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Lawmakers on Saturday continued to haggle particulars of a roughly $7 billion state budget, and reported some progress.

But they remained at loggerheads on some big ticket items, particularly the more than $2.6 billion K-12 education budget. House Speaker Philip Gunn and his top budget lieutenants said they are firm on refusing to fully fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Program formula or add any more money to it as Senate leaders have proposed.

Instead they want lawmakers to earmark directly to programs, such as one that has benefitted Speaker Gunn’s former chief of staff. Gunn said he supports funding a revolving loan program for schools lawmakers funded last year, for which his former chief of staff Nathan Wells and a former chair of the state school board benefitted.

“Our position has been clear for quite some time,” Gunn said. “… The formula doesn’t work. It’s broken. It doesnt work. We are putting more money into education, we believe in that, but we are not going to do it with the formula.”

Lawmakers facing a Saturday night deadline were filing numerous budget “dummy bills,” with blanks for numbers to keep them alive and continue negotiations. Lawmakers will return to the Capitol on Sunday for more budget work, and are expected to end their 2023 session sometime next week.

READ MORE: Superintendents to Legislature: Please fully fund our schools

House Education Chairman Richard Bennett on Saturday also said emphatically that House negotiators would not agree to the Senate’s proposal to fully fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Program formula, at a cost of about $181 million more a year.

“We have no plan of putting more into MAEP,” Bennett said. “If we gave them the $181 million today, I believe it would not have a major impact in the classrooms. The education department would get more money, the home offices would get more money. But if we put it in the black hole they call MAEP, it’s not going to get into the classrooms.”

Bennett said House leaders want to put “a lot more new money” into education this year, but want to direct where it goes, not put it into the formula that is supposed to provide the state’s share of money for the basic needs of districts, such as teacher salaries, utilities, textbooks and transportation.

Bennett said House leaders want to fund a raise for teacher assistants at about $22 million and direct money to numerous other programs that would probably equal an increase close to the Senate’s MAEP plan.

READ MORE: Bill to fully fund public education heads to House for consideration. Here’s what the changes would mean.

“I would like to … put $44 million into the revolving loan fund for schools that we put $40 million into last year, for capital projects,” Bennett said. He said the zero-interest loan fund regenerates itself, and he would like to see it at around $100 million soon, so that schools could use it to build more pre-K facilities. Gunn also listed the program as an area the House wants to increase K-12 funding.

The PATH Company, founded by Gunn former chief of staff Nathan Wells and former state school board Chairman Jason Dean, received a contract of up to $3.6 million over four years to administer the loan program for schools. The company is responsible for reviewing schools’ construction plans and ensuring they are “critical infrastructure improvements, adhering to building codes and monitoring repayment of the loans.

School leaders and advocates statewide have for years pushed lawmakers to fully fund the MAEP formula they put into law three decades ago, but it hasn’t been fully funded since 2008. The Senate plan this year includes changes to the formula that would reduce the increase needed to fully fund MAEP this year from $261 million to $181 million, but education leaders said they support it because if lawmakers used the formula it would provide predictability for when school districts set their budgets.

Some other major items lawmakers continued to negotiate Saturday include:

Tornado damage: Legislative leaders, including Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, Gunn and Senate Appropriations Chairman Briggs Hopson III, whose district was impacted, on Saturday toured areas of Mississippi devastated by Friday night’s tornadoes. Lawmakers are expected to consider whether some emergency funding will be needed for the areas or the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency before they end the 2023 legislative session in coming days. Gunn on Saturday asked for prayers for families who lost loved ones in the storm, and told House members that MEMA reported it would need at least an additional $5 million to deal with the destruction, and he expects the Legislature to take that up in its final days of session.

Gunn described to House members how devastating the total destruction he saw was, and after adjournment showed cell phone video he shot. “Those are steel I-beams,” he explained of one clip. “Do you know how much force it takes to twist an I-beam like that … I have just never seen anything like this.”

A hospital bailout: Lawmakers are expected to use a mix of federal pandemic relief money and state dollars to provide grants to the state’s struggling hospitals. The Senate passed a measure for $83 million in grants. Hospitals have asked for $250 million. Lawmakers expect to approve more than $83 million, but likely nowhere near the $250 million. The Senate’s plan would route more of the money to rural hospitals — many on the brink of closure — while the House’s proposal would benefit larger ones.

Roads: The Senate passed a measure to provide an extra $620 million to the Mississippi Department of Transportation for work on major “capacity” thoroughfares. The House amended it to spend $800 million. Gov. Tate Reeves recently called for lawmakers to approve $1.3 billion, and let him choose what roads get built or expanded this election year. Legislative leaders on Saturday said they expected House and Senate negotiators to land somewhere between the Senate’s $620 million and the House’s $800 million.

The post House leaders say they won’t fully fund MAEP ‘black hole’ as lawmakers try to reach budget agreement appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Tornadoes ripping through Mississippi Friday night left at least 25 dead, dozens injured and a trail of destruction throughout the Delta and into the east central regions.

Four other residents earlier today reported missing have been accounted for, according to a news release from the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. The fatalities are from Sharkey, Humphreys, Carroll and Monroe counties. Search and rescue teams Are on the ground.

The National Weather Service reported a 70-mph tornado swept through the towns of Rolling Fork and Silver City in Sharkey County before heading on a path to Alabama, hitting the towns of Amory and Winona.

Sharkey Issaquena Community Hospital in Rolling Fork lost power and was transferring its patients, including those in its nursing home, to other hospitals, according to MEMA.

“My city – my city is gone,” Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker told CNN Saturday morning. “But we are resilient and we are going to come back strong.”

Sharkey Issaquena Community Hospital CEO Jerry Keever was at the nursing home when reached by Mississippi Today. He described it as like “being in the middle of a war zone.”

He confirmed the hospital is closed, and there is a temporary hospital set up at the armory.

Baptist Memorial Hospital in Yazoo City, about 40 miles away from Rolling Fork, received more than 20 patients injured in the tornadoes as of Saturday morning.

“Almost all patients were treated at the hospital. Any that the hospital couldn’t treat were transferred,” said Kim Alexander, a spokesperson for Baptist. ” … Across the board, team members came in to do whatever was needed. There was a great response from ambulance crews as well.”

Tornado expert Walker Ashley described the tornado as a supercell that brews the deadliest tornados and most damaging hail in the U.S., according to The Associated Press. A nighttime one like this one is “the worst kind,” said Ashley, a meteorology professor at the University of Northern Illinois.

“You mix a particularly socioeconomically vulnerable landscape with a fast-moving, long-track nocturnal tornado, and disaster will happen,” Ashley said in an email to the AP.

Cornell Knight told AP that he, his wife and 3-year-old daughter were visiting a relative in Rolling Fork when the tornado struck. They took shelter in the hallway. The tornado struck another relative’s home across a cornfield, trapping several people inside.

People hoping to donate water or other resources can bring them to the Rolling Fork Armory, also called the Rolling Fork Civic Center, MEMA said. The center is located at the following address: 19719 US 61 in Rolling Fork, MS 39159.

In Jackson, people can bring donations to the State Fairgrounds at 1207 Mississippi St. The center there is accepting bottled water, canned goods, and paper products from 1:30 P.M. until 5 P.M. on Saturday.

Volunteer Mississippi is asking private citizens not to self-deploy, MEMA added, but the organization will match interested volunteers with affiliated groups “when the time is right.”

MEMA said around 10 a.m. on Saturday that additional personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Agency was on the way to Mississippi.

Gov. Tate Reeves issued a state of emergency Saturday morning, and will send it to the federal government for “expedited approval,” adding that he was confident of the request being approved. Reeves said the state is requesting relief through FEMA’s Individual Assistance, which sends resources directly to impacted residents, and Public Assistance, which funds rebuilding public buildings and infrastructure, programs.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Reeves said Saturday morning at a press briefing in Rolling Fork. “We’re going to fight like a hell to make sure we get as many resources to this area as possible.”

He said he’s heard from governors in other states, from both political parties, offering their concern and support.

“My prayers are with the people of Mississippi today as so many have lost homes or loved ones from last night’s devastating storms,” said Louisiana Gov. John Bel Gov. Edwards. “Louisiana understands the pain they are going through right now, and if there is anything we can do, we stand ready to help our neighbors.

MEMA Executive Director Stephen McCraney said he first heard from FEMA Friday night, and expects a team from the federal agency to arrive by 1 p.m. Saturday to help assess the damages.

Impacted residents seeking assistance should contact their county emergency management official, a MEMA spokesperson said. Residents can find the phone number for their county EMA at this link. MEMA also shared the following shelter locations:

National Guard Armory

19719 US 61, Rolling Fork, MS, 39159

Humphreys County Multipurpose BLDG

417 Silver City Road, Belzoni, MS, 39038

Old Amory National Guard Building

101 S 9th St., Amory, MS, 38821

MEMA added that the American Red Cross is setting up a shelter at the Greenville Multipurpose Center.

The Mississippi Department of Public Safety is partnering with MEMA and the Mississippi Department of Agriculture to accept donations from 1:30-5 p.m. today at the armory on the state fairgrounds in Jackson of bottled water, canned goods and paper products for those affected by accepting donations.the storms. The site will also be open from 9 a.m. t0 3 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday.

The Rolling Fork National Guard/Civic Center also is open and

Molina mobile clinic will be set up at the Sharkey County Civic Center beginning Sunday, according to the Mississippi Insurance Department.

The Division of Medicaid has enacted a provision allowing fee-for-service beneficiaries affected by the tornadoes to receive early refills and additional prescriptions above the monthly limit.

Geoff Pender with Mississippi Today contributed to this report.

This story will continue to be updated as more information becomes available.

The post At least 25 killed in Delta tornadoes appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Today, a scar runs across the state and our hearts. Prayers go out to all who suffered from the monster tornado that cut from Rolling Fork, Silver City, Winona to Amory and beyond.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Tornado appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees is moving ahead with the search for the next president of Jackson State University without first accounting for what went wrong with Thomas Hudson’s presidency. 

Hudson’s resignation earlier this month made him the third straight president to resign from Jackson State, the largest historically Black university in the state and a cornerstone of economic development in Mississippi’s capital city. 

So far, the board has not provided any information about the circumstances surrounding Hudson’s resignation, saying only that it does not comment on “personnel matters.” This silence continued at a board meeting on Thursday when trustees said nothing about leadership at Jackson State despite weeks of press releases suggesting they would. Instead, after 20 minutes, the board voted to go into executive session. 

Then at 5 p.m., the board sent out a press release announcing it would begin a search for Jackson State’s next president. Steven Cunningham, the only Jackson State alumnus on the board, will chair the search. Listening sessions will be held this spring. 

It is unclear if the board made a decision to commence the search during executive session. IHL’s spokesperson, Caron Blanton, did not respond to questions by press time. Cunningham did not respond to a call or text from Mississippi Today. 

Now, unanswered questions about the board’s search process are stacking on top of unanswered questions about Hudson’s resignation. 

C. Liegh McInnis, a poet, short story writer and retired Jackson State English instructor, said community members are wondering to what extent the board, with its unilateral power to hire and fire presidents, is responsible for the pattern of resignations at the university, or if Hudson’s resignation was a fluke.

“Whatever it is, it needs to be discussed,” he said. “Not only so it can be avoided, but because he (Hudson) was doing right in so many ways. He was a great fundraiser; he was a great face of the institution.” 

McInnis said at a minimum, he thought it was important for the community to know if the Faculty Senate’s “no-confidence” vote played a role in Hudson’s resignation since that could affect the next president’s success.

But McInnis added that he does not expect more transparency because he “can’t think of a time that the board has ever made a decision that works in the favor of HBCUs.” 

“Name me one roach who likes when the lights are turned on,” he said. 

The board gives itself two options when it searches for a new university president, according to IHL policy: an extended search with a consultant or an expedited process in which the trustees interview candidates “that are known to the Board.” The board has latitude to flip-flop between the two types of searches. 

The board used the expedited process to select Hudson’s predecessor, William Bynum Jr., prompting outcry from the community and a lawsuit from Black lawmakers. Bynum’s presidency ended in scandal after he was arrested during a prostitution sting in early 2020.

At the end of 2020, the IHL commissioner, Alfred Rankins, acknowledged “there were some issues” with the search for Bynum during listening sessions. But the board still decided to forgo a national search and appoint Hudson. 

McInnis said that while many community members were unhappy with the board’s decision to appoint Hudson without a national search, they ultimately accepted the move because Hudson is an alumnus. 

He hopes the community will hold the board accountable to publicly discussing leadership at Jackson State and providing more information about why Hudson’s presidency was cut short. 

“They think they’ll never have to address it,” he said. “The question becomes, who is going to push them on it?” 

The post ‘It needs to be discussed’: College board begins JSU president search without accounting for Hudson’s resignation appeared first on Mississippi Today.

It’s always healthy to focus on fun — even for just a day. And congratulations to Cassandra Wilson for being named Grand Marshal for the 40th Annual Hal’s St. Paddy’s Parade.

The post Marshall Ramsey: St. Paddy’s Parade appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The absolutely no help line.

The post Marshall Ramsey: A Polk in the Eye appeared first on Mississippi Today.

MARCH 24, 1853

Mary Shadd Cary became the first Black female publisher in North America with her anti-slavery newspaper, The Provincial Freeman. Her first published article had come five years earlier when Frederick Douglass asked for suggestions on how to improve the lives of Black Americans. 

“We have been holding conventions for years — we have been assembling together and whining over our difficulties and afflictions, passing resolutions on resolutions to any extent; but it does really seem that we have made but little progress considering our resolves,” she wrote. “We should do more and talk less.” 

The New York Times wrote, “With that statement, Shadd Cary questioned the anti-slavery establishment and helped define a new role for Black women. But her work didn’t end there.” 

Cary published her weekly newspaper in Canada, the home of 40,000 who had escaped slavery. She sought to break down racial barriers and improve their lives and their education. She took that message across Canada and the U.S., soliciting aid for those who had escaped slavery. It was an issue close to her heart. 

Growing up, her family opened their home as a refuge for those fleeing slavery, and when Delaware refused to educate Black children, she and her family moved to Pennsylvania, where she completed her education in a boarding school. When the Civil War broke out, she became a recruiting officer for the Union Army. After the war ended, she started a school for the children of those freed, believing that education could help free them even more. 

In 1870 she became one of the first Black women to earn a law degree from Howard University. She testified before Congress in support of the 14th and 15th Amendments before throwing herself into the fight for women to vote. 

“I am not vain enough to suppose for a moment that words of mine could add one iota of weight to the arguments from these learned and earnest women,” she told the House Judiciary Committee. Because women are taxpayers, they should have the same rights as the men, she said. 

In 1893, she died of stomach cancer. Her brick-row house is now a National Park Service museum honoring her. Civil rights leader W.E.B. Dubois described the courageous woman as “well-educated, vivacious, with determination shining from her sharp eyes, she threw herself singlehanded into the great Canadian pilgrimage when thousands of hunted black men hurried northward and crept beneath the protection of the lion’s paw.” 

Canada now has a bust of her in BME Freedom Park in Chatham, Ontario.

The post On this day in 1853 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Some school districts in Mississippi are worried about the financial and legal ramifications of a bill which would allow them to arm employees as a school safety measure.

Senate Bill 2079 would create a “School Safety Guardian Program,” an optional program that would authorize trained district employees to respond to school shootings. If a district chooses to participate and nominates a school employee (who must have an enhanced concealed carry permit), the employee would participate in a training course from the Department of Public Safety and undergo multiple screenings before being dubbed a “School Guardian.” A House addition to the bill would allow either school employees or outside people to serve in this role, a provision Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell said he would prefer removed.

The proposed program, largely borne of concern regarding the rising rate of school shootings nationally, is intended to provide school districts with another way to increase school security. The risks associated with the program, including accidents related to carrying a gun and potential increases in insurance costs will likely prevent most districts from participating, though some districts have already expressed interest. 

Marcus Burger of Ross and Yerger, a local insurance agency, said one insurance carrier has already expressed to him it does not plan to cover any liability related to the program. He doesn’t expect to see mainstream insurance carriers offer policies until the program has been around for a few years to give carriers a better understanding of the risks. When Kansas passed a law in 2013 to allow armed teachers (with no special training) on school campuses, the state’s primary liability insurance carrier declined to cover districts with armed employees. Burger added some higher-risk carriers may offer coverage, potentially for a higher premium. 

Enhanced concealed carry permit holders are already allowed to bring guns onto school campuses, but, a Mississippi Department of Education official told Mississippi Today in December, after the policy garnered attention last summer, that school districts had concerns about the added liability of more guns on campuses and the impact it would have on their insurance costs.  

READ MORE: How is Mississippi responding to the threat of school shootings? 

School shootings have been on the rise nationally over the last decade, with 93 incidents in the 2020-2021 school year. Mississippi’s most notable school shooting occurred in 1997 at Pearl High School. More broadly, the Clarion Ledger reported there have been at least 25 incidents involving guns and students in Mississippi over the last 40 years. 

Twenty-eight states already allow school staff to be armed in some capacity according to a RAND Corp. report, but fewer have training programs targeting active shooter response. 

In Florida, where a “guardian” program was adopted after the 2018 shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School, the state added liability protections to their professional liability policy for teachers who participated in the program. When the protections were added, the Florida Department of Education asked their Legislature for $200,000 to cover the additional cost – it is unclear if they received it. 

In Texas, the number of districts participating in their guardian program has risen significantly since 2018, from 303 to 445. A Texas Association of School Boards 2022 report said most districts were only allowing  “commissioned peace officers,” a broader term for people with any type of law enforcement experience, as school guardians.  

Jim Keith, a school board attorney whose firm represents over 20 districts across Mississippi, said some districts he works with are interested in adopting the guardian program but he does not expect it to be widespread.

Some education officials and school leaders have said school resource officers, or police officers that work in or for schools, would be preferable to the guardian program, but acknowledged this program could fill a gap for some rural or financially stressed districts that lack qualified applicants or can’t afford full-time school resource officers. 

Lauderdale County School District Superintendent John-Mark Cain said his district works with the local sheriff’s office to put a school resource officer on every campus, but he knows other districts that do take advantage of state law as it currently stands to arm staff. 

“The district sees (school resource officers) as the most opportune situation since we have that great partnership. However, we do understand that certain districts do not have that luxury, and those local boards will have to work with their attorney and their insurance to essentially measure that liability and that risk,” Cain said. 

Research on the impacts of school resource officers has not shown them to be effective at preventing shootings and they are linked with increased suspensions and arrests, but have been effective at stopping fights. 

Mississippi’s proposed program includes legal protections for the guardians from both civil and criminal liability if they are actively responding to a shooter or other safety threat. The bill specifies guardians can still be sued if they fail to carry out their official duties.

Keith said in his reading of the bill, the civil protections for guardians would also extend to the school district. Keith added he is concerned about what exactly will fall under a guardian’s official duties. 

He said it needs to be clear “what those requirements are going to be to enable someone who is a guardian to make sure that they are acting within the course and scope of those duties. Because if they act outside it, then they lose their immunity, which means the school district could possibly lose its immunity.”

Tindell, whose department is overseeing the program, said that he understands this concern but does not expect guardians to have rigidly outlined duties. 

“The primary duty is to protect the school from an active shooter and protect the students,” he said. “I think if they’re doing anything outside of that, that would be outside of the scope of their duties.” 

Some have also expressed concern about accidents occurring with the guardian’s gun, which Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville, brought up during debate on the House floor. Rep. Nick Bain, R-Corinth, who was presenting the bill, said the school district and teacher would be liable in cases of accidents and the immunity provision in the bill would not apply. 

“If a teacher accidentally discharges a firearm because the gun falls out of the holster or there’s a scuffle between students and they try to break it up and a student grabs the teacher’s weapon and somebody else that’s not involved gets shot, what’s the course (sic) of action for that?” Hines told Mississippi Today after the debate.

Hines also expressed concern about the provision of the bill that requires guardians to have their gun on their person at all times, referring to it as “overkill.” 

Tindell said this provision is important so that guardians are quickly able to respond if an active shooter situation arises, but that he would also be amenable to amendments allowing for the gun to be locked up at certain times. Tindell also highlighted that the bill requires a school shooting response plan and chain of command to be created and uniformly implemented across the state. 

Like Hines, school leaders are worried about the increased risk that comes with more guns on school property. James Waldington, superintendent of the Greenwood-Leflore Consolidated School District, said he worries daily about guns being brought to campus by students, shooters and school resource officers. 

“Although I feel the bill is being discussed as another level of protection for our students (and) staff and I sincerely applaud that effort, to add another dimension to the educational environment where a loaded weapon is present is concerning, to say the least,” he said. 

The bill has passed both houses of the Legislature with a sizable majority, and currently heads to a conference committee to work out the differences between the two versions. Sen. Angela Hill, R-Picayune, authored the bill and said the differences between the two versions are relatively minor. 

It’s likely Gov. Tate Reeves will sign the bill, as he included a version of the program in his legislative budget recommendations from November of last year. 

When asked about possible increases in the cost of liability insurance for districts related to this program, Hill said she was not familiar with this concern but that similar programs had been adopted in other states “and they still have liability insurance.” 

Hill said she chose to author this bill because the superintendent of her district asked for it. 

“Many of these campuses are rural, they’re spread out, the response time to have additional law enforcement is sometimes unacceptable,” she said.  “Some school districts feel like they need more qualified people to be able to respond as a part of their security team.”

Ken Barron, superintendent of the Yazoo County School District, said the district has its own police force to provide security, but that he might be interested in adding this program on top. 

“I could see this possibly being a benefit with the right parameters in place,” he said. 

The post Bill to arm school employees raises concerns about liability appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Gov. Tate Reeves has appointed one of his top campaign donors to the Mississippi Gaming Commission, growing a list of Reeves insiders who have received government jobs in his first term in office.

Reeves appointed Kent Nicaud, the president and CEO of Gulfport Memorial Hospital, to serve the remainder of the term of former Gaming Commissioner Al Hopkins, who died in February.

If Nicaud is confirmed, he would join another major Reeves donor on the three-member Gaming Commission. The governor appointed Franc Lee, a payday loan magnate and Reeves’ largest individual donor, to the commission in 2021.

Gaming commissioners receive a modest salary from taxpayers — $40 per day — and are reimbursed by the state for travel and meals. The commission is tasked with regulating the casino gaming industry, which brings the state hundreds of millions in tax revenue each year. That revenue has become necessary to fund basic public services across Mississippi.

Nicaud has been one of Reeves’ top donors over the past few years, writing checks totaling more than $100,000, including $41,000 in 2022 alone. Nicaud’s fundraising influence led Reeves to appoint him to his gubernatorial campaign finance committee in 2019.

Reeves also appointed Nicaud’s wife Jenny Nicaud as an administrative law judge for the Mississippi Workers Compensation Commission in 2021. Kent and Jenny Nicaud’s son Jourdan Nicaud has also been a campaign donor to the governor, giving at least $36,000 to Reeves since 2018.

READ MORE: Kent Nicaud hosts in-person fundraiser for Gov. Tate Reeves during major COVID-19 spike

With the appointments, Reeves is growing the list of his personal campaign donors who have later been appointed to taxpayer-funded government positions by the governor. 

Another one of Reeves’ pending appointments is Gerard Gibert, the host of a conservative Supertalk Mississippi radio show and regular campaign donor of Reeves. Gibert, first appointed to the Mississippi Lottery Corporation board by former Gov. Phil Bryant, was reappointed by Reeves this year after writing several checks to Reeves’ campaign accounts since 2017.

In 2021, Reeves appointed three campaign donors to the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees — among the state’s most coveted government appointments — and two campaign donors to the Mississippi Community College Board.

Businessman Johnny McRight gave Reeves $50,000 in the four years before his 2021 IHL appointment. Businessman Luke Montgomery gave Reeves $14,500 in the years before his 2021 MCBB appointment.

Gregg Rader, a Columbus businessman, gave Reeves $85,000 in the months leading up to his 2021 IHL appointment. And Rader has continued the flow of money to Reeves’ campaign coffers even after his appointment, writing another $30,000 check to the governor in 2022.

William Symmes, a Gulfport lawyer appointed by Reeves to the MCCB in 2021 after a small 2020 donation to the governor, acknowledged in an interview at the time that his personal connections to Reeves led to his appointment, but said it is logical the governor would pick people who know and support him.

“Obama said it best: ‘Elections have consequences,’” Symmes told Mississippi Today in 2021. “I think that one of those consequences is you’re able to put people around you that you feel comfortable and work well with.”

READ MORE: They wrote campaign checks to Tate Reeves. Then he appointed them to powerful ed boards.

Mississippi Today reached out to Reeves’ office before this story published and asked why the governor appointed Nicaud to the Gaming Commission. We also asked what Reeves would say to taxpayers who are funding his campaign insider appointments during his first term as governor.

“Mississippi Today is not a news organization, it is an unregistered Democrat super PAC and obviously acting like one again today,” Reeves’ deputy chief of staff Cory Custer said in an emailed statement, declining to answer the questions.

Nicaud faces Senate confirmation before he can assume the Gaming Commission post. He would finish out the term of Alben “Al” Hopkins, who was first appointed to the commission by former Gov. Phil Bryant in 2015 and died in February 2023.

In 2022, Reeves reappointed Hopkins, who faced some political heat in the Senate before ultimately being confirmed for a new term.

Just a few months before Reeves reappointed Hopkins, the Reeves campaign cashed a check: $1,000 from Alben Hopkins LLC.

The post Gov. Tate Reeves taps another major campaign donor for government appointment appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Superintendents from across the state are visiting the Legislature this week with a message: Please support fully funding our schools. 

Senate leaders introduced a plan earlier this month to give an additional $181 million to public schools by slightly modifying the state’s public school funding formula, the Mississippi Adequate Education Program or MAEP, and fully funding the new version. 

The funding formula was established by the Legislature in 1997 and has been consistently underfunded every year since 2008. MAEP provides the state’s share of money for the basic needs of districts, such as teacher salaries, utilities, textbooks and transportation.

READ MORE: Bill to fully fund public education heads to House for consideration. Here’s what the changes would mean.

Tyler Hansford, superintendent of the Union Public School District, said he does not know of a superintendent opposed to the plan. 

“The track record of funding the current MAEP formula is so bad, I think common sense people have realized there’s very little hope of that being done, so what we’ve tried to arrive at is some sort of compromise,” he said. “We’re willing to take less money than what’s in the current formula if we can have a predictable amount, that way it’s not guesswork every year.” 

Hansford said superintendents are eager to thank and applaud legislators for supporting public schools and they would like to be able to tell parents “Look at what these people did for your kids.” 

Despite broad support among superintendents for the proposal, some education leaders and advocates are worried it will die due to the concerns some House leaders have voiced. The bills currently head to conference committees to work out the differences. 

“Both (chambers) really want to do what’s best for kids, I really believe that, but we’re being told that there are some heels being dug in,” said Yazoo County School District Superintendent Ken Barron. 

Barron explained he has heard some concerns about wasteful spending, but said he does not see it in all the superintendents he knows. 

“We care about the kids, we care about our faculty and staff, and we try to take every dollar that we are allocated and use it efficiently as possible,” he said. 

John-Mark Cain, superintendent of the Lauderdale County School District, said schools are facing numerous financial pressures right now, including the ending of federal pandemic relief money, record inflation, aging facilities and increased security needs, making full funding of MAEP particularly critical. 

“We’re at a time where we know we have the financial resources in the state to make this possible,” he said. 

Superintendent of the Covington County School District Babette Duty said the federal pandemic relief money has inflated school budgets and given people a “skewed” understanding of where they stand with school funding, setting up the district to make hard choices soon without additional funding from the state. 

Superintendents lauded the teacher pay raise that was given last year, but said it didn’t cover everyone who also need raises to stay competitive. 

“We don’t want to leave out our support staff as well, when we talk about bus drivers, custodians, and our cafeteria workers, again all those things go into providing a safe environment for our students, but in order to do that it takes money and often time those things are not captured in the story when we talk about additional funding,” said Robert Williams, superintendent of the Hattiesburg Public School District. 

Some legislators have proposed “earmarking” funds for specific programs or positions instead of giving more money to MAEP, something superintendents say limits their choices. 

“Our needs vary, and we really need the autonomy to decide what we want to focus on and what we need to fix,” said Duty. “You can stretch a state dollar further if you put it in such a way that the local district can decide how to utilize it.”

The post Superintendents to Legislature: Please fully fund our schools appeared first on Mississippi Today.