Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, outlines the Senate plan to tweak the Mississippi Adequate Education Program funding formula for K-12 education, then fully fund it for the first time in more than a decade. The issue is now before the House, where the GOP leadership, along with the governor, has voiced skepticism about the plan. But DeBar said he’s talked to rank-and-file House members and believes there is widespread support for it.
Michelle Williams, a renowned epidemiologist and dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, caught up with health editor Kate Royals following the state Legislature’s decision to expand postpartum Medicaid coverage.
Harvard University’s School of Public Health has an active program focused on the maternal mortality rate in the Mississippi Delta. Williams has also paid close attention to Mississippi’s debate over Medicaid expansion.
While Williams says she is heartened by Gov. Tate Reeves’ decision to extend postpartum coverage, the esteemed public health expert says the new law doesn’t go far enough.
Kate Royals: Tell me about the school’s work in the Mississippi Delta.
Michelle Williams: We have a long history of collaborating on research and education in the Delta, in partnership with state officials, community health centers and local colleges, including Mississippi State and the University of Mississippi.
When you talk about health in Mississippi, the focus is often on the dire statistics, such as sky-high infant and maternal mortality. But it’s important to know that the state has a history of truly important innovation. For instance, the first community health centers sprang up in Mississippi — an outgrowth of the civil rights movement. Our collaborations aim to build on and nurture those innovations.
We gather regularly with our partners to discuss and develop health care programs. We work together on research grants, too. As one example, we would love to secure funding to enable state health officials to make regular home visits to new moms in the Mississippi Delta; we would then evaluate the impact of the program and widely disseminate lessons learned.
Finally, we organize academic exchanges so students in Mississippi spend time at Harvard and vice versa, with opportunities to get involved in research and community projects. I recently talked to one of our (master’s of Public Health) students who is in Clarksdale for her fieldwork practicum, working with a program called “Baby University” that teaches new parents about early childhood development and gives them tips for supporting their babies’ growth.
Royals: You have cited some pretty startling statistics about outcomes for mothers – particularly Black mothers – in Mississippi compared to other countries. What were those?
Williams: I’m glad you asked, because I think these are statistics that every policy maker – and every citizen – should know.
For Black women in Mississippi, the mortality rate is 65.1 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to the state Department of Health.
That’s a horrifying number. To put it in context, Black women in Mississippi are nearly 20 times more likely to die from complications of pregnancy or childbirth than women in Greece, Poland, or Slovenia. They’re nearly 8 times more likely to die than women in Turkey.
The mortality rate for white women in Mississippi is lower, at 16.2 deaths per 100,0000 live births, but that is still far above the U.S. average. They are at least three times more likely to die from complications of pregnancy or childbirth than women in the UK or Canada.
Each of those deaths is a tragedy with long-lasting effects: Too many young, promising lives cut short; too many children who grow up without the love and support of their mothers; too many families who struggle with grief for the rest of their lives.
It is heartbreaking but it is also, quite frankly, infuriating. We know why maternal mortality rates are so high among Black women. They are high because of the devastating impacts of structural racism and individual bias, including lack of access to appropriate care. That we allow this to continue to happen, in the wealthiest country in the world, is unforgivable.
Royals: What do you believe, from your research and experience, will be the benefits of extending the health care coverage of mothers on Medicaid for women and babies in Mississippi?
Williams: We know from state data that 42.5% of pregnancy-related maternal deaths in Mississippi occur between 60 days and a year after childbirth. That’s the precise period that would be covered by the Medicaid expansion bill now on the governor’s desk.
I am certain that having access to care in this period will save lives. Remaining on Medicaid will give new mothers … access to mental health care, which is critically important for not only a mother’s health but also the health of her children. It will also allow women to get care for chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. That’s important because cardiovascular conditions are the most common cause of pregnancy-related maternal deaths in the state.
There are many other benefits as well. Extending Medicaid coverage should help more young mothers get … screened for cancer. This is crucial because Mississippi has among the highest mortality rates in the nation for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer, all of which can often be treated successfully if detected early.
The bill should also help new mothers get access to contraception to help them control the spacing of future pregnancies. Given that abortion is now banned in Mississippi, with very limited exceptions, access to effective birth control is critical.
Finally, I want to emphasize what I mentioned earlier: Extending Medicaid will improve the odds not only for the mom, but for the newborn – and for any other children in the family. This generational effect is particularly important in Mississippi, which has long had the highest infant mortality rate in the U.S.
As every parent knows, the first year of a child’s life is wondrous, but it can also be tiring, isolating, and stressful. Parents are better equipped to navigate those stresses and support their children through this crucial phase of development if they have access to the care they need to keep themselves healthy.
Royals: I understand you applaud Mississippi for passing extended postpartum coverage but maintain there’s much more to be done. Can you say more about that, and how Medicaid expansion factors in?
Williams: Absolutely. That’s a great question.
The extension is critical for all the reasons I mentioned above. But the state could – and should – enact the full Medicaid expansion allowed under the Affordable Care Act. So far, I believe 39 states plus D.C. have taken advantage of this provision to extend Medicaid to nearly all adults with income up to a certain level, typically about $20,000 a year for a single person. That would cover not just new mothers, but all adults who meet the income guidelines.
One particular group that would benefit is young women who are not yet pregnant but might conceive in the near future. It would give them access to the care they needed to get chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes under control. That could be a game changer in reducing maternal mortality.
And of course, Medicaid is not the only way to protect public health.
I firmly believe that Mississippi must restore physicians’ freedom to deliver the full range of health care for every resident, including gender-affirming care and abortion. State policy makers must also address the environmental factors that threaten health and well-being. That includes the unconscionable water crisis in Jackson, air pollution in Pascagoula, and the lack of access to fresh fruits and vegetables in “food deserts” across the state.
Williams cited the following articles in her responses:
Feel discouraged about what direction the world is headed? Watch Mississippi Today’s Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey‘s interview with Harry S. Truman Foundation Scholarship Finalist, Maisie Brown. Brown is now the Executive Coordinator at the ACLU and was recently named one of Teen Vogue’s 21 under 21 for her advocacy. She talks about that and her passion to make the world around her better.
Texas Western, the first NCAA championship basketball team to have five Black starters, defeated the top-ranked, all-White University of Kentucky team.
The starters were Orsten Artis, Harry Flournoy, Bobby Joe Hill, David Lattin and Willie Worsley. They were basketball’s David facing the mighty Goliath in the form of Kentucky and its vaunted coach, Adolph Rupp, whose teams had already secured four national championships.
Before the game began, coach Don Haskins told his players that Rupp had vowed five Black starters would never beat his team. They took that personally and imposed their will on Kentucky with tough defense, steals and slam dunks.
“It was a violent game,” recalled Kentucky player Pat Riley. “I don’t mean there were any fights — but they were desperate and they were committed and they were more motivated than we were.”
The victory helped to end racist stereotypes in basketball and change the game for good. Nolan Richardson, who played for Texas Western under coach Dan Haskins, said of the game: “What a piece of history. If basketball ever took a turn, that was it.” Soon, schools that had long closed the door to Black athletes began to offer sports scholarships. Over the next two decades, the average number of Black players on college teams nearly doubled. The 2006 movie, Glory Road, recreated events leading up to the famous game.
To quote baseball legend Yogi Berra, the 2023 gubernatorial election could be “deja vu all over again.”
In the 2019 election, Republican Tate Reeves opposed expanding Medicaid while Democrat Jim Hood supported it. Hood supported reducing or eliminating Mississippi’s grocery tax while Reeves advocated, instead, for eliminating the income tax. Hood wanted to fully fund public education while Reeves fought the effort throughout his eight-year tenure as lieutenant governor.
Four years later there’s a new Democratic nominee, but the emerging issues feel the same going into the 2023 election. Democrat Brandon Presley, like Hood, supports expanding Medicaid to provide health care coverage for primarily the working poor, supports eliminating the state’s sales tax on groceries and champions fully funding public education.
Reeves still opposes expanding Medicaid, would rather cut the income tax than the tax on groceries and has spoken derisively about recent legislative efforts to fully fund public education.
In 2019, Reeves won by 5% — 52% to 47%. What is different in 2023? Is it the same song, different verse, game over for the 2023 election?
Perhaps. But a breadth of recent polling indicates that on the issues — and solely on the issues — the Democrat wins.
A poll earlier this year by Siena College Research Institute, commissioned by Mississippi Today, revealed 80% support for Medicaid expansion where health care coverage is provided for the working poor with the federal government paying the bulk of the cost. If that is not convincing enough, a second more recent poll by Siena and Mississippi Today found 75% support for expanding Medicaid.
Siena is documented by the FiveThirtyEight Blog, a reputable blog for its data analysis, as being perhaps the best pollster in the nation.
But it should be pointed out other pollsters over the years also have found strong support among Mississippians for Medicaid expansion.
A Siena poll also found 79% support for fully funding the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, which provides the bulk of state funding for the basic needs of schools — needs like teachers, textbooks, buses and water and lights.
Cutting or eliminating Mississippi’s 7% tax on groceries, the highest tax of its kind in the nation, also is more popular than eliminating the income tax, according to the Siena poll.
If all this is true, why did Reeves win in 2019 by a comfortable, but not landslide margin, and why is he favored to win again in November 2023?
The easiest and most obvious answer is money. In 2019, Reeves spent $15.9 million compared to Hood’s $5.3 million on the gubernatorial campaign, according to records on file with the Secretary of State’s office. Reeves plans on similar domination in campaign spending during this year’s elections. Going into this year, the incumbent Reeves had $8 million in campaign cash on hand compared to $723,800 for Presley, the northern district public service commissioner.
Perhaps there are other issues more important to Mississippians than the aforementioned issues that were polled by Siena. But it is hard to imagine issues like education, health care and taxes are not way up on everyone’s lists.
Reeves will want to focus the campaign on other issues more closely associated, fairly or unfairly, with national Democrats. He most likely will have an overwhelming money advantage to craft that narrative and get it out to the public.
And it is easier to sell that narrative because for the vast majority of Mississippians, for whatever reason, their default vote in for the Republican candidate. Mississippi is a solid Republican state that has not voted for a Democrat for governor since 1999 or a Democrat for president since 1976.
To try to make electoral history, Presley will attempt to connect his campaign to the issues of health care, education and taxes rather than those issues that Reeves will want to talk about — those issues associated with national Democrats.
If he can do that, he might have a chance.
Mississippi’s loyalty or perhaps more accurately opposition to the national Democratic Party and Reeves’ money will make Presley’s task difficult. It is a task no Democrat on a statewide level has been able to accomplish for a long time.
But Presley may have at least one distinct advantage in the race: the issues.
The Mule Train caravan left Marks, Miss., for the nation’s capital on May 13 to participate in the Poor People’s Campaign. Credit: Bob Daugherty/AP
Martin Luther King Jr. wept at what he saw in Marks, Mississippi. He came as part of his Poor People’s Campaign, visiting impoverished places in the nation. Tears came to his eyes when he saw a teacher slicing a single apple to feed lunch to students, along with crackers. He also saw hundreds of Black children walking the street without shoes.
King encouraged those in Marks and the rest of the poor across the nation to come with him to Washington, D.C., so they could force the nation’s leaders to think about those affected by poverty.
“We ought to come in mule carts, in old trucks, any kind of transportation people can get their hands on,” he said. “People ought to come to Washington, sit down if necessary in the middle of the street and say, ‘We are here; we are poor; we don’t have any money; you have made us this way … and we’ve come to stay until you do something about it.’”
Federal authorities in Mississippi have added another defendant to their witness list in their prosecution of the still unfolding welfare scandal: Christi Webb, former director of the nonprofit Family Resource Center of North Mississippi.
As one of the leaders of a state-sanctioned initiative called Families First for Mississippi, Webb was a key figure in some of the diversion of $77 million in federal anti-poverty funds away from poor families under the administration of former Gov. Phil Bryant. Most of the money came from a flexible federal block grant called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF.
As part of her plea, Webb has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in their ongoing probe into widespread corruption inside the welfare program overseen by Bryant and his appointed welfare director John Davis. Davis pleaded guilty to state and federal charges in September.
Bryant has not faced any charges, although text messages uncovered by Mississippi Today illustrate Bryant’s involvement in various parts of the scheme, including the promise to “open a hole” for former NFL legend Brett Favre’s pharmaceutical venture, which eventually received $2 million in stolen welfare funds. Bryant has denied any wrongdoing.
Bryant has denied any wrongdoing, saying he did not carefully read his text messages to understand what Favre was requesting.
Webb has already made allegations that the former governor manipulated welfare spending during his time in office, Mississippi Today first reported. Webb was a supporter of former Attorney General Jim Hood, Gov. Tate Reeves’ Democratic opponent for governor in 2019, and had hired his wife to run one of the nonprofit’s local family resource centers.
That election year, a local lawmaker threatened Webb on behalf of Bryant, Webb told Mississippi Today through her attorney Casey Lott, who currently sits on FRC’s board.
Lott said the north Mississippi Republican lawmaker told Webb, “FRC will never receive another dollar from the state if you don’t fire Debbie Hood.”
“He explicitly said, ‘I’m the governor’s messenger,” Lott said.
Federal authorities have remained silent about who they are targeting in their ongoing investigation. But state officials including State Auditor Shad White, who originally investigated the case, and Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens, who secured the first indictments, say they intend to investigate “everybody top to bottom.”
“John Davis is critical because the ladder continues to move up,” Owens said after Davis’ guilty pleas.
Webb pleaded guilty to a bill of information, which occurs when a defendant waives a grand jury indictment. The single count against Webb, the first criminal charge she has faced, mirrors the bill of information Davis pleaded guilty to in September.
So far, all the charges that the U.S. Attorney’s Office have filed in the welfare scandal revolve around money that flowed from the state welfare department through private nonprofits to retired professional wrestlers Teddy DiBiase Jr. and Brett DiBiase.
Lott said Webb ran her welfare grant in accordance with guidance from her attorneys and the welfare department’s state plan.
“The US attorneys will say, ‘Well, the state plan is not consistent with the TANF guidelines.’ Well, that’s a state problem. That’s not a Christi Webb problem. She didn’t create that plan. The state created that plan intentionally broad so they could use it as their slush fund,” Lott said Friday.
Lott, who had been representing Webb pro bono until recently, said he would not have advised Webb to take the plea and that he only stopped representing her after the U.S. Attorney’s Office argued he had a conflict of interest. Because she could not afford one, Webb was represented in her plea by federal public defender Abby Edwards.
Officials have never alleged that Webb received misspent funds personally. The other nonprofit founder originally arrested in the scandal, Nancy New, was accused of personally benefiting from the scheme because she funneled money to her for-profit school and agreed to accept stock in the pharmaceutical company she funded.
Forensic auditors estimated that Family Resource Center, which Webb had served as director from 2005 until stepping down as director this week, misspent at least $11.5 million worth of welfare funds from 2016 to 2019. Her federal criminal charges only cover a fraction of that — $700,000 in TANF funds and nearly $500,000 in federal emergency food assistance funds that Webb funneled to companies owned by retired professional wrestler Teddy DiBiase Jr.
By agreeing with the information, Webb admits that Davis directed her to award sham contracts to DiBiase Jr., though Davis knew the wrestler was unqualified to provide welfare-related services.
“As a result, Webb, through FRC, intentionally misapplied federal funds to various individuals and entities for social services that were not provided,” the bill of information reads. “… As a result of the actions of Webb, Davis, Person 1 (Nancy New), Person 2 (Teddy DiBiase Jr.), and others, millions of dollars in federal safety net funds were diverted from needy families and low-income individuals in Mississippi from at least 2016 to at least 2019.”
The charge comes with a maximum sentence of up to 10 years.
Webb’s federal criminal exposure was foreshadowed in the September bill of information against Davis. In it, federal authorities included Webb, Nancy New, Teddy DiBiase Jr. and one other resident of Hinds County as unnamed co-conspirators.
Teddy DiBiase Jr.’s brother, Brett DiBiase, a resident of Clinton, a town in Hinds County, pleaded guilty to new federal charges against him earlier this month. Brett DiBiase was also the first person to plead guilty to state charges in 2020. In addition to hundreds of thousands from the nonprofits, Brett DiBiase received a $48,000 contract directly from the welfare department for opioid addiction education training he did not conduct because he was himself checked into a luxury rehab facility. Officials also paid $160,000 in welfare funds to the rehab facility for Brett DiBiase’s treatment, auditors found.
The DiBiase brothers are the sons of famous retired WWE wrestler Ted “The Million Dollar Man” DiBiase Sr., whose Christian ministry Heart of David also allegedly improperly received $1.7 million in welfare funds.
Mississippi Department of Human Services is suing all three men, as well as Webb, Davis, New and dozens of others, in its large civil case that attempts to claw back the misspent money.
Teddy DiBiase Jr. and Nancy New have never been charged federally with crimes related to the welfare scandal, though federal agents did attempt to seize DiBiase’s house in 2020 during their investigation. The U.S. Attorney’s Office also charged Nancy New and her son Zach New in 2021 with defrauding the Mississippi Department of Education as part of a separate scheme related to their for-profit private schools.
In early March, Teddy DiBiase Jr. and his wife Kristen DiBiase agreed with the federal government for the U.S. Marshal Service to sell their home, a nearly 6,000-square-foot, $1.5 million lakeside property in the Madison community of Reunion. After paying the remaining mortgage and any taxes on the house, the federal government will hold the assets pending the conclusion of the forfeiture case.
The court document that spells out the agreement of the sale says one reason for the sale is to prevent foreclosure. Teddy DiBiase Jr. and his LLCs collected over $3 million in revenue from the welfare fund during the scandal, much of which from Webb’s nonprofit.
The admission that Webb intentionally misapplied federal welfare funds is a departure from statements Webb made through Lott in recent months.
“The DiBiase’s and their organizations contracted to provide services to needy families,” Lott said in a written statement in September. “The problem is they didn’t hold up to their end of the bargain. And once they refused to do everything Christi asked them to do, she refused to award any additional subgrants to those organizations. This enraged John Davis. He yelled and cursed Christi and other FRC employees for not sending them money anyway. He threatened to cut their funding if Christi didn’t do what he told her to do. And when she stood her ground and did the right thing, he followed through with his threat. Christi is the only one who ever told John Davis ‘no,’ and she was punished for it. She was forced to lay hundreds of people off. Those innocent people who were providing much needed services to the North Mississippi community lost their job because Christi stood up to John Davis and did the right thing. So, to say she’s a ‘co-conspirator’ is absurd.”
Around the time of this squabble in March of 2019, Davis told Teddy DiBiase Jr. he had communicated with Gov. Reeves, then lieutenant governor, about the situation with Webb, according to text messages Mississippi Today obtained.
“Tate Reeves just called me said he wanted me to know they don’t give two shits about the BC or Christi to keep doing what I’m doing. Boom,” Davis texted Teddy DiBiase Jr. in March of 2019. Phone records show Davis also saved Reeves number two days after this text. (Mississippi Today could not confirm what BC in his text stands for, but two sources believed it could be a typo).
Reeves’s office told Mississippi Today in September that the governor did not recall calling Davis and “doesn’t really know” Webb.
Webb pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves, the same judge that oversaw the pleas of Nancy and Zach New, Davis and Brett DiBiase.
Webb’s sentencing is set for June 16, but like the others, her sentencing could be delayed until the prosecution is closer to a conclusion. No one criminally charged within the welfare scandal has been sentenced and none is currently incarcerated.
William Bynum Jr.’s lawsuit against Jackson State University and the Institutions of Higher Learning is still open more than three years after the former university president, who had been arrested in a prostitution sting, resigned his post.
In a March 2020 complaint, Bynum alleged that a provision in his contract assured that he could stay at Jackson State as “a full professor, and with tenure,” in the College of Education with a salary 110% that of the highest-paid faculty member. But Jackson State and IHL “failed or refused to permit” that to happen, his initial complaint alleges.
A month after Bynum filed suit, Jackson State terminated him as full professor. Jackson State and IHL have countered that Bynum was an at-will employee who had never been granted tenure at Jackson State.
A message left for the Winfield Law Firm, which is representing Jackson State and IHL, was not returned. Bynum’s lawyer Dennis Sweet III, said he intends to keep pursuing the case.
“If you look at the contract, we win,” Sweet said. “It’s not even a contest.”
The lawsuit provides a look into how IHL resolves the resignations of its presidents, a process that is typically hidden from the public view due to an exemption for “personnel records” from the state’s public records law.
For instance, IHL recently denied Mississippi Today’s records request for Hudson’s resignation letter, citing the exemption. The board could release these documents with Hudson’s permission, but a board spokesperson said that has not been granted. It’s unclear if the board asked for it.
But Bynum became Jackson State’s president anyway. He was paid a $300,000 annual salary from the state of Mississippi, plus an annual $75,000 bonus from the JSU foundation. He was also appointed full professor – a perk all university presidents in Mississippi get – with the possibility of receiving tenure after five years as president, according to IHL board policy.
Bynum’s lawsuit alleges that perk was supposed to outlast his employment as Jackson State president. A clause attached to Bynum’s contract read: “In the event the Employee resigns or is terminated as President of Jackson State University, but remains employed with the institutions as a professor, Employee’s salary as a full professor shall be 110% of the highest faculty salary on the Jackson campus of Jackson State University.”
The clause also noted that “the Board will consider an application for tenure as a full professor in the Department of Education, Human Development, and Humane Letters in the College of Education at Jackson State University.”
After Bynum resigned following his arrest in February 2020, he sent an email on Feb. 14to IHL Commissioner Alfred Rankins and the IHL board members notifying them of his intent to remain at JSU as a faculty member, according to the lawsuit. Bynum noted that he had served as a university president for a total of 6.5 years, most of that at MVSU.
On Feb. 18, 2020, Sweet followed up with a letter to Rankins.
“While it is understandable that you might wish Dr. Bynum to refrain from being physically present on the JSU campus until his pending legal issues are resolved, he may still serve JSU in other capacities while not physically present on campus,” he wrote.
Sweet suggested that Bynum could teach classes virtually or at the off-campus e-Center. Or Bynum could help staff dissertation committees for the College of Education, which Sweet claimed lacked faculty qualified for that task.
Sweet added that should IHL “fail to honor” Bynum’s contract, he believed Bynum was entitled to damages due in part to his health issues.
“In my many years of practice, this is without a doubt a case warranting punitive damages,” Sweet wrote, “especially considering the IHL’s poorly written and contradictory policies.”
Any email reply from Rankins or IHL was not included in Bynum’s exhibits in the lawsuit. But in joint court filings, Jackson State and IHL have alleged that as government entities, they can’t be sued for a contractual breach under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act. They further argue that Jackson State can’t be sued because it was not party to Bynum’s contract.
Near the end of 2021, Bynum asked the court to rule in his favor without trial. Jackson State and IHL, in a Nov. 23 motion asking the court to dismiss the suit, argue that Bynum has no evidence of receiving tenure or being entitled to it.
“Despite his voluntary resignation from the position for which he was hired (president of JSU), Bynum now complains of his termination from a position (professor) for which he had no contractual or other right,” Jackson State and IHL argue. “Bynum’s claims all miss the mark.”
A judge has yet to rule on the motions, and the case is scheduled for a docket call on March 29.
