A Mississippi man serving life for murder will not be paroled, the Parole Board decided Wednesday, reversing a previous decision to free him after more than 30 years in prison.
Frederick Bell was convicted of capital murder for the May 1991 shooting of death 21-year-old Robert “Bert” Bell (no relation) during a store robbery in Grenada County.
Gene Bell, Bert’s younger brother, told Mississippi Today that Frederick Bell won’t be reconsidered for parole for two years. Frederick Bell had been set to be released at the end of September.
He had originally received a death sentence, but several court rulings in the past decade paved the way for him to be resentenced and become eligible for parole. Frederick Bell was resentenced to life without parole when the Mississippi Supreme Court found he was mentally disabled and then life with possibility of parole.
One reason Bell was denied parole is because of how his pending release was advertised to the public. Sen. Angela Burks Hill, R-Picayune, had questioned whether the Parole Board followed state law, which says notification must go in a newspaper published or circulated in the county where the crime was committed.
In a Monday interview with Supertalk Radio, Gene Bell said the notice of Frederick Bell’s release was advertised in the Clarion Ledger rather than the local paper, the Grenada Star.
In July, the Parole Board sent a letter to Gene Bell about its decision to parole Frederick Bell because members found he had been rehabilitated.
In response to the board’s actions, Bert Bell’s family members, Grenada community members, state lawmakers and law enforcement groups around the state signed a petition and wrote letters to the Parole Board and Gov. Tate Reeves to ask that Frederick Bell’s parole be denied.
Bell remains at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, according to prison records.
Criminal justice groups in Mississippi say pardoning people for simple marijuana possession could help remove barriers when applying for jobs or securing housing.
Following President Joe Biden’s announcement to pardon all federal offenses of simple marijuana possession, the Mississippi Center for Justice is figuring out how that action could be applied locally, who it could affect and what kind of impact that action could have, said Charity Bruce, deputy director of consumer protection and public benefits.
“Pardons of a nonviolent offense such as possession in the state of Mississippi should be done,” she said.
A pardon is a way to legally forgive someone of a crime and restore civil rights lost during conviction such as voting. However, a pardon doesn’t remove the offense from a person’s criminal record. That would need to be done through expungement.
Earlier this month, when Biden announced he will pardon all federal offenses of simple marijuana possession, he encouraged governors to do the same with state offenses.
A spokesperson for Gov. Tate Reeves did not respond to a request for comment. But at an Oct. 10 event, he called Biden’s action “a political stunt” and “a pretty naive request.”
Biden also directed the secretary of Health and Human Services and the attorney general to review how marijuana is scheduled under the federal Controlled Substances Act. Marijuana currently is Schedule 1, which is a designation for the most dangerous substances such as heroin and LSD, but a higher classification than fentanyl and methamphetamine.
“Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana,” Biden said in a statement. “It’s time that we right these wrongs.”
Black and brown people have been disproportionately arrested, prosecuted and convicted for marijuana possession, he said, noting that a criminal record can put up barriers to employment, housing and educational opportunities.
Six people have been convicted of at least one count of simple marijuana in the federal district courts in Mississippi, according to an analysis from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. This is out of thousands of people, most of whom were convicted in district courts in California and Arizona near the border with Mexico.
As of January, tno one convicted of simple marijuana possession is in federal prison, according to the commission.
People may be eligible for a federal pardon if their simple marijuana possession offense happened on or before Oct. 6, 2022, even if a conviction hasn’t been made by that date, according to the Office of the Pardon Attorney.
During his three years in the governor’s office, Reeves said he hasn’t issued any pardons because it is an authority he takes seriously and would only do if convinced it is necessary.
Reeves said he recognizes the justice system isn’t perfect and that there have been people in state prison convicted of marijuana charges, even as Mississippi has legalized medical marijuana.
About 18 percent, or nearly 3,500 people, who are in state prison have a drug charge as their primary offense, according to the Mississippi Department of Corrections in its 2021 annual report. A breakdown of drug charges is not listed.
“(The system) is certainly not perfect and there are mistakes made, and when there are mistakes there is a (pardon) process through the executive branch to deal with it,” Reeves said.
Through its expungement clinics around the state, the Mississippi Center for Justice has worked with people with drug possession charges and have seen how having a criminal record has impacted them.
Employers and landlords often run background checks on applicants and can see if someone has a criminal record. Even if the offense on a person’s record is nonviolent and the person is a first-time offender, a record can still be a barrier, Bruce said.
“Being in the community and seeing how that affects people in their lives and how one mistake can derail a person or cause a person to be in a cycle of constantly finding ways to pay the fines and fees,” she said. “It can do a lot to a person mentally, physically and financially.”
Most misdemeanors except traffic violations can be expunged. For most felonies, a person can petition to have one criminal conviction removed from their criminal record five years after completing all terms and conditions of release.
Beyond pardons and expungement, Bruce said other states are introducing efforts that could help people who have a criminal record. Some states are introducing legislation to seal a person’s record, which could give some the opportunity to apply for jobs and housing and not have their record be the first thing the person reading their application sees.
“It can help the person get a foot in the door before they are placed in the box,” she said.
Younger Jackson State fans won’t remember it, but there was a time when the Jackson State Tigers dominated the SWAC every bit as much as Deion Sanders’ Tigers are dominating now. Lewis Tillman, a hard-running halfback from Hazlehurst, was a huge part of that era, breaking many of Walter Payton’s JSU records. Last week, Tillman was front and center as the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame announced its Class of 2023. This week, undefeated Jackson State plays Southern University as ESPN’s GameDay comes to town. Seemed a perfect time for Lewis Tillman to join the podcast.
La solicitud de la administración de Biden para la condonación de préstamos estudiantiles está oficialmente abierta. La fecha límite para presentar la solicitud es el 31 de diciembre de 2022.
Los prestatarios elegibles, entre ellos cientos de miles de habitantes de Mississippi, podrían ver borrados sus saldos dentro de cuatro a seis semanas si presentan la solicitud hoy, según el Departamento de Educación de EE. UU., la agencia federal que supervisa el plan.
Los prestatarios que deseen ver reducidos sus saldos antes de que se reanuden los pagos en enero deben completar el formulario antes del 15 de noviembre. El pago del préstamo ha estado en pausa debido a la pandemia desde marzo de 2020.
Aunque el plan enfrenta una serie de desafíos legales, el presidente Joe Biden ha dicho que cree que prevalecerá en los tribunales. Las demandas ya han resultado en que el Departamento de Educación de EE. UU. realice una serie de ajustes al programa, incluida la eliminación de la elegibilidad de unos 800,000 prestatarios cuyos préstamos están respaldados por el gobierno federal pero en manos de bancos comerciales.
Esa demanda fue desestimada, aunque no está claro cómo Mississippi llevará a cabo su plan para gravar el alivio de la deuda estudiantil como ingreso porque el gobierno federal ha ordenado a los administradores que no proporcionen 1099-C, el formulario de impuestos necesario para presentar la cancelación de la deuda.
El Departamento de Educación ha dicho que notificará a unos 8 millones de prestatarios que califican automáticamente para el alivio. Los prestatarios de este grupo que deseen optar por no participar deben comunicarse con su administrador antes del 14 de noviembre, según el Washington Post.
El formulario, disponible en español o inglés, tarda menos de un minuto en completarse: solicita el nombre, la fecha de nacimiento, el número de teléfono, la dirección de correo electrónico y el número de seguro social. El formulario pedirá a los prestatarios que certifiquen que cumplen con los límites de ingresos. , hasta $125,000 al año.
Es posible que algunos prestatarios necesiten verificar sus ingresos después de enviar la solicitud, pero el Departamento de Educación ha dicho que se lo hará saber. The Washington Post informó que a los prestatarios “que presentan una mayor probabilidad de exceder el umbral del límite de ingresos” probablemente se les pedirá que presenten documentación.
El alivio tiene un tope de $10,000 para muchos prestatarios y de $20,000 para los prestatarios que recibieron Becas Pell en la universidad. El formulario señala que los ingresos se calculan “en función de su ingreso bruto ajustado (AGI), que tiende a ser más bajo que su ingreso total”.
Para calificar, los prestatarios deben haber obtenido préstamos estudiantiles antes de julio de 2022. Los estudiantes universitarios actuales son elegibles para el alivio si sus padres ganan menos de $125,000. Los prestatarios con préstamos privados no son elegibles.
Hasta 40 millones de estadounidenses califican para el alivio de la deuda estudiantil, incluidas 439,000 personas en Mississippi. Para casi la mitad de los habitantes de Mississippi, el plan eliminará la deuda estudiantil, según un análisis de Education Data Initiative. El prestatario promedio de Mississippi con préstamos estudiantiles federales debe alrededor de $37,000, una de las deudas promedio más altas del país.
La administración Biden ha presentado el plan como una forma de mejorar la brecha de riqueza racial del país. En Mississippi, los prestatarios negros asumen montos más altos de deuda de estudiantes de pregrado que los de otras razas, según datos de un estudio reciente de National Postsecundary Aid.
Los estudiantes afroamericanos en Mississippi pidieron prestado un promedio de $10,800 en deuda estudiantil de pregrado durante el año escolar 2017-18, mientras que los prestatarios de otras razas sacaron un promedio de $7,400. Los prestatarios negros en Mississippi también obtuvieron más préstamos durante el año escolar que el prestatario negro promedio en todo el país, mientras que los prestatarios de otras razas se endeudaron menos que el promedio.
Un desafío legal que afirmaba que la Administración Biden violó la Cláusula de Igualdad de Protección porque “creó intencionalmente el programa para beneficiar a los prestatarios de color” fue desestimado dos días después de su presentación, informó USA Today.
Andrés Fuentes
Andrés Fuentes es periodista de FOX8-TV en Nueva Orleans y traductor de Mississippi Today. Antes de que el nativo de Nueva Orleans regresara, era periodista para WLOX-TV en Biloxi, Mississippi.
Greenwood Leflore Hospital could close by the end of November as negotiations between the hospital and the University of Mississippi Medical Center stall, interim CEO Gary Marchand told staff in a memo Tuesday.
After waves of layoffs and service reductions over the last few months, hospital administrators had hoped to stay afloat until the end of next month and then transition operations to UMMC by early December. They are now looking at further cuts “that might allow certain services to continue into 2023,” Marchand wrote.
“In the absence of this plan, the closure of the hospital remains a possibility,” the memo said.
The two parties had been negotiating a lease agreement with an eye toward Nov. 17, the date of the last scheduled meeting for the Institutions of Higher Learning, which would need to approve any lease agreement.
The Greenwood Commonwealth reported that Marchand said UMMC told him Tuesday they had run out of time to finalize documents ahead of that meeting.
Federal and state regulations and questions around the hospital’s outstanding debts remain stumbling blocks in the negotiations. The Commonwealth reported that Greenwood Leflore owes Medicare $5.6 million for advance payments it got when the COVID-19 pandemic started. UMMC does not want to take on that debt, and the Delta hospital is hoping its owners – the city of Greenwood and Leflore County – will step in.
Marchand and hospital spokeswoman Christine Hemphill were not available for interviews on Wednesday, but on Wednesday afternoon Hemphill provided written answers to questions sent by Mississippi Today.
Marchand met with the Greenwood city council at 9 a.m. Wednesday to discuss whether the city can help pay the hospital’s debts. Hemphill said the city council “acted to fund a letter of credit to resolve their share of the funding gap,” and that the county will meet Friday to discuss the same topic.
She added that the hospital plans to make decisions next week as to what lines of service to cut.
UMMC and Greenwood Leflore have been working on the agreement since the summer. But State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney seemed to allude to the ongoing threat to the hospital’s existence during the state board of health meeting earlier this month, when he described health care infrastructure in the Delta as “very fragile” and said at least six hospitals in the region are facing dire financial challenges.
“Despite what’s been reported in the media, currently there are no solutions for those hospitals,” he said. “No one’s coming to the rescue.”
Mississippi Today has reported on the financial struggles at Greenwood Leflore, Sharkey Issaquena Community Hospital, and Delta Health System. Liz Sharlot, the health department’s communications director, said she could not name the other hospitals Edney was alluding to because that information came from “private conversations.”
IHL could hold a special meeting later than Nov. 17. But UMMC told Mississippi Today on Wednesday they are not aware of any plans for that.
The hospital declined to answer other questions about the negotiations.
Gov. Tate Reeves could call a special session of the Legislature to craft a package to keep Greenwood Leflore open, but has given no indication that he will. His office did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Dr. Roderick Givens, a radiation oncologist at the hospital, attended a meeting for physician staff where Marchand gave updates at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday. He said Marchand reassured employees that UMMC still intends to pursue the lease agreement.
“That at least satisfied everyone that hey, no one’s walking away from the table,” Givens said.
Givens said the closure of the hospital would further reduce access to health care for Delta communities that are disproportionately low-income.
“It essentially becomes a death sentence to a number of people,” he said.
The 208-bed hospital is also one of the largest employers in the area, so its closure would hurt the local economy as well. According to Hemphill, Greenwood Leflore directly employs 589 people full- and part-time, and the food provider Aramark employs an additional 70 people full-time.
Givens said he didn’t understand why state leadership has not stepped in to help hospitals around the state that are struggling to stay open. Mississippi has one of the country’s highest rates of people without insurance, due to the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid to low-income working adults.
That means that hospitals face a higher burden of providing care for which they will never get paid. Hemphill said that costs Greenwood Leflore about $550,000 every month, around 6 to 7% of the hospital’s total costs.
“It’s kind of baffling why there’s not at the state level, at least meaningful conversations that say hey, how can we help?” Givens said. “What is it that the government can do with regards to assistance to keep these hospitals open? It’s kind of a deafening silence.”
The 3rd District, like three of the four Mississippi congressional districts, is a Republican stronghold.
In 2008, Democratic Pickens Mayor Joel Gill garnered 37.5% of the vote in the 3rd District congressional race against Republican attorney Gregg Harper of Rankin County. In 2018, Democratic state Rep. Michael Ted Evans captured 36.7% of the vote against Republican District Attorney Michael Guest.
Those two elections, both for open seats, were the best Democrats could do in the 3rd District since congressional redistricting following the 2000 U.S. Census.
There are contested races on Nov. 8 in all four of the state’s U.S. House seats. In the 2nd District, Democratic incumbent Bennie Thompson is a favorite to win re-election. In the other three, including the 3rd, the Republicans are the heavy favorites.
Still, Democrat Shuwaski Young, grandson of a civil rights leader in his native Neshoba County, says he believes he can be victorious on Nov. 8 against the incumbent Guest.
“I’m actually running in this race because I honestly believe … I’m the best person to lead the 3rd Congressional District, not only from an economic standpoint in bringing new business into our state, but also can bring a new politics, one of which respects compassion and love for everyone,” Young said on Mississippi Today’s “The Other Side” podcast. Guest has also been invited to appear on the podcast but has not accepted.
On first blush, Guest does appear to have some vulnerabilities. He barely won the Republican primary earlier this year against 2020 election denier Michael Cassidy. Cassidy was the top vote-getter in the primary and was a little more than 2,400 votes short of gaining the majority needed to win the election outright and avoid a runoff against Guest. But after surviving that first primary, the incumbent Guest, with a mammoth campaign cash advantage, easily defeated Cassidy in the runoff election.
Cassidy hit Guest for being one of the few Republicans in Congress to vote for the formation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by President Donald Trump’s supporters who were intent on overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election. But when Senate Republicans blocked efforts to form the commission, Guest voted against the House optional plan to create a committee solely of House members to investigate the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol.
But Guest has his own election denial bona fides. He voted to block the certification of the November 2020 election result citing voter irregularities, though more than 50 court challenges of the election results — and many before judges appointed by Trump — were denied.
“If we don’t act now, there is nothing to stop these violations from undermining future elections,” Guest said at the time of a lawsuit filed by the Texas attorney general trying to throw out millions of votes. The lawsuit, which was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court said Democrat Joe Biden “had less than one in a quadrillion to the fourth power” chance of winning the election in four key swing states.
Of the effort to overturn the election by throwing out millions of votes that the courts repeatedly said were valid, Young said, “What we saw in our congressman was someone who failed to recognize and respect and serve democracy as it should have been served on Jan. 6. Michael Guest voted to decertify the 2020 presidential election.”
Guest has a huge financial advantage over Young. According to Federal Elections Commission reports, Guest has spent $1.4 million since July 2021, and boasts a cash on hand total of $149.152. Young, meanwhile, has spent $67,711 and has cash on hand of $837.
Young worked in the office of the Mississippi Secretary of State during the tenure of Eric Clark and among other duties conducted training for local election commissioners. Young also worked in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security overseeing a domestic terrorism awareness program.
Guest, age 52, served as district attorney for Rankin and Madison counties in suburban Jackson from 2008 until 2019 when he was elected to his current position. Guest ran for and won the open 3rd District seat when the incumbent Harper opted not to seek re-election.
Guest, according to his campaign website, is committed to “conservative values and support for free market economic policies of lower taxes, few regulations, and promoting our constitutional freedoms and liberties, including the right to life of the unborn and our 2nd Amendment rights.” He also stresses the need for tight control of U.S. borders to prevent undocumented immigrants from entering the country.
Guest has sent mixed messages of the issue of abortion. He supported the successful effort to overturn Roe v. Wade that provided a national right to an abortion. He said the issue of abortion should be left up to the states to decide. But soon after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, he signed on as a co-sponsor of federal legislation that would ban most abortions after six weeks and would not provide an exception for rape.
Guest did not respond to Mississippi Today’s effort to glean clarification on the abortion issue.
Young has said he supports Congress passing a law essentially reinstating the Roe v. Wade abortion parameters that granted a right to an abortion in the first trimester.
For the most part, Guest has been a solid vote for the Republican leadership. He recently voted against the bipartisan infrastructure legislation that was opposed by all Republican members of the Mississippi congressional delegation except U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker.
“Roads, bridges, broadband, ports, rail, and clean water are the building blocks of a healthy economy. This legislation focuses on those core priorities, and I am happy to see it finally signed into law,” Wicker said at the time.
“Mississippi will soon see major investments in our state’s hard infrastructure, including $3.3 billion for roads and highways, $225 million for bridge replacement and repairs, a minimum of $100 million for broadband infrastructure, $283 million for water infrastructure, and significant funding for Army Corps of Engineers projects and port and rail improvements.”
In contrast, Guest said on WJTV of his vote against the infrastructure bill: “I believe that we need to balance investment and infrastructure with being fiscally responsible, and so while there were parts of the infrastructure bill that I supported, the money that was going to roads and bridges, water and sewage, money to expand rural broadband, there were also other parts of the bill that Mississippi will not benefit from.”
Guest also opposed the continuing resolution funding the U.S. government even though the legislation had $20 million for the work on the beleaguered Jackson water system. Guest has said he supports providing federal funds to help improve the system, but said the continuing resolution contained many other items he opposed.
Young said he has challenged Guest to debate, but the incumbent will not respond.
“He can’t answer why he voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill. He can’t answer why he voted against the Freedom to Vote Act,” said Young, pointing out other “no” votes by Guest including on the Violence Against Women Act.
Young said he supports tax breaks for small businesses and protecting Social Security.
He said a Mississippi congressman “can’t be too far right. They can’t be too far left. I think that is what I can do.”
In the other three congressional races:
1st District incumbent Republican Trent Kelly faces Democrat Dianne Dodson Black, an Olive Branch small business owner. She is the first African American woman to serve as a major party nominee in the district in the modern era.
2nd District incumbent Democrat Bennie Thompson faces Republican Brian Flowers of Clinton. Flowers, a Navy veteran, works in mechanical planning at the Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Plant near Port Gibson.
Republican Mike Ezell faces off against Democrat Johnny DuPree in the 4th District. Libertarian Alden Patrick Johnson also is on the ballot. Ezell, the sheriff of Jackson County, defeated incumbent Steven Palazzo earlier this year in the Republican primary, DuPree, former mayor of Hattiesburg, also has run unsuccessfully for governor and secretary of state. In 2011, DuPree became the first African American major party nominee for governor.
The ballot also will include judicial races. Four Court of Appeals races are on the ballot. In the only contested Court of Appeals race, incumbent 4th District Judge Virginia Carlton is being challenged by Bruce Burton.
Ahead of its nationwide premiere, a film about Mamie Till Mobley’s fight for justice after the lynching death of her son Emmett Till will be screened Thursday in Mound Bayou.
“Till”, written and directed by Chinonye Chukwu, will be shown at 7 p.m. at the North Bolivar Consolidated School District at 204 N. Edwards Ave. The movie is set to premiere nationally Friday.
“We cannot wait for audiences everywhere to see the poignant, revealing, heartbreaking yet inspiring film that is ‘Till,’” Deborah Watts, co-founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation and a Till family member, said in a statement. “For people who fear that they will be traumatized by this story, audiences should know it is first and foremost the story of a mother’s love.”
The movie recreated moments that helped galvanize the civil rights movement, such as Mamie Till Mobley getting her son’s body to Chicago from Mississippi, her deciding to have an open casket for his funeral and her giving speeches around the country about Emmett.
The film will be released nearly 70 years after Till’s death, and family members say justice has not been served.
The U.S. Department of Justice has reopened Till’s case several times, but its investigations did not result in new charges.
Despite the newly discovered evidence of the 1955 arrest warrant for Carolyn Bryant Donham, the woman Till allegedly whistled at, and her unpublished memoir, a Leflore County grand jury declined to indict Donham for her role in Till’s death.
Mound Bayou, founded and developed by former slaves and their descendants, was the home of civil rights leader Dr. T.R.M. Howard, who is depicted in the Till movie.
Howard opened his home to Mamie Till Mobley, witnesses and Black reporters during the trial of the two white men accused of killing Emmett.
After the men’s acquittal, Howard continued to speak about Till’s case and other examples of racial violence in Mississippi. He left the state after receiving death threats.
Mound Bayou residents from multiple generations, friends and family of Howard, descendants who were part of the Till trial in 1955, faith leaders and local officials are invited to the movie screening.
Afterwards, Watts and movie co-writer and producer Keith Beauchamp will answer questions.
Those interested in attending the screening can register on Eventbrite.
The number of spots in child care for poor children in Mississippi will be reduced by 12,470 in September 2024 when the state’s allotment of federal COVID-19 relief funds is exhausted, a special Senate committee was warned on Tuesday.
The Mississippi Department of Human Services is currently using a substantial portion of its federal COVID-19 relief funds to open more spots in child care for poor parents working in low paying jobs, going to school or looking for employment.
But those COVID-19 funds are scheduled to be spent by September 2024, meaning the state will have only its normal federal appropriations to direct to the child care block grant, said Bob Anderson, the executive director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services.
The state is using the federal child care funds to provide services to 35,646 children across the state, according to latest statistics. But the COVID-19 funds the Department of Human Services is directing to child care is paying for the services for more than 12,400 of the children.
Anderson’s revelation came at hearings held by a special state Senate panel of lawmakers who have said they aim to pass policies to help women and children following the U.S. Supreme Court’s striking down of Roe v. Wade.
The nine-member Senate Study Group on Women, Children and Families, chaired by Sen. Nicole Akins Boyd, R-Oxford, was announced by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann after the nation’s high court in June struck down longstanding Roe v. Wade and a dormant Mississippi abortion ban on the books subsequently took effect. Hosemann said it’s now incumbent on lawmakers to come up with policies to help mothers and children as experts predict the state will see an additional 5,000 unplanned births a year.
State Sen. Rod Hickman, a Democrat from Macon, asked Anderson at Tuesday’s hearing whether the state could use a portion of its federal TANF funds, normally called welfare benefits, to pay for the child care spots the state is slated to lose in September 2024.
Anderson said using TANF funds to shore up the child care program is “an option we are exploring.”
“We would be allowed to use up to 30% of the funds,” Anderson said. “But understand, people have a lot of other plans for that money as well. But yes, that’s always an option, assuming we haven’t already committed some of it.”
Mississippi is currently leaving about $18 million in available TANF funds on the table, according to information MDHS provided to Mississippi Today as well as a review of public expenditures. That could provide a year’s worth of vouchers for 4,600 children based on the 2022 reimbursement rate of $3,911 annually. In the most recent available federal report for 2020, Mississippi had an unused balance of roughly $50 million in federal TANF funds.
Anderson said that ultimately he would make the decision whether to convert some of the TANF funds to the Child Care Development Fund program.
Health, education and business experts told the panel Tuesday that lack of affordable child care is a major impediment to Mississippi moving forward economically and socially.
“The number-one topic that continually comes up is child care, or lack of available child care,” said Ryan Miller, director of Accelerate Mississippi, the state’s workforce development agency. “It is a real issue, and anecdotally, industry has been saying this for years.”
Miller said lawmakers should consider tax or other financial incentives for businesses to create child care programs, consider providing more state funding for programs and eliminate policies that thwart single parents’ access to child care. Miller and others testifying Tuesday said that MDHS’ requirement — per state law — that single mothers identify a child’s father before receiving benefits such as child care appears to keep some from applying.
Boyd said she has heard this brought up repeatedly during committee research.
“I think there are issues about not only feeling like they’re being judged, but probably some protection reasons, safety for the mother,” Boyd said of the requirement.
Other requirements that prevent people from getting child care assistance — and thus from joining the workforce — include a state provision that single mothers turn their child support cases over to the state to participate in the federally funded Child Care Payment Program.
Gov. Tate Reeves’ appointed State Early Childhood Advisory Council has already recommended that the governor instruct MDHS remove this requirement, but it has not done so.
Anderson also told lawmakers how the so-called HOPE Act, passed in 2017 at the behest of the state’s Republican leadership to crack down on fraud in federal programs administered by the state for poor people, was actually costing the state money. The program looks for fraud by those receiving benefits through Medicaid, Temporary Aid for Needy Families and other welfare-related programs.
Hickman questioned some experts who testified Tuesday about strict regulations Mississippi has put in place in the name of fraud prevention that instead just prevent people from applying or qualifying for programs.
Mississippi has in recent years been plagued with fraud and embezzlement of government money, but it has mostly been perpetrated by powerful politicians, bureaucrats and business leaders, not the beneficiaries of the programs. Notably, investigations continue into theft or misspending of tens of millions of TANF dollars, not by the few people who receive the benefits, but by those who were supposed to administer them or provide services.
“I believe in preventing fraud, but we need ideas that make sense and not just provide barriers to poor people receiving help,” Hickman said. “We’ve seen the amount of people applying for benefits dramatically dropped when we made all these requirements … But so much keeps getting fed into this thought that poor people are creating the fraud.”
Anderson said that MDHS is being required to create fraud and abuse systems “that we will never use” because they are redundant or not needed.
“It’s costing the state,” Anderson said.
When Hickman asked Anderson if “we are costing the state by over-policing poor people” through the HOPE Act, Anderson said essentially that is true. Anderson, a former prosecutor who worked on governmental fraud cases, said fraud by the poor is “not a big part of the problem.”
He said the last two years prove that as the welfare fraud case has unfolded in Mississippi where numerous private contractors and those close to the contractors have benefitted from the program.
The Mississippi Low-Income Childcare Initiative, led by longtime advocate Carol Burnett, is among numerous groups outlining issues faced by women and children in Mississippi and making policy recommendations to the Senate panel.
In a written statement to the committee, the initiative’s recommendations include:
Reducing the mounds of red tape single mothers face in enrolling in and staying in the federally funded Child Care Payment Program.
Mississippi using “every dollar it can” on childcare assistance to serve more families. Currently, only about 25% of eligible children are served.
Extending postpartum Medicaid for new moms from the current two months to 12 months.
Most charter schools across Mississippi performed on par with their local districts for this year’s accountability scores, though some officials say the system used to assign grades should be modified for these kinds of schools.
Charter schools are free public schools that do not report to a school board like traditional public schools. Instead, they are governed by the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board. They have more flexibility for teachers and administrators when it comes to student instruction, and are funded by local school districts based on enrollment.
Accountability grades are based on state test performance and other metrics. Charter schools, like all public schools across the state, received grades for the first time this year since 2019. For multiple charter schools, this is the first time they have ever received a letter grade.
Lisa Karmacharya, executive director of the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board, said that the design of the state accountability system puts charter schools “at a little bit of a disadvantage,” calling it unfortunate that the state accountability system doesn’t take into consideration all of the components the authorizer board’s framework does.
“When we’re talking about the success of a charter school, we’re looking at the whole package,” she said. “We’re looking at their academic health, their financial health, their organizational health over a period of time. So to take one snapshot and say they are or they aren’t (succeeding), I don’t think that’s quite a fair way to look at it.”
In Greenwood, Leflore Legacy Academy Director Tamala Boyd Shaw said she tried not to compare the school’s performance against other districts or charter schools. Instead, she focused on comparisons between the results of repeated benchmark testing the school administered internally.
Shaw said she anticipated the D grade Leflore Legacy received based on the state testing data released earlier this year, but still took issue with it. Since the school did not yet have students taking the state test in science, it altered the way their accountability score was calculated. Shaw said the score the school received did not align with her understanding of the rules for these situations, and she appealed it, unsuccessfully, to the Department of Education.
Shaw suggested the Mississippi Department of Education more broadly reconsider how it grades charter schools, accommodating for the fact that charter schools often add grades each year and other nuances of their expansion.
Executive Director of Mississippi First Rachel Canter said it can be unfair to compare a charter school to a whole district when they don’t have the right age groups of students to capture data for a number of the accountability model’s components. But Canter still acknowledged the importance of charter schools being graded by the same metrics.
“It’s important for parents to have some kind of measure that is common across traditional schools and charter schools so that they can assess for themselves in a way that is transparent,” she said. “I absolutely believe charter schools should take the same assessments and they should get the same grades, but those grades are more comparable in years that are normal.”
Midtown Public Charter School, one of the first charter schools to open in Mississippi, earned a D rating this year and ranked 10th of the 13 middle schools in JPS. Kristi Hendrix, the executive director of Midtown Partners, the nonprofit that operates the school, said they were disappointed with the grade they received this year and expected a different outcome based on their internal benchmark testing.
“We are not where we plan to be academic achievement wise but are making the adjustments in the instructional program for the current students we have in efforts best serve their needs,” she said.
Midtown Public was also the only school to recieve a letter grade below the local district they operate in. Hendrix said she didn’t feel this was an accurate comparison since JPS serves all grades and thousands more students.
When pressed specifically about the success of Midtown Public, Karmacharya said it was too early to say how their grade might impact their application for re-authorization.
“The authorizer is always going to be aware of whenever a school is challenged in whatever that way is,” she said. “(It) is part of our responsibilities, to support them the best we can. If at some point in time a school is unable to demonstrate that they can provide a high quality education option for families and kids, then the board will have to make a tough decision.”
Leaders with RePublic Schools, the group that operates Smilow Collegiate, Smilow Prep and ReImagine Prep in Jackson, said the schools were on track to fully rebound from the pandemic. Angela Bass, the regional executive director of RePublic Schools, said she was pleased with their schools' performance compared to the Jackson Public School District. RePublic schools ranked fourth and fifth of the 13 middle schools in Jackson, though Bass also emphasized she is excited by the overall improvements JPS is seeing.
RePublic’s Jackson Director of Schools Lynzie Smith also drew attention to their schools’ growth scores, which is a measure of how many students improve from one year to the next on state tests. Smith said growth scores at their schools were both high and “on-brand” for what their schools produce each year independent of the influences of the pandemic.
“The vast majority of our kids are coming to school and growing from one proficiency level to another, and we just know that is going to translate directly into proficiency the longer (students) stay with us,” Bass said.
For Clarksdale Collegiate, which received a D, this was the school’s first time receiving an accountability grade. Executive Director Amanda Johnson said she thought their score would be slightly higher, explaining it was harder to predict what grade they would receive since they added extra students at the beginning of last year. She said she believes it was the right decision, as they had the capacity to add seats and students who wanted to come, but since the students were newer to the school it was less clear how they would perform on the state test.
Through small group tutoring multiple times a week to close learning gaps and continuous rigorous instruction, Johnson said she expects to be in a much better spot next year as they continue to recover from the challenges of the pandemic.
“It’s a new experience, but data is always helpful to have, to learn from and grow,” she said.
Ambition Prep and Revive Prep, the other charter schools in Jackson, both did not receive scores this year as they do not have have enough grades of students.
