Almost two-thirds of rural hospitals across Mississippi are losing money taking care of patients.
Data from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform from mid-January shows that 48 of Mississippi’s 74 rural hospitals have a negative patient services margin.
Patient services margins refer to how much money a hospital makes or loses providing services to patients. It does not account for federal grants hospitals may have received during the pandemic.
In Mississippi, rural hospitals are integral to the survival of communities, economically and physically. When they shutter, it means the loss of job opportunities and health care.
The center uses hospitals’ patient services margin to calculate risk of closure. If the hospital has enough assets to maintain operations while in the negative for several years, it’s at risk of closure, though not immediate.
“If a hospital is losing money on patient services and they are not getting enough money from other sources to offset those losses, it’s losing money overall,” said Harold Miller, president and CEO of the national policy center. “In other words, they owe more than they have.”
A quarter of Mississippi’s rural hospitals are at risk of closing immediately, or within the next two to three years — the fourth highest percentage in the country.
Use this map and hover over your area to find out what your hospital’s patient services margin is.
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.
Mississippi Republican legislative leaders don’t have to listen when their Black colleagues tell them that they’re stripping voting power from Black Mississippians.
They don’t have to listen when they’re told that they’re passing a bill that is bound for yet another federal court battle, that they’re stoking racial division across the state, that they’re once again drawing horrible national attention, that they’re dragging Mississippi back in time.
Republicans have carefully created for themselves a legislative body with virtually unlimited and unchecked power. It allows them to completely shut people who don’t look like them or think like them out of the legislative process, and they often use it to pass legislation that stretches the limits of democracy.
This is no accident. Over the past 30 years, as Mississippi’s electorate shifted from the Democratic to Republican Party, Republicans used their newfound power to strategically redraw legislative districts and give themselves supermajority control of both the Senate and House. They can, without any say whatsoever from Democrats, pass any bill they want. Inside the Capitol, a small handful of GOP leaders have drawn up rules that give them all the power, and rank-and-file legislators — including the vast majority of Republican legislators — wield little influence over what passes or fails.
Democrats, meanwhile, the party of the overwhelming majority of Black Mississippians, have no voting power at all inside the Capitol. They can give impassioned speeches at the wells, they can stretch debates to four-plus hours, they can walk off the floor to protest racist bills, they can hold fiery press conferences, but they cannot stop Republicans from passing any single piece of legislation.
There is almost never partisan compromise. There is rarely genuine debate. There is plenty of one-sided control.
With this power, Republicans have passed all sorts of legislation the past couple years despite vocal pushback from Black lawmakers: a critical race theory ban, which famously led every Black senator to walk off the floor in protest before the final vote; tighter legislative and congressional redistricting maps that diluted Black voting strength; the nation’s strictest voting laws in a state with a sordid, racist history; massive tax cuts that disproportionately affect poor and Black taxpayers; and anti-LGBTQ legislation that threatens the lives of a vulnerable population.
But perhaps no legislation better showcases the unilateral GOP control under the dome better than House Bill 1020, which passed the House late in the evening of Feb. 7.
Yes, the national headlines you read last week were accurate: A mostly-white House supermajority passed a bill that would create a completely white-appointed judicial district and expand the police force within the whiter areas of Jackson, the Blackest large city in America.
For more than four hours, Black House members delivered what should be certainly considered some of the most cautionary and impassioned speeches ever made in the Mississippi State Capitol building. Many of their comments echoed ones made by their predecessors in the building and civil rights leaders of 60 years ago.
Rep. Ed Blackmon, D-Canton: “Only in Mississippi would we have a bill like this, with our history, where you say solving the problem is taking the vote away from Black people because we don’t know how to choose our leaders … This is just like the 1890 Constitution all over again. We are doing exactly what they said they were doing back then: ‘Helping those people because they can’t govern themselves.’”
Rep. Solomon Osborne, D-Greenwood: “I don’t even know why I’m down here, frankly, because it’s like being at a Klan rally with people with suits on. That’s the only difference I see between these people here. They wear suits rather than sheets … Every day we get up here and open this body with prayer. I wonder what God are these people praying to?”
Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville: “Again, we end up being the laughingstock of America because of what we do here today.”
While Black House members were doing all they could to plead with the humanity of their GOP colleagues, a large number of Republicans left the House floor altogether for a majority of the debate, reappearing from the back halls of the Capitol to cast a final “yea” vote. House Speaker Philip Gunn sat on the speaker’s dais leaned back in his chair with his legs crossed, talking regularly with various Republicans who came to visit with him. Rep. Trey Lamar, the GOP leader who authored and defended House Bill 1020 on the floor floor, sat behind the well and scrolled his phone.
They didn’t seem to listen to what their Black colleagues were saying. They didn’t have to.
Now the bill moves to the Senate, in recent years the more moderate of the two chambers. But it’s an election year, and Republicans believe nothing seems to motivate Republican voters more than being “tough on crime.” And this is Mississippi, so being tough on crime in the Blackest city in America is probably not the worst thing for Republicans who want to go home and flaunt their GOP bonafides.
Considering legislative Republicans have passed legislation in recent years that they knew would face federal lawsuits to hopefully draw the attention and reforming action of the U.S. Supreme Court — remember Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization? — it’s difficult to write off anything that moves through the Mississippi State Capitol.
Meanwhile, the Republican supermajority rolls on for at least six more weeks this session. And if you’re hoping political change is on the horizon, there’s more bad news. According to a recent Mississippi Today analysis of this year’s legislative elections, there’s no possible way the GOP will lose control.
For at least four more years, the current trajectory of policy making in Mississippi could very well continue.
Mississippi Today is pleased to announce that Devna Bose has joined the community health team at Mississippi Today.
Devna Bose photographed in Charleston, Monday, Dec. 12, 2022. Grace Beahm Alford/Staff photographer at the Post & Courier.
Bose, a native of Philadelphia, will serve as the community health reporter. Her work will cover statewide health issues with a focus on rural health care.
She comes to Mississippi Today from the Post & Courier in Charleston, S.C., where she covered education. Before that she worked at The Charlotte Observer in Charlotte, N.C., and the education nonprofit news organization Chalkbeat in New Jersey.
She graduated from the University of Mississippi with a degree in journalism in 2019.
“Returning home to report in the state I grew up in is a privilege,” Bose said. “I know the health care crisis that Mississippi is facing — my family and friends have lived it. That’s why I’m committed to sharing the stories of the people being impacted by the failures of our state’s most powerful. There’s so much work to do, and I’m grateful to be doing it for Mississippi Today, a newsroom I’ve long admired for its dedication to fearless, enterprising journalism.”
Community Health Team Editor Kate Royals oversees the health team.
“Devna is an incredibly talented writer and a thorough journalist. Her work on the school system in Newark and its uneven and sometimes nonexistent management of students with asthma led to changes in the district and proposed federal legislation,” said Royals. “We are so excited to have her back in Mississippi.”
Perhaps the most Mississippi-centric Super Bowl is history, and your Mississippi Today sports columnist has some thoughts on Kansas City’s thrill-packed 38-35 victory.
First and foremost, our Mississippi lads did not let us down. We’ll get to that, but first let’s get to the play everyone wanted to talk about immediately after the game. Yes, I am referring to the holding call against Philadelphia cornerback James Bradbury with just under two minutes to play.
Patrick Mahomes – the fast-growing legend – threw an incomplete pass intended for Juju Smith-Schuster in the end zone on third down, seemingly setting up a chip-shot field goal that would give Kansas City a 3-point lead but also give the Eagles and their heroic quarterback Jalen Hurts plenty of time to either tie the game or perhaps win it.
Rick Cleveland
But wait! An official flagged Bradbury for holding Smith-Schuster on the play, which he clearly did. Bradbury reached out and grabbed Smith-Schuster’s jersey, delaying him a split second on his route.
The Chiefs were awarded a first down and then were able to run the clock down, kick the winning field goal with just seconds to play for the victory. It was an anti-climactic finish to what was an otherwise entertaining game.
FOX network commentator Greg Olsen – who was terrific, by the way – immediately questioned whether the officials should make that call in that situation. Seemingly millions of fans did the same on social media. “You can’t make that call in that situation,” seemed to be the consensus opinion.
Here’s the deal: Smith-Schuster was the intended receiver on the play. He faked a pass pattern across the middle, then cut back to the outside. Fooled, Bradbury reached out and grabbed Smith-Schuster’s jersey. It was holding, plain and simple. In my opinion, you have to make that call regardless of how much time is left. I don’t subscribe to the “the officials shouldn’t decide the outcome” opinion. I look at it this way: A clear infraction of the rules should not decide the outcome.
It was the right call. And apparently Bradbury knew it. “It was holding,” he said, afterward. “I tugged the jersey.”
Case closed.
Mississippians – and there were nine on the two rosters – did not disappoint. A.J. Brown, the Eagles’s splendid receiver from Starkville and Ole Miss, caught six passes for 96 yards, including a 45-yard touchdown. Those are winning statistics in a losing effort. Brown clearly has become one of the best receivers in the sport.
For the winning Chiefs, defensive tackle Chris Jones of Houston and Mississippi State, anchored the defensive line, occupying two Eagles blockers for most of the night. Willie Gay, who weighs 240 and runs like a halfback, was in on eight tackles ranging from sideline to sideline from his middle linebacker position. Linebacker Darius Harris of Horn Lake and Middle Tennessee State was in on one tackle.
Eagles running back Kenneth Gainwell from Yazoo County and Memphis, accounted for 52 yards total, running for 21, catching four passes for 20 more and running back a kickoff 11 yards. He scored an apparent touchdown on the first possession of the game only to have it nullified by replay. Eagles and former Southern Miss wide receiver Quez Watkins caught one pass for six yards and narrowly missed a diving try for a much longer pass. It would have been a terrific catch and it’s a play he has made before both for the Golden Eagles and the NFL Eagles.
Also for the Eagles, cornerback Darius Slay, formerly of Mississippi State, made four tackles and big Fletcher Cox of Yazoo and Mississippi State made one tackle. Cox, as Jones, was often double-teamed by Chiefs blockers. Cox and Jones are perfect examples of how misleading the statistics of defensive linemen can be. Their tackle totals were meager, yet they consistently did their jobs, occupying two blockers.
Seemed a shame that one of the quarterbacks, Mahomes or Hurts, had to walk off the field a loser. Both played marvelously. Put it this way: Hurts threw for 304 yards and a touchdown, ran for 70 yards and three touchdowns, did not throw an interception – and lost. What Mahomes did, willing the Chiefs to victory on one good leg, is the stuff legends are made of – and he is one at age 27.
Mississippi lawmakers are considering a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for trans kids this session, sparking fear among LGBTQ+ Mississippians and their families and allies.
House Bill 11125, also known as the “Regulate Experimental Adolescent Procedures” (REAP) Act, would prevent Mississippi’s roughly 2,400 trans kids and their families from getting hormone therapy or puberty blockers in the state. Lawmakers, contradicting the recommendations of every major medical association in the U.S., have likened gender-affirming care to child abuse and say the bill will protect children.
Trans Mississippians and their allies have said the bill is part of a coordinated attack on their rights. The bill comes two years after lawmakers banned trans athletes from competing on sports teams that align with their gender identity.
As the bill moves through the legislative process, Mississippi Today compiled answers to some commonly asked questions about HB 1125 and gender-affirming care.
What is gender-affirming care?
Gender-affirming care refers to a broad range of interventions, from medical treatment to psychological and social support, that aims to affirm an individual’s gender identity, especially when it is different from the one they were assigned at birth, according to the World Health Organization. It seeks to reduce gender dysphoria, the distress trans people can experience when their physical features do not match their gender identity. The Transgender Care Navigation Program at the University of California, San Francisco, says gender-affirming care can range from “coming out” to friends and family, using different pronouns and changing one’s hairstyle, clothing to going on puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgery.
Puberty blockers are a type of medication that prevents sex organs from producing estrogen or testosterone. They are reversible and have been used for decades for precocious puberty, the development of secondary sex characteristics at a young age, in cisgender kids. Hormone therapy – the prescription of estrogen or testosterone – typically starts at 16-years-old for trans kids.
For trans kids, who must have parental consent, the goal of gender-affirming care is often to give them time to determine if they want to go through puberty corresponding to the sex they were assigned at birth or if they want to transition, said Lee Pace, a nurse practitioner and co-owner of Spectrum: The Other Clinic, the only transgender medical clinic in Mississippi.
Gender-affirming care is recommended by every major medical association in the United States. It is also evidenced-based and, contrary to the title of HB 1125, not considered “experimental” by the medical community.
In a blog post on the American Medical Association’s website, the president, Jack Resneck, wrote that, “studies have consistently demonstrated that providing gender-affirming care that is both age-appropriate and evidence-based leads to improved mental health outcomes. Conversely, denying such care is linked to a greater incidence of anxiety, depression and self-harm.”
Nationally, trans youth attempt suicide at a rate more than four times their cisgender peers due to social stigma and discrimination. Research has repeatedly shown that gender-affirming care significantly boosts the chances that trans kids will live to see adulthood. A study published last year in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association found that over the course of a year, gender-affirming care was associated with 60% reduced odds of moderate to severe depression and 73% less odds of suicidal thoughts.
Are trans youth undergoing gender-confirmation surgery in Mississippi?
No. On the House floor, Rep. Nick Bain, R-Corinth, could not name a single instance of a trans kid undergoing gender-confirmation surgery in Mississippi.
There is no medical clinic in Mississippi that offers gender-confirmation surgery to trans kids, according to Pace and other advocates for the state’s trans community. In general, surgery is not recommended for trans kids by medical organizations that support other forms of gender-affirming care for youth.
No clinic in Mississippi provides what’s commonly called “bottom surgery” to trans people of any age, though adults can access chest surgery in the state.
A handful of trans kids in Mississippi are receiving gender-affirming care. At Spectrum, Pace estimated that in the last two years, he has seen 30 trans kids for care and less than half have had parental consent to go on puberty blockers. The number of trans kids across the country who are on puberty blockers is similarly small. According to an investigation in Reuters based on insurance claims, just 1,390 trans kids ages 6-17 in the United States were prescribed puberty blockers in 2021.
How would HB 1125 be enforced?
HB 1125 is enforced by a civil, not criminal, process in which anyone who “aids or abets” gender-affirming care for a trans child could be sued for monetary damages for up to 30 years. In addition, doctors who continue to provide gender-affirming care after the bill passes could lose their license.
The State Board of Medical Licensure, which would enforce the bill’s provision revoking providers’ licenses, didn’t respond to questions from Mississippi Today. The University of Mississippi Medical Center, which has provided gender-affirming care to trans kids at its LGBTQ-focused TEAM Clinic, said, “we have no comment for now.”
McKenna Raney-Gray, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi’s LGBTQ Justice Project, said on a call last month that the bill is designed to make it so doctors in Mississippi have no incentive to provide gender-affirming care.
How would this legislation affect access to gender-affirming care in Mississippi?
The bill will go into effect immediately. Spectrum is likely the one provider in the state offering gender-affirming care to trans kids, Pace said, and he will stop treating the handful of 16 and 17-year-old trans teenagers in his care the moment the bill passes. His wife and co-owner of the clinic, Stacie Pace, said they will likely post signs on the clinic’s front door saying they no longer accept trans children.
It is unclear if the bill will prevent doctors in Mississippi from referring families and trans kids to out-of-state providers.
Still, the small number of families seeking gender-affirming medical care involving puberty blockers or hormone treatment will have to go out of state if the bill passes, though some people worry this also would not be allowed under the bill’s “aids and abets” clause.
During a Senate Judiciary B committee hearing last month, Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, said he did not think the bill would prevent families from going out of state for care.
“We only control the law within the boundaries of the state of Mississippi,” he said. “Now if parents use it to go to New York or wherever they want to go – L.A. – and do this, that would be controlled by the laws in that state.”
Who supports HB 1125, and why?
The bill is authored by Rep. Gene Newman, R-Pearl. He has not responded to a request for comment from Mississippi Today. It is backed by a coalition of powerful Republican lawmakers in Mississippi, including Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn, and endorsed by conservative and religious organizations like the Alliance Defending Freedom.
These lawmakers and groups have cast the measure as a way to protect children in Mississippi, sometimes likening gender-affirming care to child abuse. At a rally last month, Gunn said he did not think children in Mississippi should be allowed the choice to transition with puberty blockers or hormones.
“We have decided as a society that children are not always capable of making decisions based on age, lack of maturity and lack of understanding,” he said. “Is there any more consequential decision than changing one’s sex?”
Reeves echoed Gunn during his State of the State address.
“The fact is that we set age restrictions on driving a car and on getting a tattoo,” Reeves said. “We don’t let 11- year- olds enter an R-rated movie alone, yet some would have us believe that we should push permanent, body-altering surgeries on them at such a young age.”
What do trans Mississippians, their supportive families and providers of gender-affirming care think of the bill?
Trans Mississippians call the bill an attack on their rights. Jensen Luke Matar, director of the nonprofit Trans Program, said on a call last month that lawmakers are using trans Mississippians as political bait.
“It’s just chess,” said Matar, a trans man. “They’re playing chess, and they’re using the most vulnerable population as their pawns.”
Supportive parents are devastated by the measure and afraid of what will happen if their trans kids can no longer receive gender-affirming care, Pace said. Many parents are still trying to figure out how to tell their kids that Mississippi is considering this bill, according to parents who spoke with Mississippi Today on the condition of anonymity. Some are considering the possibility of moving away to states like California and Colorado that have laws protecting gender-affirming care.
Providers of gender-affirming care in Mississippi say the bill will contribute to increased mental illness among LGBTQ+ Mississippians and are worried it will lead to higher suicide rates if it passes.
“The number one thing, if this bill goes into effect? A lot of dead kids,” Stacie Pace told Mississippi Today. “This law goes into effect, it is, in my opinion, the direct cause of youth suicide.”
What forms of gender-affirming care for trans minors would still be permitted under HB 1125?
Raney-Gray of the ACLU said the bill will not ban social transitioning, such as using new pronouns or wearing different clothes, for trans youth in Mississippi.
It remains unclear how the bill could affect access to gender-affirming care that is provided through a counselor or if that would fall under the measure’s “aids and abets” clause. Counselors across the state who have worked with trans people told Mississippi Today that if they accept a trans child as a client, they would seek legal guidance.
Editor’s note: Mississippi Today will publish stories about all public polls released during the 2023 governor’s race. We will always clearly report on a poll’s methodology and note any concerns with the provided data shown.
Incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves trails Democratic challenger Brandon Presley in a new poll, and Reeves scored low marks for his handling of the Mississippi welfare scandal.
The poll, conducted among 500 Mississippians between Jan. 21-25 by Tulchin Research, found 47% support for Presley compared to 43% support for Reeves, who is running for his second term as governor and for his sixth four-year term in state office. Ten percent of respondents were undecided.
Additionally, a sizable 64% majority of respondents had an unfavorable impression of Reeves for firing the state attorney tasked with recouping misspent welfare funds. Just 25% of the poll’s respondents had a favorable view of the governor related to the welfare scandal.
The poll was commissioned by the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund and its affiliated political action committee. The pollster did not immediately release full crosstabs, which can help observers determine whether those polled represent an accurate snapshot of the electorate. Black voters, who typically vote Democratic in Mississippi, comprised 33.9% of the poll’s participants. The poll has a margin of error of 4.38%, which means Reeves and Presley could be tied or Presley could be up by 8 points.
Tulchin Research has a B/C rating from FiveThirtyEight, and in the three Tulchin polls the site has graded, it averaged a slight mean-reverted bias toward Republicans.
This is the second public poll on the governor’s race released in 2023. Shortly before Presley officially announced his candidacy, a Mississippi Today/Siena College poll showed Reeves led Presley by 4 points (43% to 39%). Additionally, 57% of respondents said they preferred “someone else” besides Reeves in the 2023 governor’s race.
The sprawling welfare scandal has emerged as one of the top issues of the 2023 governor’s race.
State officials and others have pleaded guilty in the case, which has been referred to as the largest public corruption scandal in Mississippi history where at least $77 million in welfare funds intended for the state’s poorest residents were misspent and used for pet projects and other programs that did not help people in poverty.
The misspending, at times, led to perks and financial boons for those friendly with both former Gov. Phil Bryant and Reeves, who at the time was lieutenant governor.
In his January gubernatorial campaign announcement, Presley panned Reeves for his involvement in the scandal, including that Reeves’ personal trainer, Paul Lacoste, improperly received more than $1 million in welfare funds.
In 2022, Reeves abruptly fired Brad Pigott, a former U.S. attorney in the Bill Clinton administration, who was originally hired by the state’s welfare department to try to recoup the misspent funds in civil court.
According to the poll released on Monday, 55% of the respondents had heard “a lot” about the scandal, while 29% had heard some and 9% had heard a little.
Reeves said he replaced Pigott because the attorney was making the investigation political and because Pigott did not have the resources to adequately pursue the case alone. Pigott said his efforts were solely to recover public funds that have been misspent.
“I guess I was getting too close,” Pigott told Al Hunt this week for Hunt’s Sunday column in The Hill. “Gov. Reeves has appointed himself commander in chief of the cover-up.”
Presley, who has held a Public Service Commission office since 2003, is at a significant disadvantage in terms of statewide name identification.
Reeves is viewed as unfavorable by 54% of poll respondents, with 40% viewing him as very unfavorable, while he is seen as favorable by 42%, including 16% seeing him as very favorable. Presley, a Nettleton resident on the Lee and Monroe County lines in northeast Mississippi, is viewed as favorable by 39% and unfavorable by 18%, but he had only 58% name identification.
The Tulchin poll found 55% said the state was on the wrong track, 34% on the right track and 11% did not know.
1960 sit-in at a Nashville lunch counter Credit: U.S. Library of Congress
Students began sit-ins in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, many of them students from Fisk University.
In the months that followed, more than 150 were arrested.
Rather than pay fines, they served their time in jail. When a mayor’s committee suggested separate “Black” and “White” sections at the lunch counters, the students balked.
Two months later, a bomb exploded, nearly destroying the home of Z. Alexander Looby, the defense attorney representing many protesters. Later that day, more than 3,000 marched to city hall. Diane Nash asked the mayor if it was wrong for a citizen of Nashville to discriminate on the basis of color.
The mayor admitted it was wrong. Confronted about the lunch counters, the mayor acknowledged they should be desegregated.
Weeks later, six downtown stores desegregated their lunch counters, serving Black customers for the first time. James Lawson, who knew the principles of nonviolent resistance, led the students, many of whom became important leaders in the civil rights movement: Nash, John Lewis, James Bevel, C.T. Vivian, Marion Barry and Bernard Lafayette.
David Halberstam captured their story in his book, The Children.
Why are lawmakers trying to ban gender-affirming care for trans kids? Mississippi Today’s Molly Minta talks with Jensen Luke Matar, the director of the nonprofit TRANS Program, about gender-affirming care, what it is and what it is not, and why powerful lawmakers are trying to ban it for the small number of trans kids in Mississippi. While lawmakers say they’re trying to protect kids, Matar says this effort will lead to higher rates of suicide and poor mental health.
House lawmakers last week passed a bill that would dramatically revamp how Mississippi spends taxpayer dollars on college financial aid.
The vote on House Bill 711, sponsored by Rep. Donnie Scoggin, R-Ellisville, marks the furthest a bill to change state financial aid has gotten in the legislative process since talks of redesigning the programs began in 2018.
Supporters of the bill, including the Office of Student Financial Aid, say this effort is succeeding where prior ones failed because it was created by a coalition of powerful officials who, behind closed doors, were able to reach a consensus. What that looks like is, overall, less money for college for low-income students and an increased emphasis on workforce development.
Critics of the bill have questioned whether that trade-off is worth the impact it’ll have on low-income students. In committee meetings and on the House floor, lawmakers so far have focused on how this bill will harm the bottom line of Mississippi’s five regional and historically Black universities.
But these institutions might actually gain money under the proposal, according to an OSFA analysis. Instead, it’s low-income students at the state’s three top-tier research institutions who stand to lose the most dollars under the proposal.
The bill will make big changes to two of Mississippi’s three state financial aid programs: The Mississippi Resident Tuition Assistance Grant, or MTAG, and the Higher Education Legislative Plan for Needy Students, known as the HELP grant.
The Mississippi Eminent Scholars Grant, unlike the other programs, does not consider family income. It's based solely on ACT scores and GPA and is the state's most racially inequitable program. Under the proposed bill, it would remain untouched.
Mississippi’s student financial aid programs are not stackable. This means students can only receive one grant at time, whichever one awards them the most money. For example, a student who gets a 30 on the ACT but comes from a family that makes more than $75,000 a year likely qualifies for both MTAG and MESG. But they would only receive MESG, because the grant is higher.
Currently, MTAG awards $500 per year for freshmen and sophomores and $1,000 per year for juniors and seniors. While it is intended to be a broad-based grant — the minimum ACT score required to get it is a 15, lower than the state’s average — it has a significant limitation. Low-income college students who are eligible for the full federal Pell Grant are excluded from receiving this award. This means that most MTAG recipients in Mississippi come from families that, on paper, can already afford to pay for college.
The new MTAG, rebranded “MTAG Works,” would broaden eligibility to include full-Pell-eligible students and part-time students. It will also come with a new income cap. Students from families who make over the median family income, ($74,888 in 2022 for a four-person family, according to the federal government), would no longer be eligible.
By expanding to include part-time students, supporters of the bill hope the new MTAG will be easier for adult students, who tend to go to college part-time while working full-time, to get. MTAG is the only undergraduate state aid program in Mississippi that does not have to be applied for within two years of college graduation. But recipients must be enrolled full-time, a requirement that excludes most adult students.
The grant will also be increased. The award amounts under the bill would be upped to $1,000 for freshmen and sophomores and to $2,000 for juniors and seniors. Students who major in certain subjects deemed “high-value pathways” by the state’s workforce development office will receive an additional $500. It is unclear what majors will be considered “high-value pathways” or how the workforce development office will determine that.
All this would entail Mississippi spending an extra $21 million in taxpayer dollars on state financial aid each year.
These changes are complicated and the final award would vary based on test scores, family income, and a student's year in school. Here's a sketch of how they might play out for certain kinds of students:
A student from a family that makes more than $39,500 attending Alcorn State University with an ACT of 19:
Cost of tuition for four years: $31,476
Current total state aid: $3,000
New total state award: $6,000
A student with the same family income, attending the same school and with the same ACT score who majors in a “high-value pathway”:
Cost of tuition for four years: $31,476
Current total state aid: $3,000
New total state award: $8,000
A student whose family makes $250,000 a year attending Pearl River Community College full-time with an ACT of 27:
Cost of tuition for two years: $6,500
Current total state aid: $3,000
New total state award: $0
A part-time adult student attending Coahoma Community College:
Cost of tuition for two years: $6,400 or less
Current total state aid: $0
New total state award: $2,000
Though some studies have shown that MTAG is one of the state’s most inefficient college financial aid programs — one lawmaker remarked earlier this session that it can go to any student who “breathes air” — the Office of Student Financial Aid believes these changes will make the grant more effective.
Education policy experts say the higher award amount might not be enough to help students afford college considering the increasing cost of college tuition in Mississippi. They also say the $500 “bonus” is too small an amount to have any effect on student behavior.
MTAG recipients at four-year universities will gain far less money than HELP recipients stand to lose. Where some MTAG recipients who don’t major in a high-value pathway will gain $3,000 in college financial aidover four years, HELP recipients will lose an estimated $9,100 based on the average tuition at the four-year universities, according to a Mississippi Today analysis.
HELP, the only financial aid program geared to low-income students in Mississippi, currently pays the full cost of tuition for all four years of college, no matter what institution a student attends. It is one of the state’s most effective programs, according to studies commissioned by OSFA. HELP recipients — students from families that make less than $39,500 a year – take more credit hours, have higher GPAs, and are more likely to graduate on time than their low-income peers who don’t receive other state financial aid.
The grant is also the state’s most racially equitable. By and large, most HELP recipients — who have higher than average ACT scores based on HELP’s eligibility requirement of a 20 or higher — chose to go to four-year universities.
The bill seeks to re-route where these students attend college by converting the HELP grant into what’s commonly called a “2+2” program. It will reduce the award for freshmen and sophomores to the average cost of tuition at community colleges (roughly $3,300), but juniors and seniors will continue to receive the average cost of tuition at the four-year universities (roughly $8,900).
This change means that future HELP recipients will lose thousands of dollars in financial aid for college.
Here’s what that looks like for HELP recipients over the course of four years:
A low-income student who goes to Mississippi State University for all four years with an ACT score of 28:
Cost of tuition for four years: $36,992
Current total state aid: $36,992 (estimated based on 22-23 tuition)
New total state award: $24,400
A low-income student who goes to Mississippi Valley State University for all four years with an ACT score of 34:
Cost of tuition for four years: $29,096
Current total state aid: $29,096 (estimated based on 22-23 tuition)
New total state award: $24,400
A low-income student who goes to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community Collegewith an ACT score of 20:
Cost of full-time tuition for two years: $6,600
Current total state aid: $6,600 (estimated based on 22-23 tuition)
New total state award: $6,600
The extent to which changes to the HELP grant will affect recipients at different universities in Mississippi will depend on a variety of factors, like the cost of tuition at the university they’re attending and whether they qualify for private institutional aid or scholarships.
Mississippi Stories goes in person this week with our first in-studio guest, Vicksburg native and world-known designer Raymond Banks. Founder of Hoodvenchy, Raymond talks about how a single bow tie led to his fashions being seen on the world’s runways. He also talks about growing up and how his parents and Alcorn State University led to his career.
