After more than six hours of debate and filibuster with 17 attempted amendments and many passionate floor speeches from Black lawmakers, the Republican and white-majority state House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday entitled, “Critical Race Theory: prohibit.”
The bill was passed even though the academic theory is not being taught in Mississippi K-12 schools and proponents of the measure assured Black lawmakers it really wouldn’t do anything — other than check a Republican political box.
But the bill has ripped the Band-Aid off the issue of race in the Mississippi Capitol less than two years after the historic vote legislators made to remove the state flag with a Confederate battle emblem in its canton. For hours Thursday, Black lawmakers spoke on the floor about their or their families’ experience with racism, segregation and Jim Crow in Mississippi and urged their white Republican colleagues to vote against the bill.
“If Mississippi wants to go forward in this world’s economy and be a leader like we say we want to do, then we’ve got to stop this,” said Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson. “This is not going to bring a single business to Mississippi. It’s not going to bring a single tourist here.”
The bill passed 75-43 with three white members — two Democrats and an independent — joining all Black lawmakers in voting against it. The bill now goes to Gov. Tate Reeves, who has said preventing teaching of critical race theory is a top priority for him.
After hours of debate and questions, it still is not clear what the results of the three-page bill will be if it signed into law by the governor. While the bill’s title says it prohibits the teaching of critical race theory, that phrase is nowhere in the legislation.
When asked by Rep. Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson, whether the bill would prevent the teaching of critical race theory, Rep. Joey Hood, R-Ackerman, responded, “If this piece of legislation is affirmed by this body today, then the tenets … that where any person is considered inferior and superior would not be allowed.”
Hood, who handled the bill on the House floor, repeatedly said all the bill would do is say no university, community college or public school “shall direct of compel students to affirm that any sex, race, ethnicity, religion or national origin is inherently superior or that individuals should be adversely treated based on such characteristics.”
Hood, under constant questioning, conceded he had not studied the origins of critical race theory.
“A lot of people have a lot of different definitions of what critical race is,” said Hood.
Critical race theory has been taught for years, primarily in university settings, as an examination of the impact of systemic racism on the nation. In recent years critical race theory has become a hot-button issue in conservative circles. Both House Speaker Philip Gunn and Reeves, possible opponents in the 2023 Republican gubernatorial primary, have spoken against critical race theory. Reeves has advocated state funds be spent on the teaching of “patriotic” history.
“This bill is only before us so that some of you can go back home and have something to campaign on,” said Rep. Willie Bailey, D-Greenville.
But opponents said they feared that even if the language of the bill is innocuous, it will have a chilling effect on teaching history — particularly Mississippi’s dark history — and lead to censorship in the state’s classrooms.
“The language means something to me,” Summers said. “… You cannot pass a bill like this and continue the rhetoric that we can all work together.”
While Hood consistently said the bill was meant to prevent anyone from being made to feel superior or inferior, Bailey asked if his white House colleagues should be concerned that all Black members of the House voted against the proposal, just as all Black senators did earlier this session.
“In Mississippi certain things should be off limits,” said Rep. Bryant Clark, D-Pickens, whose father was the first African American elected to the Mississippi Legislature in the 20th Century. “Certain things are hitting below the belt. Certain things should not be brought up. We don’t have to dip water from this well, not in Mississippi … This bill turns my stomach. I know it turns some of y’all’s stomachs as well. We are debating an issue that does not exist in Mississippi … I think it is an insult to the citizens of the state to tell them we have to throw this issue out to you in order to galvanize you — in order to win elections.”
“History in Mississippi can be taught under this legislation,” Hood repeatedly said from the well of the chamber. But overall, Hood had few answers to the dozensof questions he was asked.
And when Black legislators offered amendments designed to try to ensure that history could be taught without any fear of a school losing state funding under the mandates of the bill, the Republican majority voted down those proposals. Other amendments — including ones to honor famous Black musicians, athletes, former President Barack Obama and others — were used more for filibuster and to prove points.
Rep. Shanda Yates, I-Jackson, told Hood that the only critical race theory class being taught in the state was at the University of Mississippi School of Law. When she asked if the class could still be taught if the bill becomes law, Hood responded, “That will be up to Ole Miss.”
Yates offered an amendment, which was voted down by Republicans, that would have added disabilities and sexual orientation to the protected class in the bill.
“If that is the true intent of this bill, that no one is discriminated against or made to feel inferior, then you should vote for this,” Yates said.
When the bill was debated in the Senate earlier this session, all Black members walked out of the chamber before the final vote. On Thursday in the House, Black members voted in unanimity against the bill.
When Lydia Hall takes her nursing students to make rounds at the hospital, she watches closely as her students give patients medications and fix IV lines. She guides them, usually 21 or 22 years old, through evaluating heart rates, oxygen levels and blood pressure.
She does what she can to help them process seeing people in their worst situations and accepting they can’t fix everything.
Sometimes the Mississippi College instructor fields a question from the overworked nurses eager to recruit new colleagues to the hospital: Would she consider taking a full-time job there, making $100 an hour?
“I mean, it’s tempting,” Hall said. “I do think about all my different options.”
Hall teaches because she loves training the next generation of nurses. But as nursing salaries skyrocket, the choice to teach involves sacrifice. With 35 years of nursing experience, Hall could make more money if she returned to the bedside.
In part because of that financial reality, there aren’t enough instructors to train the next generation of nurses in Mississippi. That’s making it harder to address the nursing shortage exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic — a problem that led chief nursing officers from 36 Mississippi hospitals to beg state leaders for help in November of last year.
“When you trace the shortage of nurses back, you trace it back to nursing education,” said Tomekia Luckett, who served as director of the Council on Nursing Education with the Mississippi Nurses’ Association until this year.
According to a survey of nursing deans and directors conducted by the Institutions of Higher Learning, the average nursing program in Mississippi would need to hire three more faculty to admit to full capacity. Accreditation requires maintaining a strict student-to-faculty ratio, so every faculty vacancy means about 15 fewer Mississippians admitted to nursing programs.
Nursing schools in Mississippi have recently had to turn away an average of about 2,400 qualified applicants every year, according to IHL statistics. Some of them may apply again, but others give up on a dream.
“They really want to be nurses,” said Shirley Evers-Manly, dean at Alcorn State University’s School of Nursing, referring to pre-nursing students.
“That barrier has them sometimes saying, ‘I don’t want to do it anymore. I’m going to go into another profession.’”
The faculty shortage is predicted to worsen. The number of open positions statewide shot up from 20 to 33 in just a few months from fall 2021 to spring 2022, according to the IHL survey. About a quarter of the state’s nursing faculty are eligible to retire in the next three years.
“The numbers are scary,” said Kimberly Sharp, dean of the Mississippi College School of Nursing, where about a third of the faculty is eligible to retire in the next few years.
Nurses worry what that will mean for every Mississippian who seeks health care. As of late January, the state had 3,000 vacant positions for RNs, according to the Mississippi Hospital Association — about a fifth of the total nursing workforce.
“If you don’t have educators, you won’t have nurses,” Luckett said. “If you don’t have nurses, you don’t have anybody to take care of patients … If it becomes severe enough, it could become a public safety issue.”
Nursing instructor Amy Esslinger keeps track of medical supplies before dismissing her students at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville, Miss., Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Nursing students prepare to be dismissed after they practiced wound care during class at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville, Miss., Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Nursing instructors Amy Esslinger, left, and Anna Busby prepare to dismiss their nursing students after they practiced wound care during class at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville, Miss., Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Nursing instructor Anna Busby asks nursing students questions after they practiced wound care during class at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville, Miss., Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Nursing student Tabatha Cuevas, left, and other students talk about their experience while studying nursing at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville, Miss., Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Nursing student Nic Cary covers a wound on a nursing mannequin during class at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville, Miss., Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Dr. Arlene C. Jones, director of nursing education at Pearl River Community College, poses for a photographed at PRCC in Poplarville, Miss., Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Nursing students Katie Pullens, from left, Nic Cary and Emilee Long practice wound care during class at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville, Miss., Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Nursing students Caroline Tabor, left, and Casey Turner place bandages on a nursing mannequin during class at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville, Miss., Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Inside a classroom at Pearl River Community College’s nursing school in Poplarville on Wednesday, 25 future nurses paired up and gathered around hospital beds, each containing a mannequin with a different stick-on plastic wound covered in gauze. The students practiced removing the dressing and replacing it with a fresh bandage.
Instructors Anna Busby and Amy Esslinger walked among the beds while watching students work and asking them questions. Between them, Busby and Esslinger have more than 60 years of nursing experience. They’re attuned to risks that students can’t yet see.
As two young women prepared to apply a bandage to a mannequin with an abdomen wound, they put the old one in a red plastic biohazard bag and set it just below their patient’s knees.
“What if she moves her legs?” Busby asked, pointing at the bag. “This is gonna go right back on the wound.”
Another student applied tape to the four edges of a piece of gauze, creating small air pockets around the sides.
Busby walked over to the bed. Better to tape vertically across the gauze, creating pressure on the wound and preventing air pockets: Kids especially like to stick things anywhere they can.
“You may go to take it off, and there’s a Hotwheels in there,” she told them.
Busby has taught at PRCC for 10 years, Esslinger for 11. In the last several years, they’ve seen many colleagues retire or leave for more lucrative positions in the field.
Their students spend two years in the associate degree nursing program, and Busby and Esslinger say they become life coaches and mentors as well as teachers. Their goal is that every student graduates as a nurse to whom they would entrust the care of a family member.
“You want them to succeed,” Esslinger said. “When you have so many students and not enough time, that’s not in their best interest.”
The nurse educator shortage isn’t new, and it isn’t unique to Mississippi. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 6.5% of all nursing faculty positions nationally are vacant. But while the national vacancy rate has declined slightly over the last five years, it has risen in Mississippi.
“The nursing educator shortage has worsened dramatically over the past three years,” said Melissa Temple, IHL director of nursing education, in an email to Mississippi Today.
In 2018, there were only two open faculty positions at associate degree nursing programs across the entire state. By spring 2022, that number had risen to 19.
At PRCC, some instructors left soon after they were hired to take higher-paying opportunities available during the pandemic. That created turnover that affected students’ experiences. In 2021 alone, 13 faculty left and had to be replaced.
Jana Causey, who oversees medical programs at PRCC, said she thinks that as travel nursing pay declines, hiring instructors will get a little easier. But the salary gap won’t go away.
According to the IHL, the average community college nursing instructor makes about $65,000 a year; the average university instructor makes about $83,000. Nurses qualified to serve as instructors can now easily make more than $100,000 in a hospital or clinic.
Evers-Manly of Alcorn, the state’s only historically Black college with a nursing program, said she understands why bedside nursing pays more. Patient care can be complicated and stressful. But nurse educators must have advanced degrees and the same skills as practicing nurses.
“We’re training students to do exactly what they’re doing,” she said. “So there really shouldn’t be, in my opinion, that much of a discrepancy in the amount that we pay compared to the nurses on the floor.”
Alice Austin was worried about the dire situation inside hospitals as COVID-19 cases surged in Mississippi in late 2020. She wanted Holmes Community College, where she oversees the associate degree nursing programs at the Ridgeland campus, to be part of the solution.
In early 2021, the college started planning to launch an additional nights-and-weekends course to train about 30 more students, making a nursing degree accessible to people working full-time.
The only real challenge was hiring. Austin said three people turned down their job offer. Although she hoped to hire two full-time educators, Holmes ended up starting the course with one full-time instructor and another part-time.
“Nobody’s interested in leaving their job where they’re making extra money,” Austin said.
At the same time, Mississippi hospitals are desperate to hire more nurses. Those who remain rush between patients, often forced to take shortcuts as they try to attend to everyone.
Some of the students at PRCC are licensed practical nurses (LPNs) coming back to school to become registered nurses (RNs). Niki Mason, who is still working her hospital job, recently heard a line that resonated with her: “Stop calling nurses frontline workers.”
“Because that implies there’s a second line coming,” she said.
The nursing shortage inside hospitals affects nursing education, too. Mason and her classmates spend about two days a week in “clinicals,” when they visit patients with an instructor. Typically, staff nurses at the facility also answer student questions and give feedback.
These days, Mason said, nurses don’t have time for that.
“I think that we are going to be in probably the worst situation we’ve ever been in for RNs,” said Susan Russell, chief nursing officer at Singing River, where there are currently 167 openings for RNs.
In 2021, the Bower Foundation awarded a $3.8 million grant to UMMC to provide scholarships for nearly 70 students pursuing graduate degrees in nursing education and healthcare administration, expanding the pool of nursing instructors in Mississippi. Julie Sanford, dean of the school of nursing at UMMC, said the first cohort will begin in May.
The Mississippi Office of Workforce Development also recently awarded a grant to PRCC, which Causey said will help expand a program on the Forrest County campus for working LPNs to become RNs.
In 2006, when there were about 40 faculty vacancies statewide, only a few more than the current figure, the legislature approved a $12,000 raise for nursing instructors over two years. That made a big difference for faculty recruiting, administrators told Mississippi Today.
There’s little indication anything similar will be considered today, though the worker shortage inside hospitals has spurred legislative proposals. The Mississippi Healthcare Workers Retention Act would provide premium pay of up to $5,000 for healthcare workers. Another bill still in play this session, HB 1005, would create a loan forgiveness program for nursing graduates who practice in Mississippi.
The nurses who choose to become instructors find it can offer a new way to make use of decades of experience.
“Nurses teach through their storytelling,” said Arlene C. Jones, director of nursing education at PRCC. “We look for faculty that have that bedside experience, because that’s where their stories come from.”
When Busby and Esslinger’s students finished practicing wound care, they packed away their supplies and carefully remade the beds.
“Wrinkles equal pressure ulcers!” a student shouted at two classmates who were leaving uneven creases in their mannequin’s blanket.
The instructors both graduated from PRCC’s program more than 30 years ago. One day, they hope, some of these students will stand in their places in the classroom.
“We’ll say, ‘You’re not ready yet,’” Busby said of students who talk about becoming instructors. “‘But when you are, you’ll know it, and you’ll come back.’”
Editor's note: Mississippi Today is the recipient of a multi-year grant from the Bower Foundation. See a list of our other donors here.
Higher education reporter Molly Minta sat down with Alluvial Collective’s executive director Von Gordon to discuss critical race theory. Gordon explained the core definition and historical context of the theory and how its concepts have shaped his personal life. Gordon concluded by giving recommendations for further reading that will help give insights around critical race theory and encouraged all to have meaningful conversations with those around them. Read more on the legislative coverage surrounding critical race theory.
Watch the full conversation:
Editor-at-large Marshall Ramsey took the stage during the conversation to complete a live drawing that referenced a Wheel of Fortune puzzle and Gordon’s thorough answers.
Stay tuned: The next Mississippi in the Know: Legislative Breakfast will be March 24, 2022, featuring Corey Miller, state economist at Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, discussing Medicaid expansion.
Despite all the debate in the Legislature over teacher pay raise bills and which one is the best, they are in reality remarkably similar.
This year, both the House and Senate put forth legislation that would increase salaries for public school teachers. Late on Tuesday, House leaders killed a Senate bill on a crucial deadline day, essentially forcing Senate leaders to pass a House bill to be used as the vehicle to provide Mississippi teachers a pay raise. Though the House bill is the vehicle that survived, either chamber’s plan could ultimately get signed into law.
The House bill costs nearly $220 million per year. The Senate bill costs about $230 million. Both bills provide $2,000 pay raises for teacher assistants.
A key difference is that the House bill is enacted in one year. The Senate proposal is phased in over two years, though, the bulk of the salary increase in the Senate bill is in the first year.
The Senate plan provides teacher assistants a salary increase of $1,000 in the first year and another $1,000 hike in the second year. The House plan provides teacher assistants the full $2,000 increase in the first year.
More than likely, the issue of teacher pay will be decided late in the session where House and Senate leaders meet in a conference committee to work out the differences. But for teachers or anyone else who want to compare what they would make under the House and Senate plans, the two following charts can provide some information. Click on the drop downs to see what teachers of various experience and education levels make under each plan.
Tuesday, March 1, was the deadline for committees in the House and Senate to pass out general law bills that originated in the other chamber — a major “killing deadline” that resulted in hundreds of bills dying with or without a committee vote.
The next major deadline for the Legislature is March 9, for the full chambers to take action on the other chamber’s general bills. Most spending and tax bills face later deadlines than general bills. Although bills might have died, there is a possibility some might be revived by inserting language through the amendment process into bills that remain alive.
The 2022 Mississippi legislative session began Jan. 4 and is scheduled to end on April 3.
Here’s a look at general bills that lived or died with Tuesday night’s deadline:
ALIVE
House Bill 530: Teacher pay raise. After a political game of cat-and-mouse, the House killed the Senate’s teacher pay bill on deadline and the Senate, after much fear and loathing, passed the House bill — amended with its own language — to keep a teacher raise alive. Either version would be the largest teacher pay raise in recent history, at more than $200 million.
HB 770 and SB 2451: Equal pay bills. Both bills survived the March 1 deadline. Mississippi is the last state to not provide state legal recourse for employees paid less for the same work based on sex. However, women’s equal pay groups have criticized both the House and Senate bills as having glaring flaws and called for them to be amended. The Senate also amended the House equal pay bill to keep a proposal to reform divorce laws alive.
SB 2113: Prohibiting teaching of critical race theory. This bill has divided lawmakers along racial and party lines. Supporters say it would prohibit the teaching of critical race theory in kindergarten through 12th grade schools and on the university level. State Department of Education officials have said critical race theory, which strives to explore the impact of racial discrimination on various aspects of society, is not being taught in the public schools. Some say the bill is so vague that it is not clear what the impact of the legislation would be.
HC 39: Reviving the state’s initiative process. This proposal would revive the process where citizens can bypass the legislative process and place issues on the ballot for voters to decide. The legislation is needed because the state Supreme Court ruled the initiative process invalid because of a technicality in May 2021.
HB 606: Creating an outdoor stewardship trust fund. This measure, a source of debate between House and Senate for two years, would create a conservation fund to use state dollars to draw down federal wildlife conservation grants — as many other states do. The Senate opposes the House’s plan to use diversion of sales taxes from sporting goods to fund it, and stripped that language and said the Legislature would fund it each year. Proponents of the measure say such a fund needs a steady stream of revenue.
SB 2164: Creating a standalone Department of Tourism. It would be its own department instead of a division within the Mississippi Development Authority. It would also create the Mississippi Department of Tourism Fund and divert a portion of sales tax revenue collected from restaurants and hotels there instead of to MDA.
SB 2273: Allowing employers to vouch for people on parole, The bill allows employs of people convicted of crimes to provide reports to probation officers to prevent the need for the employee to leave work to report to a probation officer.
HB 1029: Increasing broadband access. This bill provides grants for entities willing to expand broadband in rural areas.
HB 1367: Removing racist language from property deeds. This bill provides property owners an easy, inexpensive way to go to chancery court to remove old language found in property deeds that is no longer enforceable and offensive. Language, for instance, forbidding Black families from owning a piece of property can be found in deeds.
DEAD
SB 2643: Divorce law reform. This measure would have brought Mississippi a step closer to having a unilateral no-fault divorce like most other states. Mississippi’s antiquated divorce laws make getting a divorce difficult and expensive, often allows one spouse to delay a divorce for years and leads to spouses and children being trapped in bad family situations. The bill died in House committee without a vote. But the bill’s author, Sen. Brice Wiggins, said the divorce language was inserted into a House equal pay bill that is still alive.
SB 2634: TANF savings accounts. This bill would have provided matching money to help recipients of welfare benefits create savings accounts, and the savings would not affect their eligibility for TANF benefits. The goal of the program, similar to ones most other states have, is to help recipients become financially stable and get off TANF rolls.
SB 2504: Creating state parks division. This measure would have made a state parks division of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, with its own director. Advocates say the state’s dilapidated, ill-maintained parks have languished under MDWFP for years.
HB 630: Restoring right to vote. This bill would have clarified people whose felony conviction is expunged under existing law would be eligible to vote.
SB 2261: “Buddy’s Law.” This law, named after a dog who barely survived being severely burned and tortured by a 12-year-old in Mississippi. It would require children who torture dogs or cats to receive psychological evaluation, counseling and treatment.
The Sun Belt Conference announced the league’s 2022 football schedule Tuesday. As expected, Southern Miss is prominently featured, playing eight Sun Belt opponents.
But Conference USA released its ’22 football schedule two weeks ago, listing Southern Miss as a conference member playing eight CUSA foes.
Rick Cleveland
Here’s the deal: Will Hall, the Golden Eagles coach, expects to have, as he puts it, “night and day” more talent and depth next season than he had last year. He does not, however, have nearly enough depth to play 16 conference games in two different leagues, often playing two games on the same day in two different stadiums.
Something has to give. It will.
My guess: Southern Miss will play its first game as a new Sun Belt member at Troy on Oct. 8. Louisiana Tech, the team CUSA lists as Southern Miss’s opponent that day, will have to find someone else to play or will have an open date.
All this ultimately will be decided in the courts where Southern Miss – and Marshall and Old Dominion – apparently will have a strong home-court advantage. Marshall, located in Huntingdon, W.V., and Old Dominion, located in Norfolk, Va., are both leaving CUSA for Sun Belt. So it is that CUSA must litigate against the three schools in the courts in those schools’ respective states. Good luck with that.
As one lawyer put it, “That would be my worst nightmare as a litigator.”
Predictably, all three schools already have received favorable temporary restraining orders. All three have another court date scheduled in coming days. If there are no delays, USM’s next court date would be March 7 in Forrest County Circuit Court.
Said Bob Gholson, general counsel for Southern Miss, when asked about the case: “I can’t comment on an ongoing legal matter.”
Jeremy McClain, the school’s athletic director, says he can’t comment for the same reason.
Hall, the football coach, said this: “We’ve always thought we were going to play in the Sun Belt this next season. Look at the schedule and you’ll see why. We are now a part of one of the best, if not the best, group of five conferences in the country. We can’t wait to get started. We’re playing in a league with a bunch of teams in our area, games our fans can get to.”
Hall’s team will open with its four non-conference opponents: hosting Liberty and Hugh Freeze, playing at Miami (Fla.), hosting Northwestern (La.) State, and playing at Tulane. The league schedule includes road games against Troy, Texas State, Coastal Carolina and Louisiana-Monroe. Conference home games will be with Arkansas State, Louisiana, Georgia State and South Alabama.
In the Sun Belt, Southern Miss will fly to two conference football games, at most, a year (probably one in alternate years). That will be a huge savings from the much more spread out CUSA. Those savings will multiply in other sports such as basketball, baseball, softball and other spring sports. Long-time readers of this column know I’ve advocated for this move for years. It just makes sense.
Conference USA bylaws call for departing teams to give 14 months notice. Southern Miss, Marshall and Old Dominion all notified the league office last December (November in Marshall’s case) they would become Sun Belt members on July 1. They did so knowing that by leaving early they would forfeit their share of the conference proceeds for the current school year and the next. (Last year’s share was approximately $1.5 million). So USM will forfeit approximately $3 million for leaving early. CUSA wants the three departing schools to pay further damages.
The league wants those damages assessed and arbitrated in Dallas, where the conference office resides. The three departing schools want to mediate any additional damages in their home states. That’s where it now stands.
Seems to me CUSA is simply putting off the inevitable – and putting its remaining members in a bind as well. Now, if not long before now, is when schools usually make travel arrangements for the coming season.
This much is certain: The sooner Southern Miss can put CUSA in its rearview mirror, the better.
No state has ever eliminated a personal income tax as Mississippi House leaders have proposed. This would be an experiment — a multi-billion dollar bet — that would fundamentally change the way our state funds basic government services. This decision could alter Mississippi lives for generations to come.
Reputable economists and experts can’t seem to agree on what, exactly, this tax cut would do to Mississippi’s economy. No two studies show the same results, giving many Mississippians great pause about whether this idea is fully vetted and understood. Some of the state’s top elected Republicans and Democrats are openly questioning whether Mississippi can afford such a move.
For weeks, we at Mississippi Today have been on the front lines of this critical debate, asking tough but fair questions of the elected officials who are proposing the income tax cut and of the ones who oppose it.
If you haven’t read our thorough coverage, here are some highlights: We’ve covered the varying economic scoring of the tax cut proposals; the battle lines drawn by Republican lawmakers who disagree about how much the state can afford; the growing infighting between House and Senate Republican leaders; the projections that show low-income Mississippians would be on the hook to pay more if the plan passes; and perhaps most importantly, the models that show how the proposals could negatively affect the state’s ability to fund its current government services.
As journalists, we always seek the truth. We provide context and analysis to help Mississippians connect the dots and to better understand why their government leaders are making decisions. We strive to focus our reporting on the effects proposed policies will have on everyday Mississippians who just want a better life for themselves and their children.
It is our job to be the eyes and ears of the public, to ask questions of elected officials on behalf of their constituents — most of whom have no access to ask the questions themselves.
Above all else, we are Mississippians. We care deeply about the future of the state, and it is our responsibility to hold our leaders accountable for their actions. The only agenda we have is to find and tell the Mississippi truth.
Some of our recent reporting has been the target of attacks from partisan media pushing the House income tax elimination plan. This backlash from so-called “news organizations” further highlights the importance of our journalists’ role in asking: Is this tax cut really the right move for Mississippi?
The answer to that question could very well be “yes.” But as lawmakers continue working to answer it, we’ll keep pressing every chance we get as the 2022 legislative session enters its final days.
Mississippi’s rape and sexual battery statutes still contain language right out of the 1800s — about “ravishing” a “female previously of chaste character” — and still provide a spousal defense that can protect those who commit marital rape.
House Bill 1080 would have changed that and brought Mississippi’s laws into the 21st century. But it died without a vote on Tuesday’s deadline for the Senate to pass it out of committee.
“There are a handful of states that still have a spousal defense on the books, even though basically it’s illegal to rape anyone,” said Rep. Dana McLean, R-Columbus, author of the bill. “… It’s a shame that sometimes in Mississippi, we seem to be the last state in the Union to actually make something right.”
The bill would have clarified the definition and elements of rape and sexual assault, replacing passages such as “assault with the intent to forcibly ravish a female of previously chaste character.”
The bill passed the House by a vote of 119-1, with only Rep. Omeria Scott, D-Laurel, voting against it. But McLean said, “I got word that the leadership over in the Senate had a problem with removing the spousal defense for rape. It’s disheartening, very disheartening.”
Senate Judiciary B Chairman Joey Fillingane said he agreed with the bill’s intent — he even authored a similar one — but he said there were numerous bills in both chambers this session aimed at changing rape and assault laws.
“Any time there’s that many, that means it’s probably time to have hearings out of session and make some sweeping changes instead of with nine different bills,” Fillingane said. As for opposition to removing the spousal defense, Fillingane said, “That might have been a concern of some people, but that was not the overarching concern … I think people believe this is archaic language that doesn’t fit with 2022, and I agree with that.”
Fillingane said Mississippi’s legal code in general probably still has a lot of antiquated language that should be removed and rewritten.
The bill that died Tuesday would have deleted language in the law that said a person would not be guilty of rape or sexual battery if the alleged victim was the defendant’s legal spouse at the time of the offense and the couple is not separated and living apart. It would also change law that said a legal spouse may be found guilty of sexual battery if the spouse engaged in forcible penetration without the consent of the alleged victim.
“What about if a spouse was passed out, or drunk or on drugs?” McLean said. “Should that be OK, because she was not fighting him, or because she passed out?”
McLean said there were references to “a female” in the law that her bill changed to say person, “because men can be raped, too.” She said it also removed language such as, “It shall be presumed that the female was previously of chaste character and the burden of proof is on a defendant to prove she was not of chaste character.”
Although since the early 1990s every state recognizes marital rape as a crime, some including Mississippi still have laws on the books that either provide protection for the perpetrator or lesser penalties.
McLean said she believes a lot of prosecutors use the state’s sexual battery laws instead of the rape statute with harsher penalties because the latter’s language is so antiquated.
This measure, authored by Sen. Brice Wiggins, was the latest in a long-running, usually unsuccessful effort to update the state’s antiquated, misogynistic divorce laws that often trap spouses and children in bad, sometimes abusive and dangerous family situations.
Mississippi and South Dakota remain the only two states without a unilateral no-fault divorce ground. Mississippi’s divorce ground of “irreconcilable differences” requires mutual consent of spouses. This frequently makes getting a divorce in Mississippi difficult and expensive, and it often allows one spouse to delay a divorce for years, sometimes many years.
The bill passed the full Senate, but died in the House Judiciary A committee without a vote.
House leaders, for the second consecutive year on a key deadline day, killed a Senate bill, essentially forcing Senate leaders to pass a House bill to be used as the vehicle to provide Mississippi teachers a pay raise.
Leaders from both chambers argued their bill should be used for the pay raise.
For much of Tuesday, the final day to pass general bills from the other chamber out of committee, leadership from the two chambers played chicken on who would blink first and take the other chamber’s teacher pay bill.
“We have two Senate (teacher pay bills) in the House,” said Senate Education Chair Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, who held a series of meetings throughout the state last year on the issue of teacher pay. “It is the Senate’s No. 1 priority.”
Late Tuesday afternoon after passing the House bill to ensure a teacher pay raise remained alive during the 2022 session DeBar said, “The bottom line is the teachers are the winners here today. The way politics is played up here only lessens our ability to attract teachers … We need to resolve this issue and get on to other things.”
But House Education Chair Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach, countered: “Our priority was a teacher pay raise – it was our first bill — and their priority was medical marijuana as their first bill.
“It was our first bill we passed and sent to them early and quite frankly it should already be on the governor’s desk.”
After the House adjourned for the day without calling committee meetings to take up the Senate bill, the Senate leaders, instead of letting the all the teacher pay proposals die, opted to take up the House bill. Still, the Senate placed its language in the House bill.
In the end, nobody outside of the ornate Mississippi Capitol cares much whether the bill that will provide the largest pay increase for teachers since the early 2000s is a House bill or a Senate bill. Still, the song and dance routine illustrates the current level of divisiveness as leaders stare down each other over whether the Senate will take up Speaker Philip Gunn’s massive tax cut that will phase out roughly one third of the general fund revenue in the coming years.
A similar song and dance occurred last session when the House leaders killed a Senate pay raise bill, forcing the Senate to take up the House bill. The 2021 legislation provided teachers roughly a $1,000 per year raise.
In 2021 it was obvious to many that the House was trying to use the teacher pay plan as leverage to ensure the passage of Gunn’s tax cut proposal.
On whether he believes this year’s standoff was because of the income tax cut, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, said, “You have to ask the House about that.”
Hosemann continued “Sen. DeBar reached out to the House, and I reached out to the House on this, and they adjourned and went home. Sen. DeBar showed excellent leadership in making sure that teachers don’t become pawns in some other game … He has shown the patience of Job.”
But Gunn said the House wanted it proposal passed because, “our bill is better on a number of factors.” He said it provides a bigger, more immediate raise.
The House plan would increase starting teacher pay from $37,000 a year to $43,125. This would put Mississippi above both the Southeastern average of $39,754 and the national average of $41,163. The Senate plan would increase starting pay to $40,000, but also would provide substantial increases at five-year intervals throughout a teacher’s career.
Both plans would cost about $220 million annually, though, the House plan would be enacted in one year while the Senate proposal would be phased in over two years. The Senate’s plan includes a year-two, $44 million across-the-board increase of $1,000 per teacher. The House plan includes a $2,000 increase for teacher assistants, who are not included in the original Senate plan.
“I’m not willing to pass a bill – when we’ve told teachers wait until next year, wait until next year – where there’s millions held back that they don’t get until the second year, an election year,” Bennett said. “… Teachers need all the money this year. We have the money and they don’t need to wait on it.”
Bennett added: “The way (the Senate’s) scale worked, we wouldn’t get to the Southeastern average or to the national average. With the House bill, we do.”
Both plans would “restructure” the teacher salary ladder that determines pay for teachers at various levels of experience and training. The House plan would provide more immediate increases ranging from $4,000 to $6,000. The Senate plan after two years would provide an average increase of $4,700, but would provide for larger bumps in pay at each five-year interval in a teacher’s career. On Tuesday, the Senate also added language providing for a $2,000 raise over two years for teacher assistants.
Mississippi’s teacher pay by several metrics is the lowest in the nation. Mississippi public education advocates spent much of Tuesday monitoring the game of one upmanship played by House and Senate leaders.
“We are certainly encourage by senators standing up and being leaders for the state,” Antonio Castanon Luna, executive director of the Mississippi Association of Educators, which membership he said includes 10% of the state’s classroom teachers. He said the pay raise will help teachers battle inflation and be able to remain in the classroom.
And the end of the day, he conceded it did not matter whether the pay raise was a Senate or House bill.
“To us it is about students having quality teachers,” he said.
Kelly Riley, executive director of the Mississippi Professional Educators, said, ““We were very frustrated today with the House letting the Senate’s two pay raise bills die. We are very appreciative of the statesmanship and leadership of the Senate. Today’s actions by the Senate, and the lack thereof by the House have sent a clear message to the state’s educators as to who truly prioritizes our state’s teachers and children.”
More than likely the final teacher pay plan will be hammered out by legislative leaders during the final days of the session and will include elements of the plans offered by both the Senate and House. But the final plan will be a House bill instead of a Senate bill.
That is important to some in the Capitol, but the end result for teachers is whether they receive a pay raise. And at the end of a chaotic Tuesday, their pay raise was still on track in the 2022 legislative session.
A bill titled “Critical race theory; prohibit” passed the House Universities and Colleges Committee Monday along racial lines with all African American representatives opposing the measure and all white House members supporting it.
Senate Bill 2113 passed 14-9 with no changes from how it passed the Senate earlier this session. All those who voted in favor of the bill were Republican. If it passes the House in the coming days with no changes, it will go straight to Gov. Tate Reeves for his signature.
“Why do we bring this egregious bill up when we all get along?” asked Rep. Greg Holloway, D-Hazlehurst. “We are all trying to work together.”
Instead of debating an issue that no one can identify as a problem in Mississippi, Holloway said, legislators could be working to solve issues actually impacting the state.
Both Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn have been vocal opponents of critical race theory, though, they have not been able to identify any instances of the college-level academic framework being taught in kindergarten through 12th grade schools.
Based on the discussion in the House Universities and Colleges Committee Monday, debate also will be contentious when the issue is brought up in the coming days on the House floor.
Critical race theory has been depicted by conservative media outlets and many Republican politicians as an effort in the public schools and universities to teach discrimination and to divide students by race. Supporters of critical race theory, which is generally taught as a college level class, say it is designed to address issues of institutional racism that still exists in society.
The text of the bill, as Rep. Joey Hood, R-Ackerman, who presented the bill to the committee pointed out, simply said no university, community college or public school “shall direct or compel students to affirm that any sex, race, ethnicity, religion or national origin is inherently superior or that individuals should be adversely treated based on such characteristics.”
But tying the bill to critical race theory is seen by many as an attempt to appease those who oppose discussions of past and current racial shortcomings of the state and nation. The governor has proposed providing funds to schools willing to teach “patriotic” history classes. The Legislature has balked at that recommendation.
Rep. Cheikh Taylor, D-Starkville, said “Critical race theory is…nothing to do with finger pointing or shaming. It has everything to do with searching out institutional racism” and trying to address it.
Rep. Lataisha Jackson, D-Como, questioned whether teachers might be afraid to broach the issue of racism because of the bill. Jackson said she fears, based on the bill, someone might try to penalize African American teachers who tried to address such subjects in their classroom.
While the title of the bill says the teaching of critical race theory is prohibited, Hood conceded that nowhere in the bill is critical race theory defined.
Taylor asked if he could offer an amendment to take out any reference to critical race theory in the legislation. Rep. Donnie Scoggin, Ellisville, who presided over the contentious hearing as vice chair of the committee, told Taylor he would “recommend” that no amendments be offered.
Scoggin said he made the recommendation to prevent additional “arguments” about the bill in the committee hearing.
“They can argue on the floor,” he said.
Taylor said the amendment would be offered on the floor.
Hood could not identify any critical race theory classes being taught in the public schools. When asked by legislators, he said more than once, “I will get back to you.”
Tuesday was the deadline to pass the bill out of committee. Gunn did not assign the bill to the Universities and Colleges Committee until late last week. Most other bills were assigned by the speaker much earlier in the process.
Most familiar with the legislative process assumed Gunn would assign the bill to the Education Committee.
Have questions about critical race theory? Join the conversation this Thursday:
