Mississippi’s largest community college violated Title IX when it failed to provide a pregnant student with proper accommodations and course adjustments, resulting in the student failing the semester, a federal civil rights agency said last week.
The student had to pump milk in a bathroom stall because Hinds Community College did not give her a private space, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights found. An instructor evenreferred to this student’s unborn child as a “parasite” that was “sucking out minerals” from her body.
“Instead of assisting the Student with her pregnancy-related needs, these College administrators attempted to discourage the Student from trying to complete the Program due to her pregnancy, and even mocked and penalized her for requesting adjustments,” states a letter the agency sent Hinds last week.
Hinds did not respond to Mississippi Today’s requests for comment. In a campus newsletter earlier this week, President Stephen Vacik noted that Hinds had agreed to a settlement with the federal agency, which includedrevising its policies pertaining to pregnant students and reimbursing the student for her final semester at Hinds.
“The whole situation was regrettable, and shouldn’t have happened, but we are committed to meeting the required activities set forth in the agreement with OCR,” Vacik wrote. “Our goal is to be better prepared in the future to serve the needs of our students.”
Title IX is a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or education program receiving federal funding.
The student’s name, area of study, and the identity of the instructor were redacted from the Office of Civil Rights letter, but the spring 2021 incident took place at the Jackson campus. The dean of health sciences was involved.
As a result of Hinds’ treatment of her, the student had to retake her final semester,causing financial hardship, the agency found. But Hinds repeatedly denied the student’s requests to reconsider her grades, and the health sciences dean ultimately told the student that “caring for a newborn while still trying to attend class, [redacted content], and study were likely contributing factors to you being unsuccessful in the course.”
Hinds also claimed the student had not reported issues with the instructor’s treatment of her earlier, even though the student had repeatedly done so, according to the Office of Civil Rights. The agency found the college had “no process in place” to handle the student’s complaints.
Nationally, more than one-fifth of community college students are parents, and the majority of those are mothers who are likely to be unmarried. Though these students are more likely to have higher grades than students who are not parents, they can struggle to graduate on time due largely to a lack of childcare and financial support.
In the Hinds’ student’s case, the college’s treatment of her was “humiliating and degrading,” according to the federal government.
Before giving birth, the student’s instructor bemoaned giving her breaks to express milk, according to emails reviewed by the feds, writing to other college employees to ask, “do I just let her do it? . . . it’s not like she would leave a lecture at 9:30 because of her ‘pumping schedule’.”
The student delivered three weeks early after developing preeclampsia, a condition she attributed to the stress caused by the instructor’s treatment of her.
While recovering in the hospital, the student attended a Zoom meeting for class, but had to leave 20 minutes early for medical treatment. Because she had not notified her instructor that she had to leave earlier, the student was marked absent for the entire class. And she was not provided study materials until the afternoon of a test, which she ultimately failed.
When the student returned to school, the initial room she was provided to pump in had a glass wall. Instead, she pumped sitting on a toilet in a bathroom stall. Her uneven pumping schedule resulted in pain and anxiety about her milk supply.
Meanwhile, her instructor complained about the student when she was absent from class, telling her fellow students that she was “allegedly pumping” and casting doubt on whether she would be able to graduate from the program.
The instructor also belittled the student in front of her peers, the agency found.
“Later that day, when the Student finished her pumping session just before lunch, the Student stated the [redacted content] Instructor told the Student in front of the other students, “you cannot pump and then go to lunch,” the letter states. “You have to pump during your lunch break, and you are supposed to find me and tell me anytime you are going to pump.”
The student ultimately submitted a Title IX complaint. That instructor resigned, though Hinds claimed during the course of the Title IX investigation that it had fired the instructor. The three campus police officers assigned to investigate the complaint did not interview key witnesses, the agency found.
When the North Carolina legislative session ends, Jim Burgin, a conservative Republican state senator who serves as chair of his state’s Senate Health Care Committee, will go back to his daily life as a businessman.
The owner of an insurance company and a partner in a local car dealership group, Burgin fully understands the virtue of hard work. That’s why when Medicaid expansion, the federal program that 10 states including Mississippi have refused to pass, came up for debate in his legislature over the past few years, he wasn’t immediately sold.
“I don’t think we ought to have any kind of government program that people stay on the rest of their lives,” Burgin told Mississippi Today in an interview this week. “Like most of my Republican colleagues, I wanted to put a work requirement in. But we realized the feds would never approve it, so we had to think about what we really wanted to do as it related to work.”
Many Mississippi Republican lawmakers currently face the same dilemma. Though Medicaid expansion is being seriously considered here for the first time, Senate Republicans, led by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, appear convinced that the only way the state should expand Medicaid is if a work requirement is in place. But with the federal government having shot down 13 states’ previous efforts to implement a work requirement, Mississippi Today reached out to leaders in North Carolina, the most recent Republican-led state to expand, to see how they came to an agreement.
Burgin and his colleagues, knowing the feds wouldn’t allow the work requirement, went to the drawing board to determine if they could come up with a Medicaid expansion bill that still promoted work without requiring it. They started with a “trigger law,” of sorts, to mandate that if the federal government ever changed their policy on allowing states to implement a work requirement, North Carolina would move immediately to adopt one. They also added a separate trigger that allowed the state to immediately drop out of the expansion program if Congress ever defunded it or changed its funding structure.
They also developed some creative ideas for spending the additional federal dollars the state would receive from the expansion program that were designed to promote work. Shortly after they expanded Medicaid, the North Carolina lawmakers designated hundreds of millions in expansion “signing bonus” funds on mental health reform. The state’s mental health system was in crisis with major funding concerns, so Republicans appropriated $835 million — all money they got from the feds to expand Medicaid — to rebuild the crumbled system.
“That’s going to help so many hospitals and law enforcement officers who often had nothing to do with mentally ill people but take them to emergency rooms, whether those people had health insurance or not,” Burgin said. “Hospitals will never have to treat or pay for care for people in those situations in ERs ever again.”
Additionally, North Carolina Republicans in the coming weeks will work on getting the federal government to grant a waiver to spend federal Medicaid dollars on providing free community college — and workforce skills training — to North Carolinians enrolled in the Medicaid expansion program. Additionally, some Republicans want to add child care vouchers to that list of offerings.
“This is all to get people jobs and to keep them working and ultimately to get them off Medicaid,” Burgin said. “Even though it can’t be a requirement, we’re promoting work. We want to make it easier and better for people to get work that they won’t want to stay on Medicaid. They’ll want a job and hopefully eventually get on a group health plan through their employer.”
So what ultimately convinced Burgin, who wanted the work requirement all along, to move forward on expansion even without it?
“Billions of dollars,” he said plainly. “Look, I’m a business guy. I don’t spend money, I invest money. I looked at (Medicaid expansion) as a great investment. I had a fiduciary responsibility to my constituents to take that money. So we wrote a bill that said that if the feds changed the work requirement, if they change anything, we can add it here or opt out of our program altogether.
“I just couldn’t turn down billions of dollars that we needed in so many areas,” Burgin said. “And we get to spend that on a wide variety of things, and all of it is designed to get people across this state working.”
North Carolina state Rep. Donny Lambeth, R-Forsyth, speaks to reporters following the House Health Committee meeting at the Legislative Office Building in Raleigh, N.C., on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023. Lambeth is a primary sponsor of a bill that the committee approved that would expand Medicaid to hundreds of thousands of low-income adults through the 2010 Affordable Care Act. (AP Photos/Gary D. Robertson)
Republican state Rep. Donny Lambeth was the primary author of what became North Carolina’s Medicaid expansion program.
For years before an expansion program actually passed, Lambeth filed numerous expansion bills that included work requirements.
“I was a big advocate for work requirements because, well, I felt like it was just one of those things,” Lambeth said. “We shouldn’t want to just add more people to Medicaid rolls. You have to figure out how to help them and get them off Medicaid and into the workforce. But when we talked to people in Washington, it was obvious there was no way, if we went through all the trouble to get votes and get it passed, we would get a work requirement.”
So Lambeth, like Burgin, went to the drawing board. They wrote into their expansion plan a provision similar to red-state Montana: State government agencies would work with private partners who had experience with job training to create a program that would pay for Medicaid enrollees to get job training. They couldn’t require people to participate, but they could make it worth their while.
“We looked at what other Republican states that had expanded had done,” Lambeth said. “What we came up with in lieu of the work requirement was an optional jobs training program. The idea was that even though you’ve got the vast majority of people on Medicaid working, they’re working in low-income jobs. They couldn’t afford health insurance even though they worked. The theory is that if you take advantage of expansion dollars from the federal government with a job training program like this, you can go back and further your education. You can then get a better job, have a higher standard of living, get off Medicaid and be able to afford your health insurance.”
Peg O’Connell, a health care advocate and consultant who for several years led North Carolina’s push to expand Medicaid, explained how the jobs training program worked in Montana before her state included it in its program.
“A man had been a hit-or-miss carpenter and really wanted a commercial drivers license,” O’Connell said. “So the Montana caseworker under their expansion program helped get him his CDL. They paid for him to take the classes as well as lodging when he had to travel to take his exams, and they even bought him a pair of work boots. This man is now doing what he wants to be doing, he’s got full-time employment with health insurance, and he has worked himself off the Medicaid program. That’s the idea behind our program here.”
Lambeth, like Burgin, is a small business owner. He owns a logistics contracting company, and he “can’t afford to offer my employees health insurance,” he said.
“Are there some quote-unquote deadbeats, people who are not working, playing off the system? Sure,” Lambeth said. “But we were able to identify the farmers in the east part of the state, small, mom-and-pop businesses that were growing at significant rates but couldn’t quite afford to offer health insurance, hard-working people who desperately wanted and needed health insurance but couldn’t afford it. We saw that the vast majority of these people are working, and the ones who weren’t working, we felt like if we could get them training or education and child care, that would help get them off Medicaid.
“If we’re really all about getting people working, then let’s figure out ways to work within the system, draw down those billions of dollars, and use them to get them working,” he continued. “It was really that simple.”
Burgin and Lambeth both supported work requirements but saw they wouldn’t get approval from the federal government. They listened to their constituents, they considered the heart of their desire to get North Carolinians working and they found creative solutions.
As Mississippi lawmakers consider Medicaid expansion over the next few days, what advice might the North Carolina Republicans offer to their counterparts here in the Magnolia State?
“You tell any of the hardest nos, the most conservative ones, that if they have any doubts, give them my number. My cell is 919-207-7263,” Burgin said. “I’ll be happy to answer any question they may have and talk to them about why this is so beneficial. I’ve been tracking Mississippi. I testified the other day to Kansas lawmakers. We’ve already talked to folks in Georgia, Florida, Kansas and now Mississippi. All of these holdout states are looking at the same thing saying, ‘We’ve put it off. Why did you do it?’ For me and my Republican colleagues, it came down to a business decision. How could we, in good faith, leave billions on the table?”
Lambeth answered the question with an anecdote.
“I heard from just dozens and dozens of North Carolinians while we were debating this,” Lambeth said. “But I got one letter, in particular, from a Christmas tree farmer in Ash County. She couldn’t afford health insurance, and she was worried they were going to lose their farm because of out-of-pocket medical bills they had.
“These are real people. They’re not the traditional Medicaid where they’re poor and not trying to improve their lives. They are hard-working people just not able to afford health insurance. I promise the average Mississippian is not much different than the average North Carolinian in that way. Why would we be in the positions we’re in and not help them? I mean really, why?”
It’s one of our mottos here at The Center for Practical Ethics (TCPE). To put another way, we might say our goal is to foster conversations rather than diatribes. This task is more difficult than most realize. What we know as ethicists is that merely having conversations isn’t enough. There’s a wide variety of skills needed for fruitful dialogue to take place, and some are harder to come by than others.
The ideal conversation partner is curious and humble, able to actively listen, knowledgeable about his or her own positions, familiar with basic principles of logical argument, charitable when interpreting claims, and—most importantly—willing to be wrong. Our work centers around equipping students with these skills and helping them navigate the complex ethical issues within our society’s most contentious disagreements.
This year, National Week of Conversations (NWoC) coincided with Ethics Week here at the University of Mississippi (UM). Many of our events are conversation-based because dialogue is the best way to evaluate the ideas of others and open ourselves up to new information and interpretation of facts, while gaining a better understanding of our own views.
Two of our events in particular are worth examining more closely to see why NWoC and the work we do at TCPE are critical for sustaining civil society and the myriad public goods we all take for granted. First is our signature Just Conversations event. Students are placed in small groups and given a couple of ethical dilemmas to discuss. Trained student moderators guide the discussion to point out important aspects of the dilemmas, such as logical fallacies, analysis of stakeholders, ethical concepts and assumptions, and varying methods to achieve goals. Students often discover they agree with others—on the dilemma outcome and the details—far more than they expected.
Second, we have invited free speech scholar Sigal Ben-Porath to give a talk about her new book “Cancel Wars: How Universities Can Foster Free Speech, Promote Inclusion, and Renew Democracy”. Ben-Porath contends that universities are laboratories of democracy where students must learn to engage with disagreement. If the university is to be a place where truth is discovered, it must take seriously its historic social and educational obligation to train students in the skills needed for civil discourse and critical thinking. Her work is especially relevant in our ever more polarized times.
What these events demonstrate is that conversations—that is, engaged and fruitful conversations—must take place at all levels. Students must learn to talk to students just as much as faculty must learn to talk to faculty and administrators to administrators. What’s more, these groups must talk to each other because while each of us have a role within academia (faculty, staff, student, dean, vice chancellor, etc.), we are also all citizens who work and live together.
Policies must be made, votes cast, businesses founded, churches attended, friendships established, and life lived. TCPE focuses on the skills of civil discourse by providing opportunities to cultivate those skills through Ethics Week, and highlights conversations that ask us to reflect on the role of universities as part of the NWoC.
Join the conversation.
Join us at Noon on Friday, April 19 for a VIRTUAL lunch and learn session exploring tools to make us better listeners, and in turn, better equipped to engage in meaningful conversations across differences.
The session will be led by Dr. Graham Bodie, professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Media and Communication in the School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi.
Hundreds of people rallied at the Mississippi Capitol for a second day Wednesday, urging lawmakers to expand Medicaid to provide health coverage for an estimated 200,000 Mississippians.
After faith leaders spoke at the Capitol on Tuesday, Care4Mississippi, a coalition of advocates, held a rally Wednesday. Speakers recounted their struggles with access to affordable health care in Mississippi and chanted for the Legislature to, “Close the coverage gap now,” and for “Full Medicaid expansion now.”
Stephanie Jenkins of McComb, a former social worker, lost her job and health insurance after a car wreck left her with debilitating injuries.
She said she later received some medical treatment from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, but still suffers from chronic pain and other ailments. She said she was told she could not receive Medicaid coverage because she owns too much property.
Jenkins said that years after her accident, “I’m still fighting that battle. I’m still trying to get health insurance. I am still trying to get Medicaid … The state of Mississippi does not realize that it is not about money. It is not about race. It is about people. People are dying because they have no health insurance.”
Dr. Randy Easterling, a Vicksburg family physician and former executive director of the Mississippi Medical Association, spoke in favor of Medicaid expansion. He said the people who would be helped by the expansion primarily work at jobs that do not provide health care and they do not earn enough to purchase private insurance. Many are small business owners.
Easterling said often times the insurance policies available through the federal marketplace exchange have out-of-pocket costs that make them unaffordable for working people if they get sick.
Easterling recounted a story of two of his friends diagnosed with similar cancers. One was uninsured and self-employed, and did not get early diagnosis or treatment. He’s now in hospice and on death’s door. The other friend, with insurance, received an early diagnosis and treatment and is now cancer free.
“This is a matter of life and death. It is certainly more than a political debate,” Easterling told the crowd.
But the issue of expanding Medicaid is currently engulfed in the political process of the Mississippi Legislature. The House has passed a bill to expand Medicaid as is allowed under federal law to cover those earning up to 138% of the federal poverty or about $20,000 annually for an individual. Under the House plan, the federal government would pay 90% of the health care costs and provide the state with almost $700 million more over the first two years as incentive to expand Medicaid as 40 other states have done.
Under the Senate plan, coverage would be provided to working people earning less than 100% of the federal poverty level and the federal government would pay much less of the costs.
Studies indicate that the Senate plan would cost the state more and cover fewer people. At the rally, people wore yellow T-shirts that read, “close the coverage gap” and “leave no one behind.”
Easterling said that by refusing to expand Medicaid for the last 11 years, “This state has struck a match to $12 billion … and that money was earmarked specifically to increase access to health care.”
He added, “Two days ago most of us wrote a check to the IRS. Now explain to me in simple terms, I am pretty simple, why my (federal) tax money in Mississippi went to increase access to health care in 40 states and not any of it came back to Mississippi.”
Dr. Randy Easterling, a Vicksburg family physician, speaks about Medicaid expansion during a Medicaid expansion rally at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss., on Wednesday, April 17, 2024. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
“We take federal money right and left,” Easterling said. “We take hundreds of millions of federal dollars for highways, education, the Health Department, law enforcement and natural disasters … But for some reason we push back on additional money for health care. I would submit to you this is a matter of life and death.”
Robin Y. Jackson, with the Mississippi Black Women’s Roudtable, told of dropping out of school to care for a family member. In the process she developed a chronic health problem. She said she was unable to get help, but later got a job with health insurance even though her employer knew she had costly medical maladies. After surgeries costing tens of thousands of dollars, she said she is finally well.
“I was lucky,” she said. Others are not so lucky. She said with Medicaid expansion everyone could receive the treatment she was lucky enough to receive.
She said as shepherds of Mississippians, politicians should strive “to leave no one behind.”
Sonya Williams Branes, a former legislator, a small business owner and state policy director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, recounted the struggles she faced with her young son who had chronic asthma. As a small business owner at the time, she struggled to provide health care for her family and her employees.
“To ensure my son remained eligible for CHIP, a program that provided him with vital medical care, I was forced into a corner,” Barnes said. “Making more money, expanding my business and hiring more staff – all paths to improving our lives – would disqualify him from the program, pushing essential health care out of reach.
“Our system is broken,” Barnes said. “It punishes ambition and stifles growth.”
Before the Care4Mississippi rally, the Legislative Black Caucus on Wednesday morning held a press conference calling for adoption of the House’s more expansive Medicaid coverage plan.
“We remain committed to having full expansion and covering as many working Mississippians as possible,” said House Minority Leader Robert Johnson, D-Natchez. “Our goal is to sustain health care in Mississippi and sustain it in a way that it doesn’t matter where you live or what your income is.”
In his annual State of the State address in February 2024, Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, highlighted Mississippi’s recent improvement in education and the need for further progress.
This is a mission shared by the SR1 College Preparatory and STEM Academy, a science- and technology-focused institution located within 20 miles of the high school area that the governor proposed using in his address.
Statement from the Governor
In his annual statement, Gov. Tate Reeves highlighted the progress Mississippi has enjoyed in the education sphere over the last few years, commonly known as the “Mississippi miracle.” This miracle references the state’s impressive feats in closing the test score gap it used to have with the rest of the US.
In 2013, Mississippi was the second-worst state for fourth-grade reading abilities. Yet by 2022, it had achieved a ranking of 21 out of all the states—a significant achievement. These improvements have been attributed to state policies like holding back third graders with poor reading skills and focusing on phonics to better cover the basics of literacy. The state has also boosted its graduation rates, which went from 75% (below the national average) in 2011 to 87% (above the national average) by 2020.
But the Governor doesn’t want to stop there, saying: “Now we must discover how to go from good to great.” To achieve this, he cited ambitions to embrace new education models, such as schools that take a fresh approach. The Mississippi School for Math and Science was named as one success story. Located on the campus of Mississippi University for Women and aimed at academically gifted children, the school has become one of the best public high schools in the nation since launching in 1987.
A Call for More STEM Education
Gov. Tate Reeves proposed creating more schools dedicated to STEM subjects in Mississippi to recreate the success stories shown by projects like the Mississippi School for Math and Science.
He said in his speech: “I propose that we create 12 Mathematics and Engineering Magnet Schools throughout the state. By establishing eight Pre-K through 8th-grade schools and three more high schools, we can help to ensure Mississippi kids are given the education required to be successful in an increasingly technological economy.”
The state is also capitalizing on this growing technological economy outside of education, with Mississippi benefiting from various industry titans basing themselves in the state. Namely, there are plans to build an EV battery factory in Marshall County and two data centers in Madison County. Both of these will offer employment opportunities for students.
Gov. State Reeves asked the Legislature to enact an apprenticeship education model for high school seniors, allowing them to opt for practical education over classrooms to gain skills if they so wish.
He even got specific by naming the location of the old Central High School as the perfect location for building more schools dedicated to growing the next generation of technologists and engineers.
However, the governor seemingly failed to realize that a school recently opened that meets all his criteria and shares a similar vision: the SR1 College Preparatory and STEM Academy.
Introducing SR1
As its name suggests, SR1 is focused on STEM education and shares many of the objectives outlined in the governor’s address.
Spanning 270 acres, the campus itself is a testament to science and technology, with various developments that allow students to benefit from first-hand learning.
One standout feature is its farm vernacular learning structure, which boasts constructions for egg harvesting, seasonal planting, and more. Other constructions of note throughout the school campus include:
Trail system spanning wetlands, rivers, woodlands
Earth tubes with climate control
Controlled grow environments with climate control
Green growing towers and growing trays
Composting toilets
SR1 has a comprehensive STEM curriculum and ample extracurricular activities that facilitate STEM learning outside of the classroom. For instance, the school regularly runs trips to the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science.
The school is located on Towne Center Blvd, Ridgeland, which means it’s located within 20 miles of the Governor’s proposed central high school (and within 10 miles of the mega site).
While it’s still a fairly new project, SR1 enrolled 100 students for its 225 slots in grades K-2 for 2024-2025. It also plans to open a PreK to boost students’ learning before they start school, giving them the best start possible for a STEM education.
An Emphasis on Minorities
SR1’s focus on STEM has parallels with the Mississippi School for Math and Science. But while the aforementioned school is for gifted children only, the SR1 takes a different approach.
For one, it’s a free public charter school open to everyone. The school also focused on promoting equity in STEM education — a point the Governor missed. Minority groups like African American, Native American, and Hispanic students — as well as female students — often don’t enter STEM due to the lack of representation and failing to receive the much-needed foundational education early in their life.
SR1 aims to amend this issue through its partnership with a nonprofit (of the same name), which works with organizations in Mississippi to boost social mobility for minority groups.
An Exciting Time for Mississippi
Mississippi has already garnered a reputation across the US for its stellar educational offering and impressive advancements over the last few years. Going by success stories like The Mississippi School for Math and Science and upcoming developments that could make the state a center for technology and industry, its future may be even brighter.
The SR1 School is showing strong potential for contributing to this positive future.
Ridgeland, MS — In its inaugural year in 2023-24, the SR1 College Preparatory and STEM Academy (CPSA) located in Canton, MS, is leading an educational transformation in Mississippi, backed by the visionary non-profit organization SR1. With a focus on college preparatory and STEM education, the academy leverages extensive grassroots experience to pioneer new educational pathways, aiming to nurture unparalleled student achievements.
Despite facing initial skepticism about the feasibility of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education at the elementary level, SR1 CPSA has surmounted initial hurdles, including narrow recruitment windows and a community not fully aware of the potential of STEM and charter schools. Starting with just 15 students, the academy’s enrollment has impressively expanded to over 100, nearing its full capacity of 225 students for the 2024-25 academic year.
Founder Tamu Green believes that the essence of a charter school’s success lies in its innovation and adaptability. “The charter realm harbors incredible potential for innovation,” Green asserts. Coming from a humble background in rural Forest, MS, and evolving into a two-time college STEM graduate with an MBA from Mississippi State University, Green’s journey from head start programs to professional leadership embodies a remarkable blend of resilience, cultural competency, and expertise.
The academy’s commitment to quality is evident in its policy of limiting enrollment to 75 students per grade while planning to expand gradually. SR1 CPSA will have K, 1st, and 2nd grades for 2024-25 while adding one grade per year.
To broaden its impact, SR1 CPSA has initiated strategic efforts to enhance enrollment and community engagement. Highlighting student achievements, parent testimonials, and utilizing social media, the academy aims to integrate more deeply into the local fabric. These initiatives are bolstered by partnerships and active participation in community events to promote its STEM-focused curriculum further.
SR1 CPSA is expanding its educational offerings to include PreK early learning, intending to improve school readiness from a young age. Additionally, the academy is tackling the challenge of an innovative wastewater system, in developing a cutting-edge campus that exceeds the norms of traditional educational settings. This displays SR1 CPSA’s sustainable commitment to environments that support both academic success and well-being.
Guided by the latest in neuroscience, psychology, and other fields, the upcoming campus will embrace principles of Neuroarchitecture, Biophilic Design (increased connectivity with nature), and Salutogenic Design (an environment that supports health and well-being). This comprehensive approach marks a departure from conventional school designs, prioritizing spaces that foster both educational excellence and personal well-being.
SR1 CPSA is calling on stakeholders to actively participate in redefining educational environments to fulfill the needs of upcoming generations. Crucially, to align with the Mississippi Charter Authorizer Board’s recent stipulations for the 2024-25 academic year, due to an increase in student numbers, SR1 CPSA is tasked with securing a $700,000 educational contingency fund.
This requirement comes despite the academy’s projections of financial profitability for the next academic year. We invite our community to support us in meeting this essential milestone, ensuring that we continue to offer unparalleled educational opportunities.
This venture aims not only to raise educational standards but also to equip students to face the complexities of the future confidently. For more information visit our website at www.sr1cpsa.org , email: info@sr1cpsa.org or call: 769.275.0330.
This ambitious project, based on evidence-based strategies to enhance student outcomes and well-being, is set to significantly transform the landscape of educational design, heralding a new era of educational excellence in Mississippi and beyond.
In discussions about the highest-paying career paths and college degrees, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education is often viewed as a golden ticket. Yet access to the field isn’t equal. Minority groups — such as African American, Hispanic, and Native American individuals — are less likely to pursue STEM college degrees or professions. Women are also underrepresented.
To help combat the problem, SR1 College Preparatory and STEM Academy launched to promote equity in STEM education. The Mississippi-based institution focuses its recruitment on underrepresented minorities, instilling a love for lifelong learning while preparing its students for emerging STEM opportunities in the state.
Introducing the Academy
The SR1 College Preparatory and STEM Academy is a public charter school that hosts children from kindergarten age to the 5th grade. As the name suggests, it has a comprehensive STEM curriculum and aims to help its students secure college places. The school was launched in partnership with the nonprofit SR1 (Scientific Research), which works with public and private organizations to offer more educational opportunities to minority groups in Mississippi.
To facilitate learning, the institution is building a 200-acre campus with learning spaces inspired by nature (proven to boost creativity and lower stress), plus a blend of indoor and outdoor learning. It also has a dedicated teaching team, with an approach that emphasizes critical thinking and intellectual curiosity over rote memorization.
Despite a strong focus on educational attainment, the SR1 Academy recognizes that a student’s future success comes down to more than just their grades, so it goes above and beyond to facilitate a holistic curriculum with lots of extracurriculars. This includes plans to carry out regular trips to destinations like the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science and STEM centers to inspire its students.
“As pioneers in STEM-focused education, SR1 CPSA is committed to leveling the playing field and empowering underrepresented minorities to excel in STEM fields,” says school founder Tamu Green.
The Rise of STEM in Mississippi
Mississippi is known by many for its eponymous river, and few people would associate it with science, engineering, or technology. Yet the state is set to be the home of numerous exciting advancements in STEM-related fields that are reshaping the economic landscape and making it a hub for future opportunities. This means Mississippi is the ideal location for a STEM-focused school.
In January 2024, state legislators approved incentives to build an EV battery factory in Marshall County. Four companies will be investing a combined $1.9 billion into the project, which aims to bring manufacturing to the US instead of relying on imports from foreign nations like China. It promises to provide 2,000 jobs to the area, with an average salary of $66,000 — offering fantastic career opportunities for those studying engineering-related subjects.
The state may also be on the cusp of building two data centers worth a total $10 billion in Madison County. A large (unnamed) company has been in talks with the Mississippi Legislature to seek approval for the project. If it goes forward, it will create 1,000 jobs, with salaries at least 125% above the average state wage. The initiative would also be the largest capital investment in Mississippi’s history.
These are just two of the most prominent examples of projects underway in Mississippi, and they both demonstrate that the STEM sector offers high-paying work. Lawmakers are also striving to bring economic development initiatives to other parts of the state to spread the wealth.
Economic Mobility and Growth
College has often been known as the great equalizer in society, promising graduates stable careers and high salaries. Recently, some have questioned this narrative due to high numbers of graduates meaning many struggle to find work in their fields, along with stifling student debt. Yet this doesn’t necessarily mean that education isn’t a driver of economic mobility anymore.
The college wage premium is an economic concept demonstrating the difference in lifetime earnings between a graduate and someone with no education beyond a high school diploma. Overall, the college wage premium is flattening, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco — but lifetime earnings are still higher for graduates, showing that college remains a sound investment. However, the subject a college student chooses has a huge impact on earning potential.
In a report by Georgetown University about the economic value of different college majors, significant discrepancies were found between subjects. Petroleum engineering graduates earned far more than their peers in other fields, with median earnings of $120,000. Other STEM fields were also at the top of the list — Pharmacy Pharmaceutical Sciences and Mathematical and Computer Sciences graduates both enjoyed average earnings above $100,000. Meanwhile, the lowest-earning category was mostly populated by non-STEM subjects, such as Early Childhood Education and Counseling Psychology.
The analysis becomes even more complex when accounting for different ethnic backgrounds For instance, wages of black and Hispanic high school graduates have increased more quickly than college graduates in recent years (while wages increased at roughly the same rate for white individuals). This may be due to differences in subject choices.
A report about Diversity and STEM from the National Science Foundation found that 18% of the black and African American population works in STEM occupations (with the other 82% working in non-STEM occupations). Hispanics had a similar proportion, with 20% working in STEM. Meanwhile, 25% of the white workforce are in the STEM sector. There’s also discrepancies between the genders, with 29% of the male workforce yet 18% of the female workforce occupying STEM professions.
Even more concerning is that the median wage for white people in the STEM field is almost $66k, compared to an average of $45,480 for Hispanics and $54,734 for black and African American individuals.
The SR1 College Preparatory and STEM Academy hopes to correct this discrepancy by encouraging those from underrepresented groups to pursue STEM early on in their education, empowering them to choose college degrees and professions in the field.
This is a critical driver for economic impact and societal advancement. When certain groups are insufficiently represented, it isn’t just detrimental to those groups — it also has a negative impact on society and the economy, as future talent is lost, and innovation is hindered. In contrast, education and equity have the power to boost economic growth and foster innovation.
SR1 CPSA is excited to announce that we are offering FREE school supplies and uniform vouchers to families who fully enroll. Join us in giving your children the resources they need for a successful school year! For more information visit our website at www.sr1cpsa.org , email: info@sr1cpsa.org or call: 769.275.0330.
In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with Natalie Moore, Peer Wellness Support Services Coordinator for the Mississippi Mental Health Association. Moore and Ramsey share their experiences battling mental health issues and the Congregational Recovery Outreach Program’s upcoming mental health summit.
U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate ordered the release of government benefits data on Tuesday to allow Jackson’s third-party water manager to carry out a first-of-its-kind approach to billing.
The order calls on government agencies, mainly the Mississippi Department of Human Services, to release data to the manager, JXN Water, showing who in the capital city receives benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Late last year, JXN Water’s Ted Henifin released a new billing system proposal that would raise rates for most but provide discounted bills for those receiving SNAP.
The proposal hit a snag in the last few months, as both MDHS and the U.S. Department of Justice opposed JXN Water’s motions asking the court to require that the agencies release a list of SNAP recipients. The two agencies argued that doing so would violate privacy laws that are a part of the program. MDHS also said it didn’t have the capacity to provide such assistance without funding.
In Tuesday’s order, Wingate says that JXN Water’s SNAP discounts are equivalent to a federal assistance program.
“The prompt implementation of the most recent rate schedule is critical to ensuring that residents pay equitably for public drinking water and sewer services,” the judge wrote.
In its proposal, JXN Water said the new discounts would save those residents 69 cents a day on average. Census data from 2022 shows that almost 10,000 Jackson households, or about 16% of the city’s homes, receive SNAP. When presenting the new structure last November, Henifin said the model would be the first of its kind in the country for a water system.
But since the new water bill system went into place in on Feb. 1, JXN Water says it hasn’t been able to apply the discounts because it doesn’t know who receives SNAP. Wingate’s order this week gives the government agencies until the of month, April 30, to provide the data and requires them to give quarterly updates of the list of recipients starting in July.
