OurTupelo

Rep. Robert Johnson III, the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, delivered a response to Gov. Tate Reeves’ annual State of the State address on Feb. 26, 2024.

Below is the transcript of Johnson’s response, which aired on Mississippi Public Broadcasting following Reeves’ speech.

Editor’s note: This transcript was submitted by Johnson’s staff and has not been edited or formatted to match Mississippi Today’s style.

Good Evening, I’m Rep. Robert Johnson, Democratic Leader in the Mississippi House of Representatives. 

At his inauguration, Gov. Reeves kicked off his second term with a speech centered on how he’d strive to be a governor for “all Mississippi.” He told us that there is “no black Mississippi or white Mississippi. There is no red Mississippi or blue Mississippi,” while he outlined a vision for his second term that, frankly, belied his entire career in public office. 

But after a contentious election cycle, and with Mississippi’s big problems not going anywhere – and many getting worse – it was a welcome message. Since then, however, we’ve watched the governor go right back to what we’ve come to expect from him – red-meat rhetoric and a refusal to confront the very real problems facing our state. 

Tonight you heard from a governor who only wants you to hear one side of the story. Because for every economic development project the governor celebrates, our employment rate remains stagnant. 

For every corporate handout we dole out for one of those projects, our schools remain underfunded by billions of dollars. 

And for every politically-motivated “plan” to address the hospital crisis, hundreds of thousands of working Mississippians are still without access to healthcare. 

A real leader doesn’t see telling the full story as a problem, because a real leader knows being honest isn’t a weakness; it’s a necessity. Embracing the complexities of a situation, engaging in earnest debate, collaborating with experts and advocates – that’s what a leader does. Simply saying “no” isn’t policymaking. Deflection and distraction isn’t leadership. 

Leadership looks like what Gov. Reeves claimed he was working toward in his inaugural address. But unfortunately, you can’t just say you’re a governor for all Mississippi. You have to show it. And Gov. Reeves’ actions speak much louder than his words. 

In the six weeks since the governor proclaimed that “everything we do, we do together,” he has quickly returned to his conservative buzzword approach to governance, saying whatever it takes to get him booked consistently on Fox News. 

He’s blocked nearly $40 million in federal funds to feed more than 300,000 hungry Mississippi children during the summer and help their struggling families. 

And he has continued to downplay the severity of the healthcare crisis – ignoring the long-term damage our large uninsured population will have on an already strained healthcare system – even as his own party moves to address that problem without him.

I’m proud that House Democrats have continued to lead on addressing the healthcare crisis. Mississippi’s healthcare landscape has been decimated by refusing to implement expansion in a timely fashion, and with an eye toward improving health outcomes in a cost-effective way, we’ve developed a pragmatic, practical, and easily implemented plan to get this conversation off the ground. 

Our plan, HB 1146, would insure Mississippians up to 200% of the federal poverty level – those are individuals making roughly $30,000 a year. Traditional Medicaid expansion would only insure individuals who are at or below 138% of the federal poverty level. 

This hybrid plan – a 50/50 combination of traditional Medicaid expansion with private options and premium assistance – will provide insurance coverage to the people that need it most, make insurance coverage more affordable for working families, and would help address the myriad issues facing the healthcare system in our state. 

By expanding the number of individuals covered, our plan will improve access to care in a way that traditional Medicaid expansion on its own could not. Greater access to care leads to better management of chronic conditions, and the prevention of chronic disease. A healthier population will have increasingly positive long-term impacts on the affordability of healthcare across the board, and on the overall strength of our state’s healthcare system. 

Mississippi’s struggling healthcare workforce will also benefit from insuring more individuals. We’re facing a dangerous provider shortage, and as a result of financial returns that hospitals and providers will receive due to expanding Medicaid, we’ll see improved physician retention. 

Physicians, especially primary care providers and general internists, are more likely to locate themselves or stay in a state that has expanded Medicaid. 

For Mississippians who are uninsured, or who have a job but don’t have insurance through that job, they will be put on an individual qualified health plan and have the majority of their total costs subsidized to make it more affordable. 

And for people who are working and have employer health insurance coverage, the state would subsidize their premiums and most of the cost sharing requirements for them. This will both make health insurance more affordable, and incentivize small businesses to offer a group health insurance plan. 

Across the country, the Affordable Care Act has helped stabilize health costs for many small businesses that provide coverage, with the rate of small-business premium increases falling by half after implementation of the law. 

And since 2010, the increase in small-business healthcare premiums has been at their lowest level in years, following regular double-digit increases prior to the law’s enactment.

Small businesses are the backbone of our state’s economy. And without a healthy workforce, our local economies suffer. We literally cannot afford to keep kicking the can down the road. 

We’re glad to see that all of us working toward a solution in the Capitol aren’t being held back by a governor who is more interested in dismissing our effort to come up with a solution, than to offer up an alternative solution himself. 

Year after year, House and Senate Democrats have offered up concrete ideas and common-sense solutions to move Mississippi forward. We’ve authored legislation to address the increasingly dangerous healthcare crisis, raise the minimum wage, fix our state’s crumbling infrastructure, fully fund public education, make voting easier and more convenient, and increase transparency in government. 

We have consistently led the charge on increasing teacher pay and a raise for state employees — and not just when it was politically beneficial to do so. 

We’ve also sounded the alarm on ensuring equity in economic development, so that all corners of our state have the opportunity to flourish. And now, as the governor touts these so-called major economic development projects, and celebrates it being “Mississippi’s time,” it’s hard not to look around at the areas west of I-55 – where the bulk of Mississippi’s Black population resides – and say “for who, governor?” 

Mississippi has the lowest per capita income in the country. We have the highest rate of poverty in the country – nearly 20%. And both of those statistics are doubled or disproportionately worse in the Mississippi Delta and southwest Mississippi. Those numbers simply don’t improve without intentional, equitable economic development. 

So if the issue is an educated workforce, then fund our schools. If the issue is infrastructure, then put more money into our chronically underfunded roads and bridges. If you can spend millions of dollars on site readiness east of I-55, then why can’t you spend millions readying sites west of I-55? 

Refusing to prioritize equitable economic development is a choice. And the people of this state deserve to know why they have a governor who seems perfectly happy to let a significant number of his constituents flail while others continue to flourish. 

During last year’s State of the State and in every public appearance he made on the campaign trail, the governor has told us that “Mississippi continues to be in the best financial shape in its history.” 

And yet, 30% of Mississippi children are living in poverty. One in six women of childbearing age is uninsured. State employees – the men and women who keep our state running – are, on average, paid thousands of dollars less than their counterparts in all of our surrounding states.

Our long-neglected roadways continue to cost Mississippians, on average, $800 in vehicle damage annually. 

When you’re driving to your child’s baseball tournament in Vicksburg or you’re on your way to the Coast for a long weekend — can you honestly say that what you see as you’re looking out the window makes you stop and think “Yes. This is a state in the best financial shape it’s ever been in. This is a state that is trying to keep our best and brightest. This is a state that is working for everyone who’s trying their best to make a life here?”

So, I’m asking you: Is your life any different than it was this time last year? Are you wealthier? Are you healthier? 

The governor will tell you that “when it comes to delivering a quality education for our children, we are getting the job done”; but we know there are classrooms that don’t have pencils and chalk, or a full set of textbooks. 

He’ll tell you that “Mississippi is the safest place for the unborn”; but we know that Mississippi babies are more likely to die before their first birthday than anywhere else in the country. 

He’ll tell you “it’s the strongest our economy has ever been”; and we ask “for who?” Who are you going to believe, Mississippi? The governor or your lying eyes? 

It’s one thing to have different approaches to solving our state’s problems. It is quite another to refuse to acknowledge your citizens’ concerns and ignore many of Mississippi’s issues outright – all while telling us over and over again just how great everything is. 

Mississippians share more values and principles than not. We care about what happens to our neighbors because that’s just who we are. We want our families to prosper and for our children to have a better future and more opportunities than we did. 

Our state is in desperate need of a leader who sees all of that and governs based on it. 

We deserve a governor who has respect for his fellow Mississippian, someone who will lead with honesty and empathy and compassion, and who can make the best decisions for everyone, not just a select few. We deserve a leader who will not only hear people, but listen to them. 

It’s up to us to demand better. Things won’t get better in this state if we continue to let the governor — or any other elected leader — get away with lip service. It’s not enough to just say you’re a governor for all Mississippi. You need to show us what that looks like in practice. 

We’re a better place when we work together and overcome our differences for the good of the people we represent. We need leaders who bring people together, who acknowledge the problems we face and try to understand the causes of those problems alongside the people most affected. 

That’s what leadership looks like. That’s what Mississippi needs from its governor.

The post Transcript: Rep. Robert Johnson gives Democratic response to 2024 State of the State address appeared first on Mississippi Today.

With momentum growing in the Mississippi Legislature to expand Medicaid, Gov. Tate Reeves said nary a word Monday evening during his annual State of the State address about the issue he has opposed for more than a decade.

Republican House Speaker Jason White has filed legislation to expand Medicaid to provide health insurance to primarily poor working Mississippians. Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, also has indicated that his leadership team will take up the issue this session.

Instead of urging legislators not to expand Medicaid as he did during last year’s State and of the State speech, the Republican governor focused his speech on how he said Mississippi could be the new manufacturing hub for America.

Full transcript: Gov. Tate Reeves’ 2024 State of the State address

Reeves, who is known during his more than 20-year political career for his often aggressive and contentious demeanor, said he was “not going to focus on our differences … I am here tonight instead to challenge you as a Legislature to waste no time on the things that divide us, and instead spend your energy this year on things that unite us. Our state has many challenges. We also have many opportunities. In fact we have more opportunities than we have ever had before.”

Some were disappointed, though, that Reeves did not address the health care crisis facing the state. Rep. Timaka James-Jones, D-Belzoni, has been outspoken on the need for state officials to address a lack of hospitals and access to medical care in areas like her district in the Mississippi Delta.

James-Jones, a freshman lawmaker, said she hopes the governor will take serious steps to find bipartisan solutions to all of Mississippi’s issues, but she said it was “problematic” for the governor not to mention the state’s health care crisis in his speech.

“We definitely need to have a candid conversation about health care,” James-Jones said. “I don’t know why he’s not addressing that issue. Folks want to hear what the state is doing about our health care statistics. Don’t avoid the issue. Just work with the people.”

PODCAST: Inside the Medicaid expansion debate at the Capitol

Reeves, who touted two major economic development projects he announced earlier this year, said jobs are returning from overseas to America. He said that is good for Mississippi, which has “never stopped making real things.”

Speaking to a joint session of the Legislature in House chamber of the state Capitol, Reeves said, “We can take advantage of this moment and create unimagined wealth, prosperity, and purpose for our state. We can make Mississippi the new American capital of manufacturing, industry, and agribusiness. Mississippi can be the headwaters of America’s supply chain if we are bold.”

He said to achieve those goals the state must make a significant investment in airports, rails and ports, as well as in Mississippi’s highway system.

In terms of education, Reeves said, “We must be open to new and different models. We should fund students, not systems. We should trust our parents, not bureaucrats, and we should embrace education freedom.”

The governor, who was interrupted multiple times by applause, proposed 12 mathematics and engineering schools across the state modeled after the long-standing Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science located in Columbus. Eight of the new schools would be for pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, and three would be for high school students. He proposed one of those schools be located in downtown Jackson blocks from the state Capitol in the old Central High School Building that currently houses the Department of Education.

The governor also called for improving technology across state government through the formation of a task force and bolstering public safety.

Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, who gave the minority response, said to move Mississippi forward, as the governor said he wanted to do, health care must be addressed in a state that has many of the worse health care outcomes and one of the highest percentages of uninsured residents in the nation.

READ MORE: What’s in the House Republican Mississippi Medicaid expansion bill?

While Johnson said House Democrats support what is known as traditional Medicaid expansion, he said the Legislature should go even further this session.

He said the Democrats’ plan “would insure Mississippians up to 200% of the federal poverty level – those are individuals making roughly $30,000 a year. Traditional Medicaid expansion would only insure individuals who are at or below 138% of the federal poverty level.  This hybrid plan – a 50/50 combination of traditional Medicaid expansion with private options and premium assistance – will provide insurance coverage to the people that need it most, make insurance coverage more affordable for working families, and would help address the myriad issues facing the healthcare system in our state.”

Johnson also called for the governor to work with the same zeal to bring economic development projects to impoverished, Black-majority areas of the state as he has in more affluent, White-majority areas.

“Mississippi has the lowest per capita income in the country. We have the highest rate of poverty in the country – nearly 20%. And both of those statistics are doubled or disproportionately worse in the Mississippi Delta and southwest Mississippi,” Johnson said. “Those numbers simply don’t improve without intentional, equitable economic development.”

Johnson concluded: “We’re a better place when we work together and overcome our differences for the good of the people we represent. We need leaders who bring people together, who acknowledge the problems we face and try to understand the causes of those problems alongside the people most affected.”

Reeves also provided a conciliatory tone during his speech.

‘There will be time to go back to politics and disagreement later,” Reeves said. “But this year, at this time, with these opportunities, let’s come together.”

Whether that spirit of cooperation will extend to Medicaid expansion to provide health insurance for an estimated 200,000 poor working Mississippians remains to be seen.

READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves’ lonely last stand against Medicaid expansion

The post Gov. Reeves doesn’t mention Medicaid expansion or health care crisis in State of the State address appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with Dr. Will Crossley, the fifth president of Piney Woods School and J.J. Anderson, director, to discuss the new Hulu documentary, Sacred Soil: The Piney Woods School Story. The documentary follows students through their school year at Piney Woods School.

The post Mississippi Stories: Piney Woods School Principal Dr. Will Crossley and Director J.J. Anderson appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Several high-powered Mississippi public education groups sent a joint letter to lawmakers this week stressing that any rewrite of the formula providing state funds to local schools should be based on objective criteria.

The House leadership has proposed a completely new funding structure that would leave it to legislators to annually determine the base student cost. Under the current funding formula called the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, which the Senate is working to tweak but preserve, the base student cost is determined by an objective formula — not by politicians. The base student cost multiplied by enrollment equals the amount of money that school districts are supposed to receive, though more affluent districts receive less funding than do poorer districts.

READ MORE: House leaders want lawmakers, not an objective formula, to determine ‘full funding’ for public schools

The Feb. 20 letter, addressed to House Speaker Jason White, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, the House and Senate education chairmen, and every lawmaker, was sent by:

• The Mississippi Association of Educators.
• The Mississippi Association of School Superintendents.
• The Mississippi Professional Educators.
• The Mississippi Association of School Administrators.
• The Parents’ Campaign.

“We believe that a guiding principle in the development of such (school funding formula) should be an understanding that the purpose … is to reflect the true cost of educating Mississippi children to a proficient level in core academic subjects and otherwise preparing them for success in college and career,” the letter reads.

To achieve those goals, the letter continues, “essential components” of a formula should include “a base student cost determined by an objective formula. The base cost represents the cost to bring a typical student to academic proficiency as defined by state academic standards.” The formula also should include “an inflation factor to account for increased operational costs to be applied in any year in which there is not a full recalculation of the formula.”

The Senate Education Committee has passed legislation to make some changes to MAEP, but the Senate bill maintains the objective funding formula and preserves a growth factor, though at a level lower than the current level. Whether a compromise between the two chambers on the funding formula can be achieved could be one of the most contentious issues of the 2024 session.

READ MORE: Senate committee passes bill to tweak but preserve MAEP, the public school funding formula

The letter from the education groups went on to say that a rewrite also should include additional funding for students living in poverty, for special education students, for gifted students and for students learning English as a second language. The letter also advocates for more funds for career and technical education and to address teacher shortages in both geographic areas and in subject areas.

The letter advocated for “an equity provision” providing more state funding in poor districts and less state funding in more affluent districts.

The bill that the Senate Education Committee passed this week would require more affluent districts to contribute more toward the base student cost, or toward the cost of providing an “adequate” education. The Senate bill would not make any adjustments to the amount of money going to poorer districts. But Senate leaders say they hope to fully fund the formula, pumping an additional $215 million into the program providing more assistance to poorer districts, as it would all districts.

The House plan provides more money for various groups of students who might take more money to educate, such as poor students, special education students and English learners.

MAEP has been fully funded only twice since its implementation in 1997 — the last time in 2007.

READ MORE: Could this be the year political games end and MAEP is funded and fixed?

The post Education groups urge lawmakers to keep objective formula in place for school funding appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi spends less money on college financial aid programs than almost every state in the Southern region. 

This holds true for both total dollars spent in Mississippi – about $45 million – and the average amount of grant money each college student receives. Other states, including deep-red neighbors Arkansas and Louisiana, dole out more money for college on a per-student basis while charging roughly the same or less for tuition. Even West Virginia, with close to half of the population, spends double Mississippi. 

Not many lawmakers today know why this is, but several factors may be the cause: Financial aid policy is complex, and the Legislature tries to keep tuition low through funding the colleges and universities. Plus college financial aid is not a core function of government, many lawmakers say, such as roads and bridges or paying teachers. 

But a change may be underway this legislative session. Amid increased interest in workforce development — not to mention Mississippi’s $700 million surplus — lawmakers are no longer asking the state’s financial aid office to make its programs less expensive.

Instead, they want to know: If Mississippi spends more, what will we get for it? 

“If you look at it, that student, their life is an economic development project,” said Sen. Daniel Sparks, R-Belmont. “If we can get them from $26,000 to $66,000 a year (in income), that’s the most important economic development project in that person’s life.” 

Earlier this week, the agency responsible for Mississippi’s college financial aid programs presented its new proposal to the Senate Colleges and Universities Committee that would pump $30 million into adult, part-time and many low-income students who, by law, have been ineligible for the Mississippi Resident Tuition Assistance Grant since it was created nearly three decades ago. 

Depending on family income, an estimated 37,000 students would get an additional $500 to $1,000 toward the cost of tuition. And, unlike past proposals, this one would be enacted without cuts to the only state grant program that helps low-income students pay for college. It has already passed the House Colleges and Universities Committee.

The main question posed during the Senate meeting is how will Mississippi benefit from the increased funding. Though Mississippi’s overall investment in financial aid would remain low, the proposal’s price tag would nearly double what the state spends on helping students afford college, surpassing Alabama.

“Do we have metrics?,” asked Sen. Bart Williams, R-Starkville. “Can we show an ROI (return on investment)? We’re talking … about all this including everybody. What are we getting from it?” 

There is no data, responded Jennifer Rogers, the director of the Mississippi’s Office of Student Financial Aid. Lawmakers have never required performance-based funding for the programs she administers.

But the research on state financial aid spending is clear. 

What research shows on college aid spending

Though not a cure-all, financial aid programs pay off in all the areas lawmakers want to tackle this session: College-going and completion rates, career-readiness and workforce development. 

In general, college financial aid of any kind increases graduation rates. In Mississippi, research requested by OSFA found all three grant programs increased college graduation rates. 

But exactly how much is typically a function of a student’s income.

Because higher education costs money, financial aid that goes to students from families who can’t afford to pay for college on their has been shown to yield greater results, said Tom Harnisch, the vice president for government relations at the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. It can be the difference between these students finding time to be involved on campus or working second jobs to pay for rent.  

“Those are the students that are really going to move the dial,” Harnisch said. 

For every $1,000 of grant aid spent on low-income students, research has shown college retention rates increase between 1 and 5%. In Florida, an additional $1,300 in need-based aid increased six-year graduation rates by nearly a quarter. In Texas, a grant program for low-income students was found to have freed 75 to 84 hours they would have spent working their first two years. For first-time students who receive a full federal Pell Grant, each additional $1,000 increase in grant aid is associated with more than $1,000 increase in earnings four years after enrollment. 

When states spend more on financial aid, more students pursue higher education. Community colleges in particular see an increase in enrollment. 

Sandy Baum, a nonresident senior fellow at the Urban Institute who has studied Mississippi’s financial aid programs, said the new proposal would be an improvement on MTAG’s current structure because it would direct more dollars to students who can’t afford to pay for college on their own. 

“Of course Mississippi needs to spend more,” Baum said. 

Other states have dramatically increased financial aid spending, the Urban Institute has found. After Arkansas legalized a lottery in 2008 and used it to fund college scholarships, the state’s spending on financial aid increased by $100 million. 

So why hasn’t Mississippi? 

A longstanding preference for less-expensive merit aid programs may be a reason.

Mississippi’s best and brightest

When lawmakers created MTAG in 1995, their goal was to help middle-class students afford college. The legislation was championed at a pivotal time by Eddie Briggs, the first Republican lieutenant governor in Mississippi since the Reconstruction era. To this day, the grant primarily benefits Republicans’ traditional constituents: White, middle-class Mississippians. 

“This program will help to keep Mississippi’s best and brightest here at home,” Briggs wrote in an op-ed at the time.

Two years later, lawmakers created the state’s Higher Education Legislative Plan for Needy Students. But unlike MTAG, which lawmakers were required to fund from one year to the next, HELP was available only if the money was. In the program’s first year, Mississippi budgeted just $500,000 for HELP but spent $900,000, a fraction compared to MTAG’s $12 million. 

Today, HELP is the most expensive grant program, because it pays for all four years of college. Of the three, it’s also the most effective at what it was created to do. And yet it benefits the fewest Mississippians: Just 4,538 students received HELP last year, less than a third that received MTAG. 

Mississippi’s spending on college financial aid is also tied to state revenue, said Sen. Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee who in 2018 led discussions to change Mississippi’s grant programs. 

Adequate funding of the colleges and universities, Hopson said, helps keep tuition low.

“It is an overriding theme that we want to keep our colleges affordable, and I think we are,” he said. “It’s always a moving target.” 

With this latest proposal, lawmakers’ tune may be changing on need-based aid as Mississippi’s colleges and universities, teetering on the edge of a demographic shift that will mean fewer high school graduates go to college, need more students in seats. 

And, there’s an increased push for workforce development programs, which have been called the “message of the day” in Jackson. 

Sparks, senator from Belmont, said he would like to see changes to MTAG encourage people to pursue well-paid careers. He liked that last year’s proposal offered a bonus for students to major in certain subjects deemed “high-value pathways” by the state’s workforce development office. That seemed like a way to ensure the spending has a return-on-investment, Sparks said. 

“I don’t want to get into choosing what you (students) go take,” Sparks said. “But on the other hand, if I’m looking for someone else to pay the way or pay a portion of the way, they’re going to have more input than if I went in and said, ‘I got this myself.’” 

Universities v. community colleges?

As with last year’s bill, this proposal is likely to come down to a tug-of-war between universities and community colleges. 

During the Senate meeting, Hopson asked if the extra dollars might be better spent in direct appropriations to the public institutions considering the new program would also benefit Mississippi’s private colleges. 

“If we put $31 million into Kell (Smith)’s budget or into Al Rankin’s budget, they’d probably say give me the $31 million,” Hopson said. “But the private colleges would probably like this better because they’re going to get some part of this.” 

Hopson asked if it would be possible to instead ask the public colleges and universities to use the additional funding for institutional scholarships. Rogers replied that money “doesn’t always trickle down.” 

“I think probably you know exactly what their response is going to be,” Rogers said. “But I guess, from my perspective, someone has got to stand up and fight for the students who are facing a huge affordability puzzle.”

The post Mississippi spends less on college grant aid than nearly every Southern state appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Failure to Launch appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A three-judge panel of the state Supreme Court on Thursday denied the Mississippi Republican Party’s request to dissolve a Hinds County chancellor’s emergency order that extended polling precinct hours on the night of Mississippi’s statewide elections. 

Presiding Justice Leslie King and Justices Josiah Coleman and David Ishee, in a two-page ruling, rejected the Republican Party’s petition because they were a non-party to the original Hinds County case, and it would have allowed them to “obtain review of a moot decision.”    

Spencer Ritchie, the attorney who represented the state GOP’s request to the state Supreme Court, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

On Nov. 7, several Hinds County precincts ran out of ballots or did not have proper ballots, and voters reportedly waited in long lines or left without casting ballots. The state Democratic Party filed an emergency order against the Hinds County circuit clerk in chancery court to keep Hinds County polls open an extra hour that night. Chancellor Dewayne Thomas granted the order.

But in a separate case filed that night by Mississippi Votes, a Jackson nonprofit organization, in Hinds County Circuit Court, the Mississippi Supreme Court appointed a special judge, former Supreme Court Judge Jess Dickinson, to hear the matter. 

Dickinson issued an order that simply repeated existing state law: that people who were in line when the polls closed at 7 p.m. could vote if they remained in line.

The extension by the chancellor did not change the outcome of any statewide race. The state Republican Party, in its appeal, conceded the chancery order was largely moot, but asked the high court to issue a ruling to prevent future Election Day confusion because the issues are “of great public interest.”

The GOP said conflicting court actions on election night caused confusion and ran the risk of “sowing public doubt about the reliability of election results.” It also argued the chancellor lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter, but the Supreme Court did not address those legal issues raised by the GOP. 

The post MS Supreme Court denies GOP request to invalidate order that extended Hinds County voting hours appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, told his fellow Senate Education Committee members Thursday he fears the state’s 145 public school districts would be at the Capitol lobbying for funds, like other state agencies, if the objective funding formula used to determine how much money each school district receives is repealed.

Senate Education Chair Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, agreed that education would have to lobby for funds like other state agencies, adding that an objective funding formula “holds us (legislators) accountable. I think an objective funding formula is reliable. That is why I am pursuing it.”

The objective funding formula that DeBar and Wiggins were referencing is the Mississippi Adequate Education Program. Wiggins said he has had issues with MAEP in the past, but hopes the bill the Senate Education Committee passed Thursday to make changes to the formula will address his concerns.

No member of the Senate Education Committee voted against the proposal on Thursday.

Under the formula, the amount of money needed to adequately educate a student is determined based on objective criteria. The state provides the bulk of those funds, but each district contributes a portion of the funds with more affluent districts providing more than poorer districts. There is nothing to prevent local school districts from spending more than what they are required to contribute to the formula.

The House, in contrast, has introduced legislation that would eliminate MAEP and any objective formula, leaving it to lawmakers to annually determine the base student cost, or how much money the state provides for each student.

READ MORE: House leaders want lawmakers, not an objective formula, to determine ‘full funding’ for public schools

House Education Committee Chair Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, has said the final product that comes out of the House could include an objective formula, but as of now the House bill, still pending before the House Education Committee, does not.

The bill passed Thursday by the Senate committee was much like the one passed last year by the Senate, but that plan was killed in the House by the leadership without allowing members to vote on it.

The Senate bill would:

• Increase the amount of money wealthier school districts must provide toward providing the funds needed to provide an adequate education.
• Further limit the annual growth factor in the formula. It would be based on a 20-year average of inflation. The House plan has no growth factor.
• Specify that 90% of the state MAEP funds could not be spent on administrative costs, such as salaries for superintendents and for other non-classroom staff.
• Require charter schools to return a pro rata share of MAEP money to the local school district if a student enrolled in the charter school returned to the traditional school. The charter school would be penalized an additional 5% if it did not return the funds.

In the committee meeting, DeBar said he learned of the House plan to rewrite MAEP and to eliminate the objective formula just before it was released to the public.

“I would not say it is a formula. It is a plan,” he said.

MAEP has been fully funded only twice since it was fully enacted in 2003. DeBar hopes to fully fund the formula this year. He said fully funding the formula would require an additional $216 million, which is the same as last year, plus an extra $30 million for the increased costs to cover the health insurance plan and the state retirement plan. DeBar said once the program is fully funded, the year-over-year increase in costs would be minimal.

Roberson, the House Education Committee chairman, has said he hopes to provide an extra $100 million to $150 million for his plan.

House Speaker Jason White, R-West, has said the House plan is simpler than MAEP. Plus, he has argued the existing MAEP is too costly. The House plan would provide additional funds to educate various categories of students, such as those in special needs or those having to be taught English. MAEP provides an extra 5% per at-risk student.

READ MORE: Could this be the year political games end and MAEP is funded and fixed?

The post Senate committee passes bill to tweak but preserve MAEP, the public school funding formula appeared first on Mississippi Today.

One week after proposing a second new name in as many months, Mississippi University for Women has backtracked once again.

President Nora Miller released a statement Wednesday that the university was taking a “strategic pause” to examine its renaming process, engage alumni and build support with an eye to next year’s legislative session.

“Please note that we will always be The W,” she wrote. “It is our past, our present, and our future.”

It’s unclear what, exactly, led to the university to put the brakes on the name “Wynbridge State University of Mississippi.” The Commercial Dispatch reported the new name had a lack of legislative support and that a bill introduced by Rep. Donnie Scoggin, R-Ellisville, the chair of the House Colleges and Universities Committee and an MUW alumnus, had stalled, even though the deadline isn’t until next week.

As recently as Tuesday, the university was circulating among lawmakers a Feb. 19 letter of support for “Wynbridge” from the Institutions of Higher Learning commissioner, Alfred Rankins, which cited the looming drop in the number of Mississippi high school graduates going to college.

MUW has struggled to move the needle on male enrollment since it was made coeducational in 1982 and is contending with increased competition from neighboring Mississippi State University and East Mississippi Community College.

“The enrollment challenges facing Mississippi’s public universities are real, and our univerisites are doing incredible work to grow and retain their student population,” Rankins wrote. “They need every tool available to successfully complete this work.”

Many alumni cheered the pause in the Facebook comments of Miller’s letter, calling it a wise choice and asking the university to consider the name “The W: A Mississippi University” instead of “Wynbridge.”

Read more: ‘Mississippi University for Women is betting its future on a new name. Will it work?’

The post MUW to seek more alumni support after pausing on new name, again appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Over a dozen bills have been introduced in the Legislature this session to revamp the state’s parole system, including at least one filed in response to the release of a man who killed his two family members. 

House Bill 112, by Rep. Price Wallace, R-Mendenhall, would require the Parole Board to send certified mail notification to crime victims, victim’s family or a designee before a parole hearing. 

One of Wallace’s constituents is Zeno Mangum, the son of one of the victims of James Williams III, who killed his father and stepmother and was granted parole last year despite opposition from family members and lawmakers. Mangum previously told Mississippi Today his family opposed Williams’ release and didn’t receive notification about a parole hearing, which Parole Board Chairman Jeffery Belk disputed. 

“I’m sure there’s others out there who haven’t been notified either,” Wallace told Mississippi Today about his bill. 

Among the findings from a June 2023 review by the Legislative Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Committee was that the board could improve its victim notification process.

In a sample of 100 inmates, PEER found two instances in which an inmate with a registered victim had a parole hearing in 2022, but there was no record in the Mississippi Department of Corrections’ inmate database of the victim receiving notification of the hearing.

Wallace said the requirement of certified mail, which needs a signature for delivery, would show proof that victims and families are notified of a parole hearing ahead of time. 

The bill would take effect after passage, and it has been referred to the House’s Judiciary B and Corrections committees. 

Here is a look at other parole-related bills proposed this session.

Parole Board membership 

House Bill 114 by Rep. Wallace would dissolve the current five-member Parole Board and require the governor to reappoint three of five members who have a minimum five years’ law enforcement experience. Wallace told Mississippi Today he believes this perspective is valuable in making decisions to release people. 

Currently, only one member, Marlow Stewart of Terry, a former MDOC probation and parole officer, has law enforcement experience. Chairman Belk is a former Chevron executive.

Among the other findings from the PEER report was that the Parole Board conducts unnecessary parole hearings for offenders who could qualify for presumptive parole and has not improved in maintaining minutes documenting its parole decisions.

The bill has been referred to the Corrections Committee and Apportionment and Elections Committee, of which Price is a member. 

Senate Bill 2352 by Sen. Angela Burks Hill, R-Picayune, would reconstitute the Parole Board and set requirements for one member to have law enforcement background; two to be licensed attorneys, one with a background in prosecutorial law; and two who own businesses in the state. 

The bill would also require parole hearings to be public and broadcast live on the Department of Corrections website. Other information would be required to be posted online, including notice of hearings for violent offenders, parole and revocation outcomes and guidance documents the Parole Board uses to make its decisions. Notification of upcoming parole hearings would be through first class mail. The bill has been referred to the Senate Corrections and Government Structure committees. 

Notification before parole hearings 

House Bill 844 by Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, would require the Parole Board to solicit recommendations from members of the criminal justice system, including the original judge and prosecutor in the case and the attorney general’s office, when a person applies for parole. Before a hearing, notification would need to be sent to the original prosecuting attorney and judge and the police chief and sheriff of the municipality and county where the conviction happened. The bill has been referred to the Corrections Committee, which Currie chairs.

Keeping parole eligibility on the books 

House Bill 357 by Rep. Daryl Porter, D-Summit, House Bill 755 by Rep. Fred Shanks, R-Brandon, and House Bill 1454 by Rep. Jansen Owen, R-Poplarville, would extend the repealer on parole eligibility reforms. Under the current law, parole eligibility is set to be repealed July 1, and the bills would push the repealer to 2027. 

Under the parole eligibility reforms, those convicted of nonviolent and non-habitual drug offenses would become parole eligible after serving 25% of their sentence or 10 years. Those convicted of violent crimes would have to serve 50% of their sentence or 20 years to be eligible. For specific violent offenses such as carjackings and drive-by shootings, a person would have to serve 60% of their sentence or 25 years.

The reforms also include geriatric parole eligibility for incarcerated people age 60 or older who served at least 10 years. 

Owen’s bill has been referred to the House’s Judiciary B Committee, and Shanks’ bill to the House Corrections Committee. Porter’s bill was referred to the Judiciary B and Corrections committees. 

House Bill 710 by House Minority Leader Robert Johnson III, D-Natchez, would decrease the amount of time someone convicted of a violent crime would have to serve before becoming eligible for parole. 

Johnson’s bill proposes that a person serve 25% of the sentence or 10 years. Under the current law, those convicted of violent offenses would have to serve 50% or 20 years, or 60% or 25 years, for specific offenses such as carjackings and drive-by-shootings.

The bill also would require three yes votes to grant parole to someone convicted of a violent crime after June 30, 1995, and four votes to parole someone convicted of capital murder or a sex offense. The bill has been referred to the House’s Judiciary B and Corrections committees.  

FWD.us, a bipartisan group that focuses on criminal justice and immigration issues, lauded efforts to continue parole eligibility in Mississippi. 

“Without parole and other commonsense reforms to safely reduce the state’s highest in the nation imprisonment rate, Mississippi cannot continue to improve public safety, strengthen the state’s workforce, and sustain the strong long-term economic development Mississippians deserve,” Mississippi State Director Alesha Judkins said in a Tuesday statement. 

Parole eligibility for juvenile offenders

House Bill 1065 by Rep. Jeffrey Harness, D-Fayette, would allow those who were under the age of 18 when they committed an offense, sentenced for a violent crime and otherwise not eligible for parole at an earlier date, to become eligible once they reach the age of 21. A parole hearing would be required before being released. The bill has been referred to the House’s Judiciary B Committee. 

House Bill 361 by Rep. Porter and House Bill 571 by Rep. Johnson called the “Juvenile Offender Parole and Rehabilitation Act,” would allow a person who was under the age of 18 and wasn’t eligible for parole at an earlier date to become eligible after serving 20 years.  A parole hearing would be required before being released. Both bills have been referred to the House’s Judiciary B Committee. 

House Bill 1554 by Joey Hood, R-Ackerman, proposes parole eligibility for those who committed offenses while under the age of 18 and received a life sentence after they have served 40 years. For those sentenced to life without the possibility of parole and were under 18, they would be parole eligible when they reach the age of 65. The bill has been referred to Judiciary B and Corrections committees.

Senate Bill 2022 by Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, would allow alternative sentencing and parole for people who were under 18. A court without a jury must hold a separate sentencing proceeding to determine whether to sentence a defendant to life or life without parole. 

If the court finds a life sentence is unacceptable, it can sentence 20-40 years for first degree murder, 15-30 for second degree murder and 25-50 years for capital murder. This would apply retroactively regardless of when the offense, arrest and conviction happened. 

A death penalty cannot be imposed if the person was not at least 18 when the crime was committed, which is in line with U.S. Supreme Court rulings around sentencing for juvenile offenders. The bill was amended and approved by the Senate’s Judiciary B Committee, which Fillingane chairs. 

Parole and probation officers

House Bill 948 by Rep. Harness would limit the number of cases probation officers handle to 75. The bill has been referred to the House’s Judiciary B Committee. 

Senate Bill 2024 by Sen. Hill would limit the number of cases of parole and probation officers to 50. If their caseload ratio is greater than an average of 51 for over a 3-month period, the Division of Community Corrections within the Department of Corrections would face a civil fine of $7,500. One half of that fine would be paid directly to the officer or supervisor, and the other half would go to the state general fund. The bill has been referred to the Senate’s Judiciary B and Corrections committees. 

The American Probation and Parole Association doesn’t recommend specific caseload standards, but rather recommends agencies adopt a workload strategy to figure out their specific caseload and staffing needs. Some suggested standards for supervision are 20:1 for intensive cases, 50:1 for moderate to high risk and 200:1 for low risk.

The post Parole Board revamp, victim notification among bills before Legislature appeared first on Mississippi Today.