human progress. Today, Kresge fulfills that mission by building and strengthening pathways to opportunity for low-income people in America’s cities, seeking to dismantle structural and systemic barriers to equality and justice. Using a full array of grant, loan, and other investment tools, Kresge invests more than $160 million annually to foster economic and social change. For more information visit kresge.org.
A bill that would allow some Mississippi parents to use taxpayer money to pay for private school does not have the support to pass this session, House leaders said Wednesday.
The early demise of one of Republican House Speaker Jason White’s top policy priorities came after proponents and opponents battled to sway lawmakers. As outside forces lobbied lawmakers, they were themselves engaged in closed-door jockeying. In a private House Republican caucus meeting on Tuesday, White discovered the GOP majority could not reach an agreement.
“You probably won’t see us take up that bill,” White said on Wednesday. “We don’t have a consensus.”
House Education Chairman Rob Roberson’s legislation, House Bill 1433, would have allowed students who were enrolled in a district rated D or F within the past five years to use the state portion of their base student cost — money that would normally go to their local public school — and use it to pay for private school tuition. Students could only use the money at a private school if there were not an A- or B-rated district willing to accept them within 30 miles of their home.
Proponents of the legislation said it would give parents greater autonomy to customize their children’s education. White touted the proposal as a key component in a package of education bills that align with President Donald Trump’s executive order promoting “school choice.”
“School choice, whether anybody in this circle or this Capitol likes it, is coming,” White said. “You have a president who was elected with a national mandate who has made it one of his top priorities. You have a ruby red state in Mississippi who voted overwhelmingly for President Trump.”
The bill also prompted consternation among opponents, who argued the proposed law was unconstitutional and could undermine public schools serving some of the state’s neediest students. The legislation also does not cover transportation costs for students who wish to transfer to schools outside their home district, an omission that Democrats said would limit opportunities for poor families.
But ideological and practical disagreements among House Republicans ultimately sank the bill. Some Republicans felt it didn’t go far enough and wanted universal school choice. Others wanted to start with a pilot program. And there was a cloud of uncertainty around the Trump administration, which has floated eliminating the U.S. Department of Education and making drastic spending cuts.
“So we’re all over the place in exactly what it looks like, and it was tough to find consensus on that,” White said. “It seemed like not finding a consensus and then a president who said the federal government is fixing to get involved in this in the way that we send federal money to states, it was probably good for us to hit the pause button and figure out what looks like.”
The bill passed out of the House Education Committee on a voice vote last week after Roberson denied Democrats’ request for a roll call where each member’s vote could be recorded.
In conversations with committee members, three Republicans told Mississippi Today they would have voted no. Five Republicans declined to reveal how they would have voted and two Republicans said they favored advancing the bill out of committee but were unsure how they would have voted had the bill come before the full House. All the Democrats on the committee reached by Mississippi Today said they opposed the bill.
Rep. Dana McLean, a Republican from Columbus, walked out of the committee meeting when the bill came up for debate. McLean declined to comment on how she would have voted on the measure and walked away from reporters when pressed for more specifics. McLean will likely have to run in a special election this year because of redistricting.
Opponents said it was clear the bill did not have the votes to advance out of committee, so Roberson advanced the measure on a voice vote with uncertain results. White — who pointed out that voice votes are common practice under the Legislature’s procedures — also acknowledged that members might have wanted to spare themselves from taking a tough vote.
“This won’t surprise you, but some members don’t want to be on the roll call in committee, on both sides of the aisle,” White said.
According to multiple House members, White asked Republican House members to simply advance the measure out of the Committee, but he did not suggest it would pass the full House chamber on the floor.
As those discussions between lawmakers were taking place in private, public school advocates waged a furious campaign to scuttle the bill ahead of a Thursday legislative deadline.
Mississippi Professional Educators, the state’s largest teachers union, warned in an email to supporters that pro-school choice lobbyists were polling House members over the weekend on whether they supported House Bill 1433.
They also said the legislation would open the door to a wider-reaching policy in the future that would allow all public school students in the state to use taxpayer money for private schools, not just those who attend D or F rated schools.
“If HB 1433 should make it through the legislative process and be passed into law, it opens the door for universal school choice and vouchers in our state,” wrote Kelly Riley, the union’s executive director.
White confirmed on Wednesday that some Republican House members support such a policy.
The school choice push has been intertwined with debates over race and class in education. Those against school choice say the policies could effectively re-segregate schools. School choice supporters say some high-performing school districts fight school choice measures to avoid accepting students from poor and minority backgrounds.
White said school choice measures — which also include making it easier for students to transfer between public schools and attend charter schools — improve competition and student outcomes.
Even as House Bill 1433 appeared dead, the House passed another bill that would increase the number of charter schools in the state. The bill would allow charter schools to open in an additional 31-35 districts, which Democrats said would further starve existing public schools of resources.
It is not clear whether that bill has enough support to pass the Senate, where school choice measures have been a tougher sell.
Roberson said members were left wondering what the Trump’s administration broad definition of school choice could mean for the state. Prematurely locking the state into the proposed law could have shut the state out of federal money in the future, he said.
“We gathered in the office to look at this to see ‘ok, well what does this mean,’” Roberson said of the Trump administration’s proposals. “And of course, none of us really know exactly what that means. Especially in view of the fact that you have such a wide definition of what school choice is.”
