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Outfielder Michael Harris II, the No. 1 prospect in the Atlanta Braves organization, has gotten off to a blistering start with the Class AA Mississippi Braves.

Harris hit safely in the Braves first 10 games and was one of only three players in all of Minor League baseball to do so. He has reached base in all 12 M-Braves games and is hitting .319 with three doubles, two triples and four stolen bases. That’s after being the Atlanta Braves Minor League player of the year in 2021 at Class A Rome and spending much of spring training 2022 with the parent club.

Harris has, as baseball folks say, all the tools. The 21-year-old Atlanta native can hit (one), hit for power (two), field (three), throw (four) and run really fast (five.) He is that rare five-tool player, and, actually, Harris has six. He can pitch, as well. In fact, most Major League Baseball scouts projected him as a pitcher, not an everyday player before the Atlanta Braves drafted him in the third round in 2019 and decided quickly they wanted him on the field every day — not once every five days. 

Harris gets all that talent honestly — and he’s not the first Michael Harris to display his baseball talents on a Mississippi diamond. His dad, Michael Harris I, was a standout for longtime Alcorn State baseball coach Rat McGowan back in the mid 1980s, and he was versatile, too. The elder Michael Harris, who goes by Mike, played every position except catcher for the Alcorn Braves. He once retired 26 batters in a row before settling for a one-hit shutout against Rust College. As a junior he helped the Alcorn Braves win a game against Alabama at Tuscaloosa. He could hit. He could run. In fact, he was playing semi-pro baseball at age 18 in Atlanta when an Alcorn State assistant coach saw him, called McGowan and told his boss, “I found us one.”

The elder Harris grew up playing youth league baseball at Gresham Park in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur. The younger Harris began playing T-ball at the same park at age 3. When this writer caught up by telephone with Michael Harris I on Thursday evening, he had just finished umpiring a game for 10-year-olds at the same ballpark where he and his son learned the sport.

“Just trying to give back,” the elder Harris said. “Can’t get enough of it I guess.”

No way the elder Harris could ever count the hours he has spent at Gresham Park, especially watching his son develop into the player who was heavily recruited by colleges before signing a $548,000 bonus contract with the Braves.

The father says the son showed promise through all the youth leagues, but it was when he was in the ninth grade, playing for the high school varsity team, the father first believed the son might have a future playing the sport.

“That was when he really started to grow, put on some muscle,” Michael Harris I said. “That’s when you could really see the potential, see what he could become.”

What the junior Harris has become is a 6-foot, 190-pound package of talent, just now getting what baseball people call his “man strength.”

That strength was evident during Thursday batting practice when laced line drive after line drive deep into the opposite field. (The younger Harris bats left-handed, but took a few turns from the right side of the plate with no noticeable fall off.)

“I used to switch hit,” he said. “I still like to mess around with it.”

Harris hit .294 with gap power (26 doubles, three triples, seven homers) last year at Rome. The Braves believe he can become a 25-30 home run guy as his strength continues to develop.

Brian Snitker, the former M-Braves manager who now manages the World Champion Atlanta Braves, was mightily impressed with Harris this spring in Florida.

“I’m all over Michael Harris,” Snitker told reporters there. “I love that kid. It’s hard not to. That’s what they look like. He just needs more experience.”

The Braves would like for Harris to spend at least most of this season at Pearl. But there seems little doubt the master plan is for Harris — perhaps as soon as 2023 — to play beside Ronald Acuna Jr. in the Braves outfield. Like Acuna, Harris plays both center and right fields.

Bruce Crabbe, the Mississippi Braves new manager, calls Harris “a real pro” and talks not only about the immense talent but also “his rare professionalism at such a young age.”

“The kid know what it takes, and he works at every part of his game,” Crabbe said. “He’s such a smooth runner it’s hard to tell how fast he’s really going, but it’s fast. He hits the ball to all fields with power, and he’s only going to get stronger. He just needs reps. He’s so smart. He just gets it.”

As for Michael Harris II, his dream always has been to play for the Atlanta Braves, his hometown team. He says playing with the Big League club this spring made him realize how close that dream is to becoming reality.

“I’ve just got to put in the work, and I’ll do that,” he said. “Whenever they feel like they need me, I plan to be ready.”

The post Atlanta Braves’ No. 1 prospect Michael Harris is a chip off the old Alcorn State block appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Louisiana won’t know what hit them.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Our Southern Border appeared first on Mississippi Today.

LELAND — The Black Bayou Water Association, which now connects to nearly 3,000 rural customers in the Delta, was started about 30 years ago by a rice and soybean farmer with no water service experience. 

David Koehn, now 76, had plans to build a mobile home park on his land in Washington County, but didn’t have a central water source to offer residents. At the time, Koehn and others in the area drank from their personal shallow well, usually filled with brown, iron-laden water.   

So the farmer went home-by-home to see who’d want to pay for a new water service. He took out some loans, found local volunteers to form a board, and by 1991 had the Black Bayou Water Association up and running, serving about 350 homes. 

“It started as a community service and it turned into a career,” Koehn said. 

Black Bayou eventually built a reputation in the area for its clear water. It’s common in the Delta to see brown tannins flowing out of the tap because of years of Mississippi River flooding, he explained. 

Over the years, the water association picked up new customers and merged with other small utilities. Now, the utility serves about 2,800 homes across multiple counties, with connections stretching over 60 miles from Shaw to Mayersville. 

But about ten years ago, the rural water service ran into a legal hurdle: the chlorine it relied on to remove the brown coloring violated EPA limits on disinfectant byproducts, which have a number of health risks such as liver and nervous system damage, as well as increasing the risk of cancer. The byproducts, or DBPs, form when chlorine reacts with organic matter in the water. 

Black Bayou now treats its groundwater with reduced chlorine, which, while not posing any health risks, means that most of the homes paying for the utility’s service are getting brown water. 

Some, about 600, are getting clear water from a new $1.5 million plant, paid for through USDA loans. The facility there uses a polymer that coagulates the small bits of organic material in the water, which then settle out. 

Koehn said that the goal is to replicate that process for the remaining 2,200 connections. But, in order to reach all of its far-spread customer base, the small utility needs $14 million for a new plant and distribution.

Mississippi is filled with small water systems in need of assistance like BBWA: of the state’s 1,200 public water systems, about 70% are rural systems serving 1,000 homes or less, most of which were built in the late 1960s or early 1970s.  

Their issues range from aging wells, to delivery lines that are too small, to lacking a backup power source when a storm hits. Several other utilities are facing the same compliance issues as BBWA.

When news came last year of incoming support through the American Rescue Plan Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Mississippi Rural Water Association (MRWA) asked its member utilities what amount they needed. The survey showed a combined need of $700 million, but only a third of the state’s rural water associations had responded. 

Earlier this month, the Legislature appropriated $300 million of APRA funds for rural water associations, and made another $450 million available through a matching program for cities and counties to make water improvements. 

“No, it’s not going to near about be enough,” CEO of the Mississippi Rural Water Association Kirby Mayfield said of the ARPA money. “But this is going to be big, it’s going to be huge for our systems. It’s like I’ve been telling (our members): ‘We’ll never see this again in our lifetimes, take advantage of it.’ This is our chance to get things right.”

Mayfield, who brought the survey’s findings to the Senate Appropriations Committee late last year, discussed how many of the older, small rural systems have expanded over the years and are now failing to serve adequate water pressure to every home. 

“They didn’t need but a two-inch line going down that road because there weren’t but five houses down that road,” Mayfield said. “And today that road might have 50 houses on that road, and the same two-inch line is trying to serve those 50 customers.”

In his testimony to state lawmakers, he described the financial burden that old and breaking infrastructure is putting on the water associations, which often serve low-income populations: in 2013, the EPA estimated that the national average water loss was 16%. In Mississippi, Mayfield estimated that it’s around 35%. 

With so many small utilities around the state, some experts have recommended consolidating rural water associations to save money on resources and combine expertise among board members.

In some cases, like with Black Bayou, nearby utilities are happy to merge. But others, Mayfield explained, are hesitant to take on the debts of struggling nearby utilities. He added that ARPA funds could be used to alleviate such costs and encourage consolidation.

The post Federal funds both ‘huge’ and ‘not near enough’ for Mississippi’s rural water problems appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Madison County school officials placed more than 20 books in restricted circulation last week following complaints from parents about their contents. 

Students must have parental permission to check out one of the restricted books in the district’s elementary, middle, and high school libraries.

A team of educators will review the challenged books for “mature content” and make recommendations to district leaders, said Gene Wright, director of communications for Madison County Schools.

“These books may contain content that requires more mature thinking to appropriately process in the context of the literature. We want to partner with parents in terms of what reading material their students are checking out,” Wright said. “Our district values the free exchange of ideas and respects parents’ different views regarding what reading material is appropriate for their children.”

The dispute follows public controversy over the funding of the Ridgeland library, which the mayor of Ridgeland initially said in January he withheld over objections to LGBTQ materials. After months of back and forth, the parties settled on an agreement last week. 

Nationally, book bannings have been on the rise over the last year, hitting a record high since the American Library Association started tracking the challenges 20 years ago. The association also said that the majority of challenged books were by or about Black or LGBT individuals.

The books currently in restricted circulation in the Madison County School District are:

• “Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie
• “All American Boys” by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
• “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luen Yang
• “Beloved” by Toni Morrison
• “The Benefits of Being an Octopus” by Ann Braden
• “Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person” by Frederick Joseph
• “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison
• “Dear Martin” by Nic Stone
• “Discovering Wes Moore” by Wes Moore
• “Eleanor and Park” by Rainbow Rowell
• “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas
• “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter” by Erika Sánchez
• “Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini
• “Let Me Hear a Rhyme” by Tiffany D. Jackson
• “Love, Hate, and Other Filters” by Samira Ahmed
• “Monday’s Not Coming” by Tiffany D. Jackson
• “Out of Darkness” by Ashley Hope Pérez
• “Piecing Me Together” by Renee Watson
• “Queer, There, & Everywhere” by Sarah Prager
• “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson
• “Touching Spirit Bear” by Ben Mikaelsen
• “Uglies” by Scott Westerfeld

The district confirmed that there are some challenged books that have never been checked out and that a full checkout history of each title will be available in the coming months. The district also said that the challenged books were primarily available in middle and high school libraries.

Mass Resistance, a group recognized by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-LGBTQ hate group, touted the review of these books as a victory for local members.

Lindsey Beckham, who identified herself as the contact point for Mississippi’s chapter of Mass Resistance during the Ridgeland library hearings, first became interested in library content as a part of her concerns regarding critical race theory. She, along with other parents, reviewed the schools’ online library catalogs for titles that had been challenged in other parts of the country, according to their research. 

“The topics that are being discussed in these books had no business being in a public school, nothing I want my children reading,” she said. “Going through and reading some of the excerpts from these books, the subjects, the topics are very dark, very disturbing, very heavy even for me as an adult.” 

Beckham, who has one homeschooled daughter and one daughter at Germantown Middle, read an excerpt from one of the books at the most recent school board meeting, a video of which made the rounds on social media. Four days later, the books were placed in restricted circulation and principals sent letters home to parents explaining the situation. 

Dalen Owens Grant, a mother of two children in the Madison school system, doesn’t take issue with the district’s method of handling the concerns, but she worries about how it bodes for the future. 

”My problem is, just because they don’t want their children to read it, I don’t think their parenting ideas should be parenting everyone’s children,” she said. 

Grant called it “unfair” that the list primarily contains books about minorities. The libraries won’t accurately portray the whole community if the books are removed, she said.  

“Even if they get what they want out of this … if it’s not ‘The Kite Runner’ now, it’s going to be another book next week,” Grant said. “I just hope the school district is ready.”

The Madison County School Board plans to present a policy to handle future book challenges at its May 9 meeting.

The post After some parents raise concerns, Madison County Schools places books in ‘restricted circulation’ appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Every public university but Jackson State University will raise tuition rates this coming school year, continuing a trend that puts the cost of college increasingly out of reach for the average family in Mississippi. 

The Institution of Higher Learning Board of Trustees approved the new tuition rates at its regular meeting Thursday. The board voted to waive a requirement to wait 30 days after introducing new tuition rates in lieu of immediate adoption. 

For the coming school year, average in-state tuition will increase by $177, from $8,219 to $8,396 a year. Average out-of-state tuition will increase from $11,803 a year to $12,197 a year. Room and board will increase to $5,655 a year. 

Students at Mississippi Valley State University will see the highest increases from $6,928 to $7,274, about $346 a year, but tuition will remain the lowest of all eight universities. Mississippi State University will continue to have the highest in-state tuition rate at $9,248 a year, up from last school year’s rate of $9,110. 

At the board meeting, John Pearce, IHL’s associate commissioner of finance, said the universities cited “a lot of inflationary costs that are happening right now,” as well as salary increases, as the reason for the tuition increases. 

Commissioner Alfred Rankins added that without support from the Legislature, the universities would have needed to increase tuition even more.

“Trustees, I do want to point out that had it not been for the generous increase in appropriations we received from the Legislature, the institutions would have had to raise tuition even higher than what we see presented here today,” Rankins said. 

The Legislature allocated about $411 million in education and general funds to Mississippi’s eight universities, a 14.5% increase from last year’s appropriation. Caron Blanton, IHL’s spokesperson, wrote in an email that IHL’s appropriations bills don’t allocate a specific amount for salary increases but that “the amount appropriated is sufficient to cover a salary increase for university employees and some additional funds for operating costs.” 

Jackson State was the only university that did not increase tuition last year. In 2020, every university but Delta State University decided not to increase tuition due to the pandemic. 

Mississippi’s eight public universities have all steadily increased tuition since 2000 as the Legislature has decreased funding for higher education. Tuition now comprises the majority of universities’ revenue in Mississippi. According to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, tuition accounted for 54% of public university revenue in 2018 in Mississippi, compared to 25% in 2008. 

This means college is increasingly unaffordable for the average family in Mississippi who has seen their income stagnate. That is one reason why more than half of Mississippi college students graduated with an average of $29,714 in student debt in 2020, according to the Institution for College Access and Success. 

Many low-income students in Mississippi qualify for state and federal financial aid. But some lawmakers and the Post-Secondary Education Financial Assistance Board, which oversees financial aid in Mississippi, have been trying to find ways to limit the number of students who can qualify for the state’s three undergraduate grant programs. 

Last year, the Post-Secondary Board proposed eliminating the state’s three grant programs, including the Higher Education Legislative Plan for Needy Students, or HELP, grant, which pays for all four years of college for low-income students. 

In its place, the board proposed the Mississippi One Grant. Under that program, more students would qualify for aid but Black and low-income students on average would lose thousands of dollars in college financial aid while white students would gain money. 

The post Tuition increases at every public university but JSU appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney on Thursday penned a letter urging the state’s largest hospital and insurer to utilize the same mediation process that was used to settle their contract dispute in 2018.

Chaney told Mississippi Today that the state’s Department of Insurance will be addressing concerns regarding patients’ access to the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s organ transplant unit and children’s hospital, services that cannot be found elsewhere in the state.

Chaney said he could not elaborate on how his office will be addressing these concerns due to state confidentiality laws.

The hospital and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi have not been in communication since April 1, when UMMC officially went out of network with the insurance company, according to officials from both entities. Tens of thousands of Mississippians – some of them gravely ill and others in need of advanced specialties only available at UMMC – are stuck in the middle of the dispute.

“While UMMC and BCBSMS seem to be even further apart today than in 2018, I firmly believe that the parties can again find common ground that duly acknowledges and accounts for the unique role of UMMC as Mississippi’s academic medical center while also respecting BCBSMS’ vital role in maintaining affordable coverage for its enrollees,” the letter from Chaney to Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine at UMMC, and Carol Ann Pigott, chief executive officer of BCBSMS, states.  

“We are open to mediation between the state’s only academic medical center and largest insurer, which is in the best interests of our current and future patients and Mississippi’s health care system,” Marc Rolph, UMMC executive director of communications and marketing, said in a statement.

BCBSMS said it would not be commenting on the matter before responding to Chaney’s letter directly. 

Chaney gave both a deadline of April 27 to respond to his recommendation. Regardless of whether the parties agree to mediation, the Department of Insurance will be addressing concerns that UMMC going out of network with BCBSMS runs afoul of the state’s network adequacy regulations by denying patient’s access to the medical services that cannot be found elsewhere in the state, Chaney said in an interview with Mississippi Today. 

“While we hope that we will have mediation, we will also be addressing network adequacy concerning the Blair Batson Children’s Hospital and transplant unit,” Chaney said.

BCBSMS maintains that even without UMMC, it is still meeting its network adequacy requirement. BCBSMS also said that the remedy in a situation where network adequacy is an issue is for it to provide network level benefits to its customers for those services, which it has offered to do by directing its members to sign a written direction of payment instructing the insurer to pay the hospital. 

UMMC has declined to accept those payments from BCBS, arguing that it would allow BCBSMS to continue paying at unsustainable rates. 

Though the two parties have had similar contract disputes in previous years, this is the first time UMMC has been removed from BCBSMS’ network. 

As a result, tens of thousands of Mississippians have been left to face higher out-of-pocket medical expenses or find care elsewhere. Potential transplant recipients who have spent months or years on organ donation waitlists have been placed on hold. Parents of children who require specialized care that can only be provided at UMMC’s children’s hospital have been left with costly and inconvenient options for continuing their child’s care. 

UMMC has the state’s only organ transplant center in addition to the only children’s hospital, Level I trauma center, Level IV neonatal intensive care unit and other advanced specialties. 

The arbitration process Chaney recommends in the letter was used by the two parties in 2018, and involves bringing in an expert and impartial mediator who can preside over new contract negotiations. UMMC asked for the same increases to its reimbursement rates in 2018 that it is asking for now, but through a mediator the two parties settled on a deal that didn’t raise rates. 

Instead, Blue Cross agreed to remove language that made the contract evergreen, meaning the insurance company could no longer change the contract terms at any time.

If the two parties agree to mediation, a deadline will be set for them to settle their differences, Chaney told Mississippi Today. The deadline will likely be  June 1 – 30 days before the end of the 90-day “continuity of care” period, where certain BCBSMS patients can still receive care at UMMC and have their insurance accepted. 

Under state agency rules, Chaney is not allowed to directly mediate or help settle disputes over contacts between insurance companies and health care providers, but in the letter Chaney said that he could recommend a mediator if both parties agreed to the proposal.         

The dispute between UMMC and BCBSMS stems from disagreement over reimbursement rates and Blue Cross’ quality care plan, which measures hospital performance and whether services provided to patients are adequate.

UMMC is asking Blue Cross for substantial increases to inpatient, outpatient and professional reimbursement rates, some as large as 50%. Overall reimbursement from Blue Cross would increase by around 30% in the first year of the new contract. 

Mississippi has the lowest reimbursement rate from commercial insurance companies for inpatient services in the nation, according to a 2021 white paper by the actuarial and consulting firm Milliman. 

While UMMC maintains that BCBSMS is paying them well below market rates for other academic medical centers in the region, BCBSMS argues that agreeing to the increases would necessitate significant premium increases for their customers.

BCBSMS & UMMC – Request… by William Stribling

The post Insurance head calls for UMMC, Blue Cross to resolve dispute, cites ‘devastating’ impact on patients appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Superintendent of Education Carey Wright announced her retirement, effective June 30, at the State Board of Education meeting on Thursday. 

Wright, who first took on the role in 2013, has been the longest-serving superintendent of education since the state board was created in 1982. 

“This board is accepting her retirement with much regret and much gratitude for the work that she has done,” said Board Chair Rosemary Aultman when making the announcement at the meeting. 

During her tenure, graduation rates have risen nearly 13%, the Early Learning Collaborative program was established to increase Pre-K access, the Mississippi Connects initiative provided a device to every student, and the Mississippi Teacher Residency gave scholarships to aspiring teachers. 

“Leading education in Mississippi has been the honor and privilege of my life. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity I have been given to work with dedicated educators and leaders across Mississippi, the entire Mississippi Department of Education team and committed State Board members and legislative leaders. Together we have worked to make a difference in the lives of children,” Wright said in a statement. “Most especially, I am incredibly proud of Mississippi students. There is no limit to what they can accomplish.”

Aultman said there will be discussion on Wright’s transition and the search for the new superintendent in the coming weeks.

The post State Superintendent Carey Wright to retire June 30 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees will no longer approve tenure in Mississippi, per amended policies the board quietly approved at its regular meeting Thursday. 

Going forward, the presidents of Mississippi’s eight public universities will have the final say on whether to grant faculty members tenure, a type of indefinite appointment that protects academic freedom in higher education. Faculty who are denied tenure by a university president will still be able to appeal the decision to the board. 

Before granting tenure, university presidents can now take into account a faculty member’s “effectiveness, accuracy and integrity in communications” as well as their “collegiality” — new language the board added to its policies. Presidents will also be able to consider “contumacious conduct,” or insubordination, a factor that was previously only included in the board’s tenure dismissal policy. 

“I worry these new terms would be used to try and chill faculty speech and participation in shared governance,” said Neal Hutchens, a University of Mississippi professor of higher education who specializes in legal issues and tenure. 

The board did not discuss these changes at Thursday’s meeting because the new policies were included in the consent agenda, which trustees typically approve with no discussion. IHL also approved changes to its presidential search process that make it so members of search committees will be anonymous even to each other. 

Thursday’s board book notes that “these policy amendments were discussed in detail during the March 2022 Board meeting.” But that meeting was held at the Mississippi State University Riley Center in Meridian, an hour-and-a-half away from the complex where the board typically meets in Jackson. Unlike most IHL board meetings, it was not live-streamed. 

Mississippi Today was not able to attend the March board meeting in Meridian, but a reporter did go to the IHL board’s retreat held the day before. At the retreat, board members discussed the proposed tenure policies, but no faculty were present to give their thoughts on the new language. 

Mississippi Today asked Caron Blanton, IHL’s spokesperson, if the board had consulted any faculty on the proposed policy language, but she did not respond by press time. 

Hutchens said it is disappointing that the board did not give faculty an opportunity to evaluate the proposed policies in an inclusive, transparent way. 

“It would’ve been nice to have some real town halls on this, so that we could ask questions, like ‘what do these standards do that existing HR standards don’t?’” he said. 

Faculty work for years to receive tenure, which ensures they cannot be fired without cause, such as insubordination or reduction in academic programs. Tenure is granted after a rigorous committee process that begins at the department level. Last year, the roughly 1,300 tenured faculty in Mississippi comprised 34% of all faculty in Mississippi, according to a Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review report. 

Though tenure is meant to protect faculty from outside influences, the process has often been political, especially in Mississippi. In 2019, multiple members of the IHL board voted to deny tenure to University of Mississippi sociology professor James Thomas because they did not like some of his tweets. The decision to single out Thomas’s tenure application in an executive session drew national scrutiny, including from the American Association of University Professors. This session, state Sen. Chris McDaniel introduced a bill to eliminate tenure but it died in committee.

IHL hopes the new policies will de-politicized tenure in Mississippi by keeping those decisions in-house at each university. 

Hutchens said he “could see how that could eliminate one layer of political difficulty and give some insulation” to tenure decisions but that is “predicated on having a chancellor/president who is seeking in good-faith to adhere to the standards of promotion and tenure.” He added that university presidents are more accountable to faculty than IHL board members, who are political appointees, not experts in higher education. 

The board’s changes only affect three of its eight tenure policies: Promotions in rank, minimum standards for tenured employment, and post-tenure review. In addition to the new language about “collegiality,” the board added a reference to the AAUP’s Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure which says faculty “should remember that the public may judge their profession and their institution by their utterances.” 

Hutchens said he is most concerned that presidents could use this new language to undermine the process. He also said policies that standards like “collegiality” tend to be used inappropriately against faculty members of color. 

“The problem is that such terms can be so vague as to really be more about whether faculty are subservient to institutional leaders and be a ground to dismiss faculty for unwarranted reasons or to deny tenure,” he said. 

At the March retreat, Commissioner Alfred Rankins gave a PowerPoint presentation on the basics of tenure to board members. No faculty members were present, but the board said that Rankins, who was a tenured professor at Mississippi State University, could present that point of view.  

During the presentation, Rankins emphasized the benefit that tenure provides to a university and its faculty members. If Mississippi universities did not offer tenure, Rankins told the board, the “best and brightest” faculty simply would not come to work in the state.  

“It’s highly unlikely they’re gonna leave and come to the University of Mississippi without tenure,” he said. “It’s almost unheard.” 

Trustee Gee Ogletree, a real estate lawyer, asked what role the U.S. Department of Education plays in overseeing state-level tenure policies. He referenced a letter that USDOE sent to Florida about Gov. Ron DeSantis’s plan to limit tenure that required universities to continually switch regional accreditors. 

Rankins sighed. He said USDOE intervened in Florida because “they evaluate and accredit the accreditors.” 

Several trustees were surprised to learn that tenured faculty can, in fact, be fired for cause. 

“But I can terminate without cause in my company,” said Teresa Hubbard, the president of CITE Armored, which manufactures SWAT vehicles. 

The board also had questions when Van Gillespie, IHL’s associate commissioner for legal affairs, explained why it is generally easier for universities to fire non-tenured faculty, who sign one-year contracts. 

“So, Van, if you’ve got a bad tenured guy and a bad non-tenured guy, and you have cause to fire them, there’s no difference in the two?” asked J. Walt Starr, the outgoing board president. “They’re equal as far as you need to get rid of them.” 

The post College presidents now have final say on tenure after IHL quietly revises policy appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Despite having unprecedented extra billions of dollars to spend, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said the Mississippi Legislature failed to provide enough help to the capital city, which faces dire infrastructure and crime problems decades in the making.

In a lengthy post-legislative session interview with Mississippi Today, Lumumba said “paternalistic” and “racist” attitudes of legislative leaders towards one of America’s Blackest cities have resulted in Jackson not receiving enough state support in the past and present.

Lumumba pointed out the infrastructure funding Jackson did receive came with strings attached and oversight no other cities face. Lumumba said this raises “the question of whether Jackson has an equal-protection claim against the state of Mississippi,” although he later clarified, “I’m not announcing a lawsuit.”

Lumumba said he believes there is a push on the state level to privatize Jackson’s water and sewer services.

And, Lumumba also noted, lawmakers earmarked more than half as much — $13 million — for a Jackson golf course as they did for fixing the city’s crumbling water and sewerage system, at $25 million (which the city is matching using federal funds).

READ MORE: Jackson lawmakers discuss why it’s hard to land state funding

Below is a transcript of the interview. It has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Mississippi Today: How would you say the city fared this legislative session, with funding for capital projects, and for water and sewerage, specifically?

Lumumba: Let me say this, at a time where you have more resources available than any time in recent history, I think it’s fair to say that Jackson, once again, didn’t get commensurate support, to not only represent our size, but also your contributions to the state of Mississippi. Being a city in dire need for so many resources to address so many challenges, I’m never in a position to turn down — we readily accept any resources that are handed down.

But when you look at some of our requests, and look at how we have been part of this infrastructure discussion, not only in local conversations, but in a national way … It was in fact stated by the president of the United States that as we look at this infrastructure bill, we have to consider cities like Jackson, Mississippi, right? He specifically mentioned Jackson, and that expresses just how much we have been a part of even having these resources in the first place … $25 million honestly is still just a drop in the bucket … No direct allocation was given to Jackson as part of that.

Mississippi Today: As for the state’s matching program, Jackson is the only city not being cut a direct check, so to speak, right? You have to go through the Department of Finance and Administration, they have to oversee Jackson’s work, right?

Lumumba: There is a duplicitous requirement for Jackson. We not only have to go through the regular proposals, but once that’s accepted, we have to go through DFA … What we have learned with the commissions we’ve had to have in Jackson — the only city to have to have commissions (to oversee state support) — is that when it comes to infrastructure it only serves to delay the services and repairs. Rather than being some justified checks and balances, it’s just to have a paternalistic view or approach to Jackson.

… And I’m going to call out what that is already. I’m going to beat them to the punch and let you know that behind the scenes, there has been an effort to try to get Jackson to either privatize its water or do a concession. That has nothing to do with an overall effort to improve the conditions. What that is about is money, how do you profit from Jackson. We have to call that out. And I think that now it’s time to raise the question of whether Jackson has an equal protection claim against the state of Mississippi, not only in terms of an equitable distribution of resources, but we even have inequity in what we are allocated within the city that can only go to one portion of the city or to certain communities … when we asked for money to deal with our water system, which in large part interrupts distribution to South Jackson more than any other part of our city.

Mississippi Today: What are some of those inequities as far as certain communities?

Lumumba: That is still to be determined through this duplicitous process, but yet and still, the same legislative session, we give $13 million towards a golf course — a 10-hole golf course, which, I’m not an avid golfer, but I know very few golfers that are eager to play a 10-hole golf course, right? … I’m not against the project. I am against the failure as we ask for water that serves all our residents to give $13 million towards golf … We also know that there were allocations made to the Fondren Community. I love our Fondren Community. I love how it is blossoming. But there are equity concerns when we’re willing to give $20 million (in bonds guaranteed by Hinds County) towards a development in that area, but yet and still we can continue to ignore people’s basic need for water.

I also anticipate that this is something you want to talk about, too: People raise the issue of, well, you know, Jackson is fighting over a garbage contract. Well, so, the state is fighting over taxes, right? Other cities fight over garbage contracts, Jackson is just a city that is larger than every other city by far, and so we will always be in the news. Frustrations and battles over politics are nothing new. I think anyone who goes towards perpetuating that myth, that that’s an excuse not to help, we have to check. Because what was the excuse the last 40 years when they haven’t given Jackson the resources it needed? … That certainly isn’t a justification to say that your people don’t deserve the sustainability of water or the equity of how water is distributed.

Mississippi Today: You mentioned a push towards privatization of Jackson’s water system. Are some legislative leaders pushing that?

Lumumba: Yes. There have been conversations between leadership and — I won’t say — but representation between the state saying that and, you know, even meeting with companies … I do more research than they give me credit for. I know that in Detroit, before it reached bankruptcy, they lost full control over their water systems … I think that the effort to have this duplicitous process by which we’ve got to get authorized for projects to fix our water system, it to dangle this over our head. To try to force us into the direction they want us to go.

… And might I mention that Jackson does not have some extensive or real history of illegal contract steering. And right know, you have Anna Wolfe doing a whole big story on the state of Mississippi, and the issues of DHS and potential improprieties of the state. So, this is hypocritical at best … This is more about the unstated position that they have towards Jackson when there’s big legislation that deals with Jackson. It’s about how do we take from Jackson. How do we take your airport? How do we privatize your water system? How do we regionalize your water treatment facilities? How do we look at taking the finances of Jackson every single time?

Mississippi Today: Do you meet directly with the legislative leadership and governor?

Lumumba: I do. I have met with the lieutenant governor … I’ve met with Speaker (Philip) Gunn … I cannot report that I’ve ever had a negative interaction with Speaker Gunn. I don’t know what his position is by and large towards the city of Jackson, but I’ve never had a negative experience with him. I do not meet frequently with the governor at all. I desire more interaction with the governor. I’ve definitely met 10 times as much with former Gov. Bryant than I do with Gov. Reeves. And you know, we’re the largest city in Mississippi, and there’s no reason, you know, that we shouldn’t be sitting down and having discussions. We’ve reached out several times.

… We hear things — people give in to these narratives that Jackson doesn’t, that we’re unable to build relationships. We can build relationships. We build national relationships all over. It is less about our inability to build relationships and more about the resistance that is there, more about the unstated position they have towards Jackson … That is why I have developed national relationships. That is why we have brought in philanthropic support … We are remaining in close contact with national leadership … I’ve gone to Washington, I’ve met with (EPA) Administrator (Michael) Regan in addition to his visit to Jackson. We are very interested in the Justice40 initiative. I’ve met with my good friend former Mayor Mitch Landrieu, the federal infrastructure czar … If we’re able to establish these relationships and they see the value and the intent of our city, then how is it that we’re unable to see that right here, where people are suffering the most?

Mississippi Today: So, some lawmakers have been saying that $25 million — $50 million with the city match — is enough for Jackson to get started on water work and for the next nine months, and that the state can come back with more next year. What is your response to that?

Lumumba: Well, let me say this: We have demonstrated, as it pertains to road work, if you give us the money, we can put it to work. We have a 1% commission (for infrastructure work using a local sales tax) and all the money we have in hand is committed to projects. We know that there’s bureaucracy and a lot of red tape with studies and engineering and everything else. But delaying the allocation of money doesn’t make any of that process move any faster. If we had some better sense of what we might have, or even if we had a steady stream of funding over the course of time, then we could better prepare … But we went into this legislative session with a murky understanding of what resources we would have to address our ailing water infrastructure, and if we’re honest, it’s still a bit murky … They gave us the potential of hope, right? … We need more than $500 million just for our drinking water system alone. We know that we can’t go in and expect that we’re going to get $500 million … But I think we’re left at the end of the day with a huge disparity between how Jackson has fared in terms of the resources we have received from the state.

This is combined with the fact that there is a bubble created around certain communities. The state fairgrounds, they receive funds to make sure they don’t have issues with their water system. (University of Mississippi Medical Center) has its water towers to make sure they don’t have issues with water. And so, they insulate certain parts of our city to make sure they don’t see the challenges that the rest of our residents have to deal with.

Mississippi Today: You’ve used the term “paternalistic” for the legislative leadership’s view of Jackson. Is that a nicer way of saying something else?

Lumumba: Paternalistic. It’s racist, is that what y’all want to hear? (directed towards city staffers in the room during the interview) It’s racist. I wasn’t holding that back. It’s what it is. And there are going to be people who don’t like that I say that. But if they really have true heartburn about it, prove me wrong. I dare you. I dare you to prove me wrong.

… To say the things that I’m saying I know does not make me popular among certain crowds, right? But I’m not here to be popular, or even to have, you know, friendships and relationships. It’d be nice to have friendships and relationships. I’m a pretty nice guy. But that isn’t my aim. My aim is to represent my people.

The post Mayor Lumumba: ‘Paternalistic, racist’ Legislature failed to help Jackson despite having extra billions appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Members of Jackson’s legislative delegation say that — fairly or unfairly — the city suffers from an image problem that makes it hard to secure state money from the Legislature for the city’s crumbling infrastructure and other problems.

Despite the state having unprecedented billions in extra federal and state dollars to cover infrastructure needs, the city wasn’t able to secure the money it had hoped for, particularly for its troubled water and sewerage system. And, of the $25 million state match the city’s delegation expects Jackson to receive, it will be subject to strict state oversight. No other local government in the state will undergo similar state oversight.

“There’s a myriad of reasons for our doing that,” Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, said of the state oversight. “The city has not in recent years engendered a whole lot of trust as far as the state’s concerns of (Jackson’s) capacity to perform efficiently, expeditiously some of these repairs.”

Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, said the city’s delegation was told up front by legislative leadership that special state Department of Finance and Administration oversight was a requirement for Jackson water and sewerage funding, and the delegation pragmatically accepted it.

“We were told that was going to be a requirement and our goal was to get the money,” Blount said. “There have been problems at the Jackson water department, I think we all know that, but it was a requirement and we were not going to walk away empty handed.”

There is a perception with legislative leaders and lawmakers from elsewhere in the state that Jackson needs more oversight in part because of local government in-fighting, such as the nasty ongoing battle between Jackson’s mayor and city council over a garbage collection contract, and because of long-running city problems such as crime.

Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson, said there has been oversight placed on Jackson’s funding in the past, predating the current city administration. In 2009, the Legislature granted the city the authority to levy a 1-cent sales tax to fund primarily road and bridge improvements. But in doing so, it created a special commission to oversee spending the money. Bell said it was not fair then and it is not fair now.

“It has been a common practice for the city of Jackson to receive extra scrutiny when it comes to the allocation of funds,” Bell said. “Is it right? No. However, it’s incumbent on the city and delegation to stress the importance of working together and not continuing to keep such standards in place. It’s also important for the city to utilize our resources on the federal level. Our local lobbying efforts have to increase and be more effective on the state level. State and local leaders need to stop playing the pointing game and get to the business of helping the residents of Jackson.”

READ MORE: Mayor Lumumba: ‘Paternalistic, racist’ Legislature failed to help Jackson despite having extra billions

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba called the questioning of Jackson’s leadership and management “myths” that legislative leaders use to justify not giving the city the support it needs. He said many of the issues facing the city have been decades in the making. He also said that racism plays a role in the majority-white Legislature’s views toward majority-Black Jackson.

“I would ask them to call out what those leadership problems are, you know?” Lumumba said. “Disagreement with what our principles are isn’t a leadership problem. That is a disagreement. There isn’t a right to lord over Jackson and make decisions for the city. You have a responsibility to the residents of Jackson just like you have a responsibility to all the residents of the state of Mississippi.”

Lumumba also said there’s “hypocrisy” in state government — which has been rocked by scandals of fraud, bribery, embezzlement and malfeasance — to say Jackson can’t manage resources and projects.

“I’ve not misappropriated funds, right?” Lumumba said. “I’ve not given money to a pet project of mine over the interests of Jackson residents. We have merely been chipping away at how we resolve the challenges that our city has … What there is is a resolve (by legislators) not to provide resources to Jackson.

Lumumba said that given Jackson’s dire infrastructure needs, and it being the state’s largest and capital city, the state should have given the city some direct allocations separate from the matching grant program for cities and counties statewide.

Lumumba said he knows the city’s legislative delegation was “inspired to go with something, versus not getting anything at all.”

When pressed during a lengthy interview with Mississippi Today on why he thought Jackson was treated differently, the mayor said, “It’s racist.”

“And there are going to be people who don’t like that I say that,” Lumumba said. “But if they really have heartburn about it, prove me wrong. I dare you. I dare you to prove me wrong.”

Rep. Shonda Yates, I-Jackson, said she was seeking compromise when she authored the bill establishing state oversight. The goal, she said, was to establish a program where the Legislature would provide designated funding with state oversight to deal with Jackson’s water woes. The bill she authored would have put $43 million into a fund with state oversight.

But what came out of the legislative process was the establishment of a fund, but no direct funding for Jackson. Instead, a program was established where federal American Rescue Plan funds that the state received could be accessed by municipalities for water and sewer need if they provided a dollar-for-dollar match from separate federal ARPA funds they received.

The city of Jackson plans to allocate $25 million or about 60% of its ARPA funds to draw down the state match.

And those funds will be only a drop in the bucket of what the city needs. It has been estimated that fixing Jackson’s water and sewer problems could cost as much as $2 billion. Those problems include concerns from federal officials about the safety of Jackson’s water.

Yates said she hopes additional state funding for Jackson’s water and sewer issues can be provided over the coming years.

“I certainly plan to advocate for such,” she said.

“We are going to be coming back next year, and there is ARPA money remaining,” Blount said. “There is only so much that can be spent, only so much work that can be done (by the city) in the next nine months, and the state has ARPA money remaining, so we will be back again because the capital city has got to have a functioning water system.”

The post Jackson lawmakers discuss why it’s hard to land state funding for the capital city appeared first on Mississippi Today.