OurTupelo

Note: This editorial anchored Mississippi Today’s weekly legislative newsletter. Subscribe to our free newsletter for exclusive access to legislative analysis and up-to-date information about what’s happening under the Capitol dome.

The bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Jackson is glued to the legislative debate over Medicaid expansion.

The leader of more than 50,000 Catholics in 65 Mississippi counties, Bishop Joseph Kopacz has good reason to tune in. Priests in his diocese serve poverty-gripped Mississippi communities where so many people cannot afford basic health care. Church leaders regularly visit the state’s hospitals and see firsthand how dire the financial crisis has become for hospitals struggling to cover the costs of serving uninsured patients. Kopacz himself has served on the board of St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson, which has been forced to eliminate numerous services in recent years as its leaders struggle to balance its budget.

As lawmakers for the first time seriously consider Medicaid expansion, which experts say would provide health insurance to hundreds of thousands of Mississippians and save the state’s hospitals millions each year, Kopacz is one of many faith leaders watching closely.

“This opportunity is golden,” Kopacz told me in an interview on Holy Thursday. “All the factors are in place to bring this about for the common good and the real care for the people of our state. It’s too important to ignore when we know the need is there, and we know there’s a real financial capacity to implement this in our state.”

READ MORE: Negotiations begin: Where do House, Senate, governor stand on Medicaid expansion? Is there room for compromise?

I wanted to hear Kopacz’s thoughts about Medicaid expansion for a few reasons. First, he and others at the diocese have been front-and-center as a coalition of faith leaders work to get expansion — long believed to be a pipe dream in conservative Mississippi — across the finish line this session. Continuing a long and impactful legacy of social activism in Mississippi, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish clergy have led calls this session for lawmakers to expand Medicaid.

Second, we’ve heard a cascade of cries lately from opponents of expansion — some self-proclaimed conservatives — about the dangers of using Christian faith principles to advocate for such a policy change. “Jesus is not a political weapon to be turned on our political enemies and Scripture does not exist to be twisted to fit our political agenda,” one commentator wrote recently. I thought calling in an actual biblical expert might be helpful to us all.

Third, two of the most important Republican leaders at the table for this debate — Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Sen. Kevin Blackwell — are devout Catholics. Hosemann and Blackwell have led the Senate’s development of an expansion plan, which experts say isn’t considered expansion at all. Their plan, if implemented, would insure far fewer Mississippians than traditional expansion, would leave hundreds of millions of federal dollars at the table, and would likely never go into effect at all because of a strict work requirement that the federal government will not approve. And in passing their plan, the two Senate leaders tossed aside an earlier House proposal that would have actually gone into effect, insured hundreds of thousands more Mississippians, and drawn down the full $1 billion-plus of annual federal funds available.

READ MORE: Senate passes pared-down Medicaid expansion plan with veto-proof majority

Kopacz, ever humble and mild-mannered, declined to speak directly about Hosemann and Blackwell during our interview. But he did speak very specifically about aspects of the two Senate leaders’ plan.

“The work requirement (under the Senate plan) could make this unnecessarily insurmountable,” Kopacz said. “It would be really unfair and unjust not to be able to move this plan forward because of too rigid of an approach to work. And look, I certainly embrace work. Part of our Catholic social teaching demands that of us. Work is a big part of being a productive citizen. But so many people cannot work at all for various reasons. I understand it’s important to many lawmakers, but the work requirement cannot be absolute. It could just completely derail the whole effort.”

Several times in our interview, Kopacz referenced Catholic social teaching. Being a Presbyterian preacher’s kid with a strong tendency to go down theological rabbit holes, I wanted to know more about that and did some reading. What I found was an extraordinary distillation of the Christian argument for expansion — and a clear set of principles for why Kopacz is so strongly advocating for it in this moment.

There are seven themes of Catholic social teaching, and all but one of them have direct bearing on Mississippi’s current debate about Medicaid expansion. This literature is not biblical scripture, of course, but the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops base their writing directly and clearly in biblical passages.

Italicized text is pulled directly from the bishops’ text, followed by quotes from Kopacz that add further context.

Life and dignity of the human person. The Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society.

“Another way of appreciating that is a real integral pro-life vision for our communities and our state would be all that helps life to flourish. Health care is a very important part of this,” Kopacz said.

Option for the poor and vulnerable. A basic moral test is how our most vulnerable members are faring. In a society marred by deepening divisions between rich and poor, our tradition recalls the story of the Last Judgment and instructs us to put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first.

“There’s economic opportunity in this state, but often where it falls short is when people haven’t had necessarily the best conditions educationally or certainly with health care,” Kopacz said. “Poverty can really hurt a person’s well-being, and that’s why something like Medicaid expansion is so important. So many people in this state are hurting. Medicaid expansion can help.”

Rights and responsibilities. The Catholic tradition teaches that human dignity can be protected and a healthy community can be achieved only if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met.

“Health care is a right, and it should not be denied when it can be provided,” Kopacz said, echoing decades of Catholic leadership writings on the matter. “It’s not a political issue, it’s a right.”

The dignity of work and the rights of workers. The economy must serve people, not the other way around. Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God’s creation. If the dignity of work is to be protected, then the basic rights of workers must be respected – the right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to the organization and joining of unions, to private property, and to economic initiative.

“Work is a big part of being a productive citizen. I’m all for it,” Kopacz said. “However, there are just too many pieces to life in terms of health. Situations of loss in people’s lives, whatever could happen that knocks people on their heels for a long time. There are just too many complex areas of life that cannot be overlooked right now. I believe a vast majority of people are working and will work. But not everyone can.”

Perhaps non-Catholic lawmakers and readers of this column aren’t moved by the bishop’s words and some papal and conciliar documents. For those folks, here are just a handful of biblical scriptures cited by Christian leaders advocating for Medicaid expansion at the Capitol this session: Matthew 25:40; Luke 10:35; Proverbs 11:25; Romans 13:10; John 13:34-35; and Luke 6:20.

Meanwhile, Kopacz and other clergy are planning at least one more Capitol rally as Senate and House leaders begin trying to hammer out an expansion plan in the conference committee process.

The way these leaders see it, they aren’t twisting scripture for political purposes. They’re letting it guide their advocacy for a transformative policy that would save lives and help so many Mississippians in need.

“There seems to be a groundswell of desire that there be a more just reality in our state for people in need of health care,” Kopacz said. “I do think in a way there’s no turning back here. To wait another year is really just — people are in need now. The people of Mississippi, in the last several years, have indicated they support it. I’m just hoping the lawmakers can make this a reality.”

PODCAST: Inside faith leaders’ push to expand Medicaid in Mississippi

The post The Christian argument for Medicaid expansion appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Defending national champion UConn will play Purdue for the NCAA men’s national championship tonight, and it should be a competitive and thoroughly entertaining game.

But before we go there, let’s examine the team that best exemplifies the remarkable transformation of college basketball in recent years with the transfer portal, NIL and a pandemic, which have made for a general state of fruit basket turnover.

That team would be the Alabama Crimson Tide, a thoroughly eclectic group of vagabond talents who came together for an amazing NCAA Tournament run before losing a hard-fought battle to UConn in the semifinals. The final score of 86-72 was in no way indicative of how competitive the Crimson Tide was against the team favored to win a second consecutive national title.

Even the most diehard of Alabama basketball fans needed a program to know the players when the season began. They came from everywhere. You had Grant Nelson, from Devils Lake, North Dakota (population 7,192), who had played his first three college basketball seasons at North Dakota State of the Summit Conference. You had dynamic point guard Mark Sears, who transferred in from Ohio University of the Mid-American Conference year ago. Sears, who hails from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, had a pit stop at Hargraves (Va.) Military Academy before his two seasons at Ohio.

We are just getting started. New Jersey native Aaron Estrada, the shooting guard and second leading scorer behind Sears, who began his college odyssey at St. Peters, transferred to Oregon and then to Hofstra of the Coastal Athletic Association, before finally winding up at Bama.

Want more? South Carolinian Nick Pringle, who played power forward, started his college basketball at Wofford College of the Southern Conference, where he played sparingly as a freshman. From there, Pringle went to Dodge City Community College where he spent a season before landing at Bama, where he has improved mightily in two seasons.

There’s more, but you get the point. Of the five Crimson Tide starters against UConn, only one — wingman Rylen Griffin from Dallas — began his collegiate days the traditional way at Alabama.

Credit fifth-year Tide coach Nate Oats for bringing together such a divergent cast and weaving it together to lead the nation in scoring, win 25 games and play its way into the national spotlight. And Oats would be the perfect guy to assemble such a group of guys who mostly began their careers at mid-major schools, some making multiple stops, before winding up at Bama. After all, Oats played at Division III Marantha Baptist (Wisconsin) University, and coached there first before moving to Wisconsin-Whitewater, Romulus (Michigan) High School and then the University of Buffalo (Mid-American Conference).

Clearly, Alabama players took similarly circuitous routes to reach college basketball’s big-time and lead the Tide to the first Final Four in school history.

Alabama is probably the most successful illustration of college basketball’s sea change, but it’s happening all over. North Carolina State, another Final Four darling, came from out of nowhere with seven transfers, including all five starters. UConn has three transfers among its key players. Only Purdue, among the Final Four teams, relies primarily on its own recruits. The Boilermakers have had just two transfers over the past four seasons.

Here in Mississippi? Fruit basket turnover, it is. At Ole Miss, Matthew Murrell was the only Ole Miss regular who began his college career in Oxford. At State, five of the seven highest scorers began their careers elsewhere. At Southern Miss, none of the 10 leading scorers began their college basketball careers in Hattiesburg. 

Who knows what the rosters at all three schools will look like next year? Answer: At this point, nobody.

What does this mean for college basketball’s future? No question, the fan bases that invest most generously in NIL collectives will have the best chance of making the turnarounds that Alabama and North Carolina State have enjoyed this season.

Seems to this observer it will become much more difficult for the so-called mid-majors to pull the stunning upsets and make the Cinderella runs that have made the NCAA Tournament so thoroughly entertaining through the years. Schools such as Davidson, Loyola (Chicago), Butler, Virginia Commonwealth, Loyola Marymount and St. Peters have slayed Goliaths and won multiple tournament games. Now that the power conference schools can cherry pick mid-major talent through the portal, that will be more difficult. You think North Dakota State couldn’t have made some noise if Grant Nelson hadn’t moved on to Alabama?

There’s a flip side to all this. With so much roster turnover, the turnarounds will go both ways. Not only will schools like Alabama and North Carolina State make unexpected runs, but proud programs like Michigan (8-24 this year), Notre Dame (13-20), West Virginia (9-23), Georgetown (9-23), UCLA (16-17 and Southern Cal (15-18) will have some disastrous (for them) seasons. The portal giveth, the portal taketh away. Lose a couple players in the portal, make a couple more bad portal selections and even the best programs can go south in a hurry.

It’s a new world in college basketball. A strange, unpredictable world.

The post In college hoops, ‘maybe next year’ could now mean a whole new team appeared first on Mississippi Today.

An Indianola mother whose call to police for help in a domestic disturbance left her 11-year-old shot in the chest by one of the officers could lose custody of her son along with his younger sister and cousin. 

The children’s presence and Aderrien Murry’s injury on the early morning of May 20, 2023, serve as the basis for neglect allegations and potential action by the Sunflower County Youth Court, according to Carlos Moore, the family’s attorney. 

“If it was really about the best interest of the children, I think this would have been set much sooner, not 11 months later,” he said Friday.

The action comes after Nakala Murry, Aderrien’s mother, pushed forward with a criminal affidavit against Sgt. Greg Capers for misdemeanor simple assault after a grand jury in December declined to indict him. 

Moore will represent Aderrien and his mother in an April 17 youth court adjudication hearing to determine whether the children have been neglected and need to be placed in the custody and care of someone else. 

A petition alleging neglect was filed in August, several months after Aderrien called for help and officers from the Indianola Police Department responded. Standing in the doorway, Capers shot the boy as he rounded the corner. Capers has previously said in court records that the shooting was an accident and he expected to encounter Nakala Murry’s partner who came to the house. 

Aderrien suffered a collapsed lung, fractured ribs and a lacerated liver, and he was taken nearly two hours away to a Jackson hospital where he was treated with a chest tube and placed on oxygen. 

The petition states that Aderrien “got hurt because of the domestic violence between the mother, Nakala Murry, and her boyfriend,” who is the father of Nakala’s daughter, according to court records shared with Mississippi Today. Additionally, the petition states domestic violence has occurred between them for years and the partner was known to assault Nakala Murry in front of the children. 

“The reporter wanted someone to check on the children because something worse can happen next time,” the petition states. 

In over 20 years of practicing law, Moore said he has never encountered a situation, such as the one Murry is in, where someone is facing potential loss of custody of their children because they have been a victim of domestic violence. 

He also believes the youth court proceedings are retribution for an ongoing federal lawsuit Nakala Murry filed against Capers, Police Chief Ronald Sampson and the city of Indianola. 

Under state law, the identity of those who report child abuse and neglect are confidential.  

Nakala Murry has been distraught about the neglect allegations and upcoming youth court hearing, but Moore is reminding her that going through this is better than if her son had died last year. 

“She is an awesome mom and shouldn’t have to endure something like this because her son was shot by a police officer,” Moore said. 

The post Mom whose 11-year-old was shot by police after she sought help now at risk of losing her kids appeared first on Mississippi Today.

BOONEVILLE — Northeast Mississippi Community College was running out of space, so after years of saving, it bought an empty furniture warehouse five minutes outside this small town. 

The plan is to fill the 350,000 square feet with the college’s growing career-technical education programs, setting up everything from classrooms, labs and offices to conference space that could support economic development in the five rural counties that comprise the northeastern-most state lines of Mississippi. 

“I can see it in my mind,” said Chris Murphy, the college’s vice president of finance, standing in the mostly empty warehouse on a recent Thursday. 

Two years later, the warehouse is still mostly empty. In the cavernous space, there are ant hills next to cardboard boxes belonging to a tenant whose business helped the college pay off the building’s roughly $3 million note (the total cost was about $7 million). Outside, weeds poke through the cracked pavement. 

Without help affording at least half of the estimated $15 million in renovations, the warehouse will stay that way, Murphy said.

Until then, the community college and its students will make do with the current career-technical facilities, housed in decades-old brick buildings on the main campus, where conditions are moldy, grimy, cluttered and water-damaged. 

Though $15 million may not sound like much, it’s a big ask for the state’s historically neglected community college system. And NEMCC isn’t alone: Many community colleges across the state are struggling with unmet needs, especially on the infrastructure side, even though lawmakers have drawn from the state’s excess revenue to provide what may be more funding than ever before. 

Not every college has benefited equally. Though all 15 schools have received routine funds for new buildings, repairs or renovations, some colleges have gotten additional appropriations for line-item projects while others, including NEMCC, have not. 

Lawmakers acknowledged this disparity earlier this year and said they are working to fix it. 

“I want to make sure that I keep the big boys happy, and they get their fair share, but just, also … we’ve got to do something for the smaller community colleges to keep them afloat,” said Rep. Donnie Scoggin, R-Ellisville, chair of the House Colleges and Universities Committee during an appropriations hearing earlier this year. 

But it may not be enough to correct for years of paltry funding. Mississippi has historically used bonds to fund capital projects for state entities. In 2021, the most recent year lawmakers gave out bonds, the entire 15-college system received $35 million, according to the Mississippi Community College Board. 

That’s about the highest amount ever received in bonds by the community college system. And yet, the eight universities got more than $86 million in bonds that year, despite educating fewer students than the community colleges. 

For colleges tasked with shepherding the state’s ambitious workforce development programs, the meager funding means they’re educating students in facilities that are falling behind the conditions of private industry. 

“The idea that working in a factory is dark, dangerous, dingy is not true,” said Greg James, NEMCC’s director of workforce systems. Students “need to see the environment they’re gonna be working in.”

“I don’t think I need new equipment anytime soon,” he added. “I need buildings to put it in.”

Dead ladybugs line the windows, which aren’t insulated. A wide refrigerator is broken; another fridge can’t get cold enough. A sink in the back galley is out of commission, the pipes rusting and broken. One time in recent years, water leaked through the floor onto computers in the office below. 

Other career-tech classes are in brick buildings with flat roofs prone to leaking. In a classroom with dead cockroaches and chalkboards, air-compressor equipment is squished together in rows that don’t resemble a factory. In an industrial lab, a basin sink is covered in grime, and the door to the nearby tool room is metal. 

“That looks like a prison to me,” said Nadara Cole, NEMCC’s vice president for workforce training and economic development. But, she joked, at least the leather-and-chrome chairs the college can’t afford to replace are back in style. 

Cole is getting ready to retire. She’s worked at NEMCC since the early 1990s, and in that time, the college has been unable to build any new career-tech facilities. The existing buildings, which she said were all constructed during an older push for vocational programs in the 1960s, are almost as old as she is. 

All the community colleges struggle with funding. With roughly 90,000 students, the community colleges educate more students than Mississippi’s public universities, but they are expected to do so with lower tuition and less state appropriations. 

This imbalance, Cole and others say, is directly reflected in the way the community colleges look which, in turn, affects recruitment. Students who tour NEMCC sometimes come from high schools that are in better shape, she said. 

“It’s subliminally telling them, ‘you’re the stepchildren,’” Cole said.

“That is the image we sometimes feel we are projecting because we don’t look as nice,” she added. 

The 15 community colleges received $396 million in operational support and capital funding last year, compared to the more than $1.1 billion appropriation for the eight universities, a figure that doesn’t include state financial aid. 

It’s not a recent phenomenon: From 1989 to 2021, the community colleges have received one-third the bond funds the universities have, according to figures compiled by MCCB. This means capital projects at the colleges move slower, because they must wait years to accumulate enough bonds, all while the cost of construction increases with inflation. 

Kell Smith, the MCCB director, said he doesn’t know why lawmakers don’t appropriate an equitable amount of bonds to the colleges, except possibly because state laws require counties within a community college district to provide additional tax revenue for the “enlargement, improvement and repair” of the campuses. 

“I hate to say that’s the way it’s always been,” Smith said. 

People are growing more skeptical about the value of higher education. More rural residents are graduating from high school, but people in those communities remain less likely than their suburban and urban peers to continue their education. This 10-part series from the Rural News Network, made possible with support from Ascendium, explores how institutions and students are meeting their educational needs and the demands of today’s rural workforce. 

For rural colleges like NEMCC that don’t have the tax base of a Tupelo or DeSoto County, this means they don’t have significant funding alternatives when state appropriations are low. NEMCC is located in Prentiss County, where nearly 17% of its population of less than 25,000 lives below the poverty line.

NEMCC gets about $4 million a year from millage from its five counties, Murphy said. 

The formula that lawmakers use for routine appropriations for repairs and renovations also poses another funding ceiling for rural colleges. Last year, lawmakers appropriated $50 million such funds based on a formula that is one-half evenly split among the colleges and one-half full-time equivalent enrollment, meaning colleges got more money if they had more students.

With about 2,500 students, NEMCC isn’t the smallest colleges in Mississippi, but it can’t compete with ones that draw enrollment from the state’s metro areas.  

Jason Mattox, the associate vice president for career and technical education, said NEMCC receives federal funds for career-tech programs, but the amount is too small to address all the equipment issues in any given year. The money is also shared with the college’s health science programs. 

Without newer facilities, the stigma associated with career-tech education will continue to kneecap the programs, Mattox said. 

“It’s dirty, it’s greasy, it’s what we call the ol’ vo-techs,” Mattox said. “In reality, we’re not that way at all. We’re training students for highly technical, high-demand jobs, and we need facilities that replicate what students should see when they get out into the working industry.”

The difference is noticeable, said Cole Thacker, a 24-year-old culinary arts triple major who worked in restaurants before enrolling at NEMCC. 

The kitchen is so small, he’s burned himself trying to prevent hot pans from touching other students. Because there are not enough stand mixers, he’s had to wait for his turn hours after class to finish assignments. The fridges have ruined his classmates’ projects, making it harder to learn advanced techniques like mirror glazing. 

Thacker views this program as an investment in his future; he hopes to work at Disney World after he graduates in 2026. Going directly into the restaurant industry could only take him so far, he said. 

“I tried to climb my way up, and I found out you can only climb so high without knowing … fundamental stuff that usually isn’t discussed in the professional environment,” he said.  

Toward the back of the shop are gray-and-white automated machines. They’re brand new — not to mention expensive, costing a total of $816,000. They can be used to cut material into a range of shapes to be used in the manufacturing process for anything from car parts to surgical implants. This skill set is so desirable that NEMCC’s programs have helped attract major defense contractors and international companies like Toyota to the area. 

“The sky’s the limit,” said Jonathan Shaw, an instructor in the program. 

It’s also something Shaw thinks about more than he should have to. When it rains, the ceiling leaks. The location of the five machines, Shaw said, was strategic. Still, the machines are just a few feet from a wall that he said contains a “splashing risk.” 

The morning a Mississippi Today reporter visited the lab, Shaw had to vacuum up water that pooled on the floor. It’s what he signed up for when he decided to become a teacher, taking a $40,000 pay cut because he wanted to pass on the skills he’d learned to others.

When it comes to requesting state funds for capital improvements, the community colleges are often on their own, according to interviews with state and local college officials. Unlike the state’s public universities, which are under the umbrella of the Institutions of Higher Learning, the community colleges operate more autonomously, with individual governing boards. MCCB supports the college’s requests but isn’t involved in crafting them. 

Mississippi’s workforce development office, called Accelerate MS, is a source of funding for programs and equipment — they helped NEMCC get the new machines. While brick-and-mortar projects aren’t Accelerate’s main focus, the office has acted as a pass-through for construction projects that lawmakers funded with federal pandemic money, said Courtney Taylor, its new director.

Last year, those funds went to community colleges, Taylor said, and the year before that, $20 million went to the private William Carey University for a new primary care institute. 

“Building buildings is very different than building people,” she said. 

Smith said he doesn’t know the scope of deferred maintenance at the colleges, and that the Department of Finance and Administration Bureau of Buildings would have that information. The colleges do provide a 5-year capital plan to MCCB, Smith added, that shows $131 million in repair-and-renovation needs for the upcoming fiscal year. 

What can end up happening is the colleges, like other public entities, receive funds based on how powerful their local delegation is. 

“Our legislators, they do what they say, but we’re one little corner of the whole state,” Cole said. 

At the same time, Cole said she isn’t blaming lawmakers for NEMCC’s needs. 

“There’s just not enough funds to do everything we need to do,” she said. “We’re a poor state. I get it. We can’t depend on just the state, although that is where a lot of it is going to come from.” 

That mentality also leads state agencies like MCCB to craft budget requests based on what they believe lawmakers will fund. According to a 2007 law, community colleges are supposed to receive “mid-level funding,” an amount in-between the budgets of K-12 and IHL. But lawmakers have never done that, so MCCB stopped asking for it on behalf of the colleges. 

“What the statute required us to request was such a high amount that we knew this is not reasonable, this is something we can expect to get,” Smith said. 

There’s also a lack of transparency in how funding decisions are made. Though Smith regularly talks with “budget writers” — lawmakers on the appropriations committees — he couldn’t tell Mississippi Today how they decide what to fund other than the state has finite resources. 

And two college presidents whose schools have not received as much state support as others declined to talk with Mississippi Today for this story. The presidents of Copiah-Lincoln Community College and East Central Community College said they did not have time for an interview. 

At Mississippi Delta Community College, the law enforcement training academy is struggling with mold and a roof that’s falling in, lawmakers learned during the House appropriations committee earlier this year. Tyrone Jackson, the president, said he wouldn’t talk with Mississippi Today for this article because the colleges advocate with one voice during the session.

But the colleges don’t receive state funding as one. 

In NEMCC’s industrial maintenance classroom, instructor Brian Warren demonstrated how to cut dice while trying not to sweat. The air compressor in the decades-old building’s AC blew out that morning. 

What really gets to Warren — who, like Shaw, took a roughly $40,000 pay cut for this job — is the lack of space. 

One day, he hopes he will finally have a shop large enough to teach students how to work with a manufacturing robot, donated by a nearby Toyota supplier, that has been sitting wrapped in plastic for four years because he doesn’t have enough space to safely use it. 

James, the workforce systems director, asked the council for feedback on what NEMCC could be doing to help local employers find qualified workers. If NEMCC can secure funding, the council would likely meet in the renovated furniture warehouse, in a grander space befitting the group’s ambitions.

“Are we working on something you think is a waste of time?” James asked the group. 

One person suggested NEMCC should offer a lineman class. Several people said they wanted to see NEMCC teach common sense skills, from a work ethic to how to read a clock and use a tape measure. Leon Hays, the executive director of the Prentiss County Development Association, added that “getting a diploma doesn’t give you life skills.” 

Rusty Berryhill, the president of a furniture company in Union County and a past chairman of the Mississippi Manufacturers Association, said NEMCC should consider creating a distribution list for employers of recent graduates, an idea that generated a lot of interest. 

Then Forrest Bryan, an ecosystem coordinator from Accelerate MS, invited members of the council to a roundtable discussion with industry, not lawmakers or nonprofits, about funding opportunities. 

“If we’re not listening to industry, we’re not listening to the people who really matter, okay?” Bryan said. “Politicians really don’t matter. I mean, obviously they matter, but they have their place over there. So the industry leaders and the industry needs are what we are wanting to address at this particular discussion.” 

“Somebody should shout, ‘Amen!’” Taylor, NEMCC’s finance person, said, tapping Mattox on the shoulder. 

The council’s next stop after the meeting was to tour a brand new robotics lab the college did up itself with painted floors and new lighting.

Before checking out the new classroom, Berryhill paid NEMCC a compliment, saying the college was working hard to be beneficial to local industry. He recently hired one NEMCC graduate at his small company, where he employs less than 125 people, and is employing another NEMCC student part-time. 

But are lawmakers appropriating enough to help the college sustain its programs? 

“I’m not answering that,” Berryhill responded. He later said he felt like it wasn’t his place to comment on funding matters, because he doesn’t want lawmakers to feel criticized for appropriating too little or make them think they are giving too much, adding “it’s a no-win situation on my part to answer that question.” 

Murphy said he thinks lawmakers support Mississippi’s community colleges — they just need to know how. By purchasing the furniture warehouse, NEMCC made a commitment to help citizens in its five-county region, an area where the free-trade agreements of the 1990s led the economy to suffer.

“We need the Legislature behind us,” Murphy said. “I think they are, especially on the workforce equipment and program side. But we need help on the capital side as well.” 

The post ‘The stepchildren:’ Community colleges struggle to fund buildings for growing workforce programs appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Legislature will have $76.3 million more to spend than it did during its 2023 session.

Members of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee met Friday morning and adopted a revenue estimate for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1. The estimate is $7.6 billion – up 1% from the final estimate from last year.

The estimate is a bit misleading because since the COVID-19 pandemic, as federal funds poured into Mississippi and state revenue soared, the Legislature has spent much less each year than the state collected.

For instance, despite a revenue estimate at the end of the 2023 session of $7.5 billion, the state appropriated only $6.66 billion in general funds, creating a surplus that can be used in future years primarily for one-time expenses instead of recurring expenses.

Setting the revenue estimate by the 14-member Legislative Budget Committee is a key step in developing a state budget to fund education, health care and other key services for the upcoming fiscal year.

Asked if the Legislature had the money to address all the needs during the 2024 session, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said, “We are hopeful. We have been prudent … We have issues, Medicaid, PERS, education.”

Hosemann was referring to efforts to expand Medicaid, though studies indicate there would be no cost to the state for a number of years if Medicaid was expanded to provide health care to those earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level as allowed by federal law. On the other hand, there would be a cost to the state to expand to less than 100% of the federal poverty level as Hosemann’s Senate plan proposes.

The federal government provides states more money for expanding to 138% of the federal poverty level as the House has proposed. During the final weeks of the session as legislators work to develop a budget, efforts also will be made to reconcile the House’s and Senate’s positions on Medicaid expansion.

Plus, some legislators are proposing a sizable cash infusion into the state’s massive Public Employees Retirement System, known as PERS, to help ensure its financial viability.

And both the House and Senate have proposed increasing funding for K-12 education by at least $200 million, but currently the two chambers appear at loggerheads on whether to divvy those funds under an existing funding formula or to develop a new one.

House Appropriations Chairman John Read, R-Gautier, said there is never enough money to meet all the needs.

“The money will only go so far,” he said. Read said he asks agencies for priorities, and he focuses on those priorities as he works to develop a budget.

The 14-member Budget Committee accepted the recommendation from five financial experts it depends on for advice on a revenue estimate.

Normally, the governor and budget committee adopt an initial revenue estimate in the fall based on the recommendations of the experts. But this past fall, Gov. Tate Reeves and the budget committee were unable to agree on an estimate.

The committee, led by Hosemann, contended the estimate made by the experts and embraced by Reeves was too high.

The estimate adopted Friday was about $40 million less than the estimate the financial experts recommended in the fall.

Hosemann pointed out that the growth in revenue collections this year is being fueled to a large extent by interest earnings caused by the rise in interest rates. State Economist Corey Miller, who speaks for the financial experts,  pointed out to the legislative leaders “revenues from interest on investments are up 30%, coinciding with the increase in interest rates over the last two years.”

The post Legislative leaders set revenue estimate, work begins in earnest on state budget appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Though the bill got further this year than ever before, legislation to intercept gambling and sports betting winnings from people who owe child support to the state has died.

This law, which exists in several other states, including bordering Louisiana, passed the Senate but was not taken up by the House committee before the deadline Tuesday. Similar bills died during the 2022 and 2023 sessions. 

Mississippi Department of Human Services, the state’s welfare agency that oversees the child support program, is advocating for this policy in order to increase child support collections and had hoped that, with the support of the Attorney General, it would have passed this year.

“While we are disappointed in the status of the legislation, MDHS is steadfast in our efforts to continue to seek opportunities to maximize the collection of child support arrearages on behalf of the Mississippi children that we serve,” said a spokesperson for MDHS. 

The child support enforcement program, which touches more than half of the children in Mississippi based on federal data, already targets lottery payouts. 

Under Senate Bill 2132, slot machine winnings over $1,200 and sports betting winnings over $600 would have been subject to child support withholding. Casinos are already required to keep tabs on winnings over these amounts for the IRS. Under the proposal, they would also have been required to check if a winner has child support arrears before issuing the money. The industry asked the state to create a real-time database that casinos can access before letting the law take effect so that they can still issue winnings immediately. 

“Are we not, through DHS, paying a law firm some $16 to $18 million a year to go after deadbeat dads, and if so, what kind of database are they using and why couldn’t you apply this database to this effort?” asked Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson during floor debate.

Horhn was referring to the state’s controversial privatized child support enforcement program run by government contractor Young Williams. Since 2016, the company has promised to improve the program’s efficiency while raking in $219 million in taxpayer dollars in that time. Yet, Mississippi maintains the worst child support collection rate in the nation, according to available federal data. Of the cases it handles, the state collected just 51% of the support payments judges ordered parents to make in 2022, compared to 65% nationally.

Horhn, who along with four other senators voted against the bill, seemed to question how much money the state would realistically recoup through casinos.

“Is there an expectation that there are a lot of lucky betters (with back child support) out there that are unlucky in love and lucky at the slots?” Horhn said.

Louisiana launched its gambling withholding program in 2011. In the first nine years, the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services intercepted an average of nearly $1 million a year from casinos, according to the National Child Support Engagement Association. This represents a roughly 0.2% increase in the state’s overall annual child support collections. Other states have collected much less through this method, such as $43,000 annually in New Mexico.

The Mississippi Department of Human Services requested the 2024 bill authored by Sen. Walter Michel, R-Ridgeland. It was also part of the policy agenda of Attorney General Lynn Fitch. 

Since successfully arguing in 2022 for the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade – ending the landmark legislation that protected a woman’s right to an abortion – Fitch has put forth a policy initiative called The Empowerment Project that involves cracking down on child support.

“Enhancement of child support enforcement is a top priority of #TheEmpowermentProject, and I am grateful to Senator Walter Michel for working with us to move this bill through the Senate!” Fitch wrote in a Facebook post after the bill passed the senate. 

Another piece of legislation in this vein – which would have allowed for child support obligations to begin accruing during pregnancy – was unsuccessful this session.

In 2022, the latest year for which data is available, Mississippi disbursed $336 million in collected child support payments – the lowest amount of any year since 2017. The number of children has also declined from about 379,000 to 362,000. On average, Mississippi disburses $77 per child per month, but many children receive nothing.

The recent reduction in disbursements is consistent with national trends. While most states saw a historic uptick of collections and disbursements in 2020 – $405 million in Mississippi – due to pandemic aid, those gains tapered off in 2021. All but seven states disbursed more in 2018 than they did in 2022. Mississippi only saw half-a-percent reduction in disbursements from 2018-2022 compared to a national average of 5%. 

The most significant area of improvement in Mississippi’s program under Young Williams is in the state’s ability to secure support orders from judges in their cases. When a custodial parent enters the child support enforcement program – often by force in order to qualify for public assistance – the state seeks an order from a judge determining how much the noncustodial parent must pay each month. In 2022, 87% of cases in the system had a support order compared to just 58% in 2011.

One of the biggest complaints of the child support system is from custodial parents who say the state is failing to properly disburse the money it collects from noncustodial parents. Mississippi had accumulated $20.7 million in undistributed child support payments by the end of 2022 compared to $12.7 million in 2018. Most states have also seen an increase to their rate of undisbursed collections in the last five years. 

In the previous five sessions, lawmakers filed at least 75 bills to address some area of the child support program – anywhere from the punishment of noncustodial parents who don’t pay, to the current contract privatizing the function, to the requirement that custodial parents cooperate with the program to be eligible for public assistance. Only four survived and were enacted.

In 2023, lawmakers passed a law to allow MDHS to administratively suspend child support debts from accruing when a noncustodial parent is incarcerated. This wasn’t necessarily Mississippi’s idea. The state had to enact the law to remain in compliance with a 2016 federal rule change so that it could continue drawing down federal funds.

Another law backed by Fitch and enacted last year increased the statute of limitations for criminal charges against a person who refuses to pay child support. Before, a person could be charged with desertion of a child if they wilfully neglected or refused to pay child support while the child is under 18. The bill increased that age to 21 and allowed for charges to be pursued for three years after the child turns 21.

A law passed in 2022 required the state treasurer to begin coordinating with the welfare agency to determine if anyone who owed child support was entitled to any unclaimed property that the state could intercept. MDHS told Mississippi Today that this legislation has already resulted in additional child support collections of about $2.3 million as of December 2023.

Lawmakers also changed the formula for computing a noncustodial parent’s monthly child support obligation  – another rule change Mississippi had to enact to remain in federal compliance. Historically, when the state lacked information about a noncustodial parent’s earnings, it would assume minimum wage – $7.25-an-hour at 40 hours a week – to determine how much child support to order.

This didn’t take into account the parent’s realistic employability, potentially saddling them with monthly debts they could not pay. The new 2022 law allows the state to take into account other factors when determining how much to recommend.

Under Gov. Tate Reeves’ direction, MDHS has the authority to make some changes to its programs on its own without legislative action. It exercised this control in 2023 when it removed the requirement that a custodial parent must comply with child support enforcement against the other parent to qualify for child care assistance – a policy change long backed by advocates of low-income families.

Since the policy change, MDHS said it has seen an increase of nearly 10,300 children in the child care assistance program.

The child support cooperation requirement is still in place for parents seeking food assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or cash assistance through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. When child support is collected from a parent whose child is or was ever receiving TANF, the state takes the child support payments to pay itself back for any cash assistance it provided to the custodial parent.

In 2021, MDHS also acted on its own to create a “pass through” so that parents in this predicament will at least receive the first $100 received by the child support office each month before the state recoups the rest.

The post Gamblers won’t see child support withholdings in Mississippi this year appeared first on Mississippi Today.

You’re not alone. But what if we told you that putting Mom first could be the key to unlocking your empowerment? Introducing Mom.ME, the trailblazing organization reshaping the narrative of maternal care with a revolutionary approach.

Their mantra? Mom 1st! This isn’t just a catchy phrase – it’s a movement, a commitment to Teach, Advocate, Listen, and Know, encapsulated in their powerful motto. Mom.ME. understands the struggles mothers face, which is why they’re dedicated to providing more than just support groups – they offer a sanctuary.

Picture a space where moms come together, not just to share experiences, but to build genuine bonds, creating an unbreakable village of solidarity and understanding.

“I was pregnant when I came across Mom.ME.’s maternal education class. I chose to have a natural birth experience with my midwife, so I figured I needed to learn all that I could about the birthing process since this was my first child.

I didn’t really have a physical support system since I’m not from Mississippi and my own mother didn’t support or understand my decision to have a natural birth,” Lea Neely said.

“The founder, Mrs. Lauren actually participated in the class opening up and sharing about her own personal struggles with motherhood. I had been battling stress and depression and at that moment I knew I had found my place!

I was at home with a group of women who understood and got me without feeling like I was being judged for any choices I made. My baby girl will soon be two years old and we’re still a part of the village!”

In a world where maternal mental health often goes unnoticed, Mom.ME. shines as a beacon of hope. From Baby Blues to Postpartum Depression and Anxiety, they address it all, providing vital resources and a compassionate ear for mothers in need.

Here’s the real beauty of it all: as a mom, you’re never alone. Mom.ME. believes in learning from each other’s mistakes to improve the overall functionality of the family structure. Imperfection is embraced, and growth is celebrated.

Feeling lost? Unsure where to turn? Mom.ME. is here to redefine motherhood, one mom at a time. Join the movement and embrace the power of putting Mom first. Join us on this incredible journey! Let’s come together, heal, and grow.

Ready to take the first step towards a more empowered motherhood? Visit Momme.rocks for more information and registration.

The post Feeling overwhelmed in the whirlwind of motherhood? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

For the second straight year, Mississippi Today and Open Campus reporter Molly Minta was named a finalist for a coveted Education Writers Association award.

The annual awards recognize the best education reporting in newsrooms big and small across the nation. Minta is one of three finalists in the small newsroom division of the beat reporting category, which honors excellence in everyday education reporting.

Minta, who was also named a finalist last year for an EWA award for feature reporting, was honored this year for several stories that uncovered secrecy and unfairness in Mississippi’s higher education system.

Higher education in Mississippi is a black box, but through public records requests, sourcing and shoe leather reporting, Minta revealed how secrecy operates at various levels of higher education in the state — including stories about public officials debating new ways to spend millions of dollars of state financial aid in closed-door meetings, and an investigation that found university hospital leaders told employees not to communicate in writing about their decision to stop treating trans kids at an LGBTQ+ clinic.

“Molly’s impact as a reporter in Mississippi speaks for itself, and she more than deserves to be recognized among the very best education reporters in America,” said Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today editor-in-chief. “We’re also very proud to have such a strong partner in Open Campus, which values the importance of strong local journalism.”

Minta’s articles that EWA jurors considered for this year’s award included:

• Public officials met in ‘confidence’ to overhaul state financial aid. Their proposal could become law.
• Handwritten notes show what IHL trustees thought during JSU listening session 
• A USM student spoke out about a candidate for provost. Then they got an email from one of the school’s biggest donors.
• How a business consultant with a history of domestic violence allegations took over the Delta State music department
• Facing political pressure, UMMC cut care to trans kids before the Legislature banned doing so, emails show

The other two finalists in the small newsroom division for beat reporting are Brian Lopez of The Texas Tribune and Kate McGee of The Texas Tribune and Open Campus. The winner will be announced on May 30 at EWA’s national seminar in Las Vegas.

The post Mississippi Today’s Molly Minta named a finalist for national education award appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A bill that would designate children conceived in unique circumstances – via assisted reproduction after the death of one parent – as rightful heirs of their biological parents is moving forward.

The bill passed the Judiciary A committee late on deadline day and now heads to the Senate floor, where it has died on the calendar the last two years. It passed the House unanimously in mid-March.

House Bill 1542, authored by Dana McLean, R-Columbus, would change inheritance law so a child conceived via in vitro fertilization within 36 months of one parent dying is considered an heir of that parent – as long as the deceased parent consented to have his or her genetic material stored and used. This would apply to cases where a woman decided to continue implantation of an embryo after her husband’s death, as well as cases where a man decided to continue with an embryo through surrogacy after his wife’s death. 

Currently, these children are not considered heirs of the deceased parent in Mississippi and therefore do not receive an inheritance because the law was written before assisted reproduction technology existed. 

Sen. Brice Wiggins, chairman of Judiciary A, met Tuesday morning with McLean’s constituent, Katie Studdard – the woman whose personal story inspired McLean to author this bill for the last five years. Hours after Mississippi Today published a story featuring Studdard and her daughter last week, a lawmaker reached out to Studdard saying Wiggins wanted to meet with her, Studdard said.

READ MORE: Five years later, this Mississippi mom is still fighting an outdated law blocking her child’s inheritance

Wiggins, who for the past two years has allowed similar bills to die before bringing them to the full Senate, agreed at the last minute to hear testimony from Studdard during a late committee meeting at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, a legislative deadline day. 

McLean said she is relieved the bill passed and expects lawmakers to work on it in a timely manner – given the fact that they’ve had years now to study the bill and address their concerns. 

“I’m happy that Katie was able to appear before the Senate committee yesterday so that the members could directly hear her story,” McLean said. “We are relieved that it passed through committee, even at the 11th hour. Hopefully, the concerns raised by the members can be worked through before the floor deadline so the bill can finally pass this session.”

Wiggins told Mississippi Today that Studdard shared with him what other states are doing and information from her attorney about what would need changing in Mississippi, and as a result, the bill could fare differently this year. He voiced support for the spirit of the bill and said he intends to work with Sen. Chuck Younger, a Republican who represents Studdard’s district, on the language of the bill. 

“For whatever reason, the bureaucracy of the Social Security Administration is telling her and others that she can’t get survivor benefits because for whatever reason, because of IVF, that their child is not who they say she is,” Wiggins said. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s all crazy … Senator Younger has stepped up and will help and the committee members have said that they will help to try to get the bill in a position it can pass the floor.”

However, Wiggins did not commit to bringing the bill up on the floor this year and said the bill would need the “proper amendments” before he would bring it to a vote in the Senate. Similar bills passed out of committee the past two years, but Wiggins did not bring them forward for a vote in front of the full Senate.  

While Studdard’s circumstances might seem rare, they are increasingly more common in a world where women are having children later in life and families are becoming more reliant on assisted reproduction. Forty-two percent of Americans say that they have used fertility treatments or personally know someone who has. 

Studdard, who lives in Columbus, started fertility treatments with her late husband, Chris McDill, before he died of cancer. She did not have success with the embryos while her husband was alive, but decided to continue trying for a baby after her husband’s death. She conceived her now 5-year-old daughter Elyse a year after her husband died. 

When she tried to register her daughter at the Social Security office, she was told – after six months of waiting – that the state didn’t recognize Elyse as the legal child of McDill because she was conceived via IVF shortly after McDill’s death.

That meant that Elyse, the biological child of McDill, did not qualify for the survivor benefits she would have received had she been considered her father’s legal daughter, and Studdard did not qualify for the “mother benefits” she would have received had she been recognized as caring for a legal child of McDill. 

This is the fifth year McLean has introduced a bill to address the issue of inheritance for posthumously conceived children – those born after one parent’s death – as 27 states have done. 

The last five years have been difficult for Studdard to make ends meet as a middle school art teacher without those monthly social security payments – especially after spending tens of thousands of dollars on fertility treatments.

“I wiped out our complete life savings to have this baby,” Studdard said. “For them to come back and say ‘you know what, we’re not denying that he’s the biological father, but we’re not going to say he’s the legal father,’ because God forbid they give that child anything that she’s owed.”

Studdard has shared her story dozens of times over the last few years with lawmakers. But she said she won’t stop until the law is amended.

“I’m never going to give up, you know, because it’s for my child.”

The post Bill to correct outdated law barring IVF children from inheritance passes committee at eleventh hour appeared first on Mississippi Today.

We’ve got two compelling Final Fours coming up this weekend and the women’s version might be the more interesting of the two. It certainly has more star power. There’s also plenty to talk about with college baseball, college baseball recruiting and a good week for Mississippians on the PGA Tour.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: Talking Final Fours, college baseball and Mississippians on PGA Golf Tour…. appeared first on Mississippi Today.