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In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey talks to Neil Woodall, Jr. about his recovery from opioid pain pills.

Woodall had the world going his way. A successful student athlete at Millsaps college, little did he know how his life would change due to a freak hunting accident. Shot in the face and chest, Woodall dealt with a painful recovery. Part of the recovery involved opioid pain pills. After his recovery and healing, he discovered that the pills also helped mute a deeper pain he was experiencing — fear and lack of self esteem. Soon the substance that helped ease his pain began causing it. Woodall shares his motivational journey — from his fall to his triumphant recovery and a new life based on his faith.

Watch Marshall’s previous interview with John.

The post Mississippi Stories: Neil Woodall, Jr. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

People reading controversial Senate Bill 2113, which all 54 African American members of the Mississippi Legislature voted against, will not find the money phrase banning critical race theory until the very bottom of the final page of the bill.

In nondescript type, running along the bottom of the page is “ST: Critical Race Theory: prohibit.” That is the only mention of CRT.

The phrase cannot be found in the summary at the top of the legislation. It is not in the text of the three-page bill.

Because of the unusual way in which the legislation was crafted, there is a real chance that the phrase “Critical Race Theory: prohibit” will not be placed in Mississippi’s legal code. Or put another way, there is a possibility that the teaching of critical race theory will not be banned at all even after Gov. Tate Reeves does what is expected and signs the bill into law.

“You can teach critical race theory because it is not in the text of this bill,” proclaimed Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, the House minority leader, who is also an attorney.

READ MORE: Despite objection from every Black Mississippi lawmaker, anti-critical race theory bill passed to governor

Each year the publisher of Mississippi’s code (or laws) includes new laws passed by the Legislature. That updating process is far from exact. There is a joint legislative committee that oversees the code, but the members seldom meet, normally leaving the work of crafting the updates to the editors and legal staff.

Perhaps the editors will seek out the short title — “Critical Race Theory: prohibit” — and incorporate those words in the code. But based on precedent, there is a good chance they will not.

Incorporated into the code might just be what the bill actually says, which is 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.”

Supporters of critical race theory say that is not what critical race theory does. Instead, CRT explores the impact of racism on the nation, especially on the legal system.

Rep. Joey Hood, R-Ackerman, who presented the bill last week to the House during more than six hours of sometimes emotional debate that exposed old and current racial wounds, said that the teaching of critical race theory would be prohibited if the teaching adhered to the tenets spelled out in the bill of making someone feel inferior or superior.

When asked if the only critical race theory class in the state at the University of Mississippi Law School would have to be canceled if the bill became law, Hood said, “That will be up to Ole Miss.”

The presenters of the bill in both the House and Senate left more questions unanswered than answered during debate.

Sen. Michael McLendon, R-Hernando, the primary author of the legislation, said he heard from many of his constituents who had learned of critical race theory “on the national news” and wanted to ensure it would not be taught in Mississippi.

So if the bill does so little or at the least is exceedingly vague, why did Black House members spend such an inordinate amount of time trying to kill it last week? Why did all 14 African American senators walk out in an unprecedented move before the vote on the bill earlier this session?

READ MORE: Every Black Mississippi senator walked out as white colleagues voted to ban critical race theory

Black legislators argued the bill sent the wrong message, perhaps even causing teachers to be hesitant to teach the state’s history that is ripe with racial strife. When Black members tried to amend the bill to ensure the continued teaching of the state’s history, including all its warts, the white majority blocked those efforts.

Perhaps the more appropriate question is why did legislative leaders spend so much time and energy passing such a vague bill that might not accomplish the stated goal?

Some say it is politics. Anti-CRT sentiment has been a big talking point in the conservative media.

Both House Speaker Philip Gunn and Reeves, who could be squaring off next year in a Republican gubernatorial primary, spoke of the evils of critical race theory last year during the Neshoba County Fair.

“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.

While it might be questionable whether the critical race theory ban will be in the legal code, the language still could be found on the screens in the House and Senate as the proposal was debated. The language also was on the legislative calendar and in the legislative computer system.

So legislators could say they were voting to ban critical race theory even if the state’s legal code never reflects that vote.

READ MORE: Inside Mississippi’s only class on critical race theory

The post Lawmakers spent hours on a bill to ban critical race theory. But does it? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Starbucks employees in Oxford want to unionize, writing in a letter to the company they’re not only overworked but dealing with homophobia, transphobia and racism at the workplace. 

Ten employees from the store on Jackson Avenue signed the letter, addressed to CEO Kevin Johnson, on Thursday. Starbucks Workers United posted a copy of the letter to social media on Friday. 

“Since COVID-19, this store has suffered ordeal after ordeal, from inconsistent management to understaffed shifts working well beyond what they are compensated for,” the Oxford workers wrote. “Starbucks claims to protect and value its baristas first but we have yet to feel this in our daily efforts.” 

This is the first location in Mississippi to announce plans to organize. More than 100 stores nationwide have petitioned to hold elections of their own. 

Buffalo Starbucks workers first began their union campaign — eventually voting in favor of a union — in 2021. The growing movement has been a major challenge to the Seattle-based chain, which has said its workers are given some of the best pay and benefits in the retail industry.

The Mississippi location’s letter detailed issues beyond understaffed and uncompensated work. It also said employees have had to “endure homophobia, racism and transphobia on a near-daily basis” from both customers and management. The employees also say they have received no updates regarding an internal investigation of their current manager. 

“We feel as though the company is not fulfilling its promises of inclusivity and support,” the letter said. 

A Starbucks spokesperson told Mississippi Today the chain takes the allegations made in the letter seriously and denounce discrimination of any kind.

“We are listening and learning from the partners in these stores,” the spokesperson said, referring the dozens of ongoing union campaigns.

Starbucks has said repeatedly throughout the last year that while it does not think its workers need unions, it respects their right to organize.

One of the chain’s early union leaders has a direct tie to Mississippi. Jaz Brisack, a University of Mississippi graduate and Rhodes scholar, is credited with beginning union talks among her Starbucks coworkers in Buffalo. She moved to Western New York to work on union campaigns with an organizer she met while helping with the failed attempt unionize the Nissan plant in Canton.

The momentum has continued since the campaign began in Buffalo.  A store in Arizona became the third Starbucks in the United States to win a union vote just three weeks ago. 

Mississippi is a right-to-work state, meaning workers are not required pay dues or join an established union. While uncommon, workers in Mississippi can still unionize.

The National Labor Review Board will hold an election if at least 30% of workers sign cards or a petition saying they want a union. If a majority of those who vote choose to unionize, the union is certified and can bargain on behalf of the employees.

“Change can happen,” Starbucks United Workers of Oxford posted as their first-ever tweet. “Even in MS, progress takes form. This is just the beginning.” 

The post Mississippi Starbucks workers want a union in Oxford appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Japanese car manufacturer Nissan announced last month it will spend half a billion dollars to upgrade its facility and workforce at its Canton plant, with the goal of building two new all-electric models by 2025.

“For nearly two decades, Mississippians have kept our state at the forefront of the world’s automotive industry,” Gov. Tate Reeves said. “The announcement that Nissan Canton is shifting some production to EVs (electric vehicles) further positions Mississippi as a leader in this crucial economic sector.”

But it’s less likely Mississippians will be driving those cars compared to drivers in the rest of the country. Mississippi has, per capita, the lowest number of electric cars registered of any state, according to U.S. Census and Department of Energy data. 

Policymakers and businesses around the U.S. are trying to jolt the electric car industry, with the hopes of emitting less carbon into an already warming atmosphere. The transportation sector accounts for the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions in the country — about 30%, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. 

In Mississippi, one of a few states that doesn’t require emissions testing for vehicles, only about 3 out of every 10,000 people own an electric vehicle. For the country as a whole, there were about 1.8 million EVs registered in 2020, or about 55 per 10,000 people. 

The state’s charging supply is also low compared to the rest of the country, ranking second to last, ahead of only Louisiana, in electric charging ports per capita. 

New federal dollars coming to the state will soon change that. Mississippi is set to receive $50 million from the Infrastructure Bill that would pay for charging stations and establishing corridors across the state for electric car drivers to use. The state has until August to submit a spending plan, according to a spokesperson from the Mississippi Department of Transportation, after which it can receive the money. 

While electric cars are getting cheaper, they’re still about $10,000 more than the average car. The federal government offers a tax credit worth up to $7,500 for EV purchases. 

Thirty-one states offer incentives, such as a tax credit or rebate, for purchasing an EV. Mississippi doesn’t have such a program, although the state’s largest power company, Entergy MS, does offer a $250 rebate for customers who buy a charger, which costs about $2,000.     

Other than that rebate, the state hasn’t done much to encourage drivers to make the switch. In 2018, the Legislature passed a bill that charges electric car owners to pay an $150 annual fee, and $75 if they own a hybrid, although the fees have increased since with inflation. 

While some electric car owners and advocates in the state scoffed at the law when it went into effect, most of the country has a similar policy.

Rep. Charles Busby, R-Pascagoula, who wrote the bill, argued that the fees are fair because the state relies on gas taxes to pay for roads and bridges. 

“If they’re going to travel on those roads and bridges they need to make a contribution,” said Busby, who chairs the House Transportation Committee. 

Busby added that he didn’t see a need yet to give customers an incentive for buying EVs, and that the market should dictate what cars people buy.

“Obviously if we transition towards electric vehicles, I want that to be supported in the state of Mississippi,” Busby said. “So I am for that, but I don’t think that we ought to be in the business of promoting one over the other. It needs to compete on the free market by itself.”

Failed attempts to encourage EVs in the state include a bill last year that would have given up to $30 million in tax credits for businesses that build charging stations, as well as several attempts to repeal the 2018 annual fee. 

In addition to the $500 million Nissan is investing in the operation, the Mississippi Development Authority is also spending $50 million through grants on the project, an agency spokesperson told Mississippi Today. 

The money will go towards building improvements, installing new equipment, and upskilling 2,000 of the 5,000 workers at the plant. 

Mississippi Today reporter Sara DiNatale contributed to this story. 

The post Nissan will build new electric vehicles in Mississippi, the state where they’re the least popular to own appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Here’s the deal where Mississippi’s high school state basketball championships are concerned: Any sports writer worth a flip can walk into the coliseum, tear a page from his notebook, fold it into a paper airplane, sail it any direction, and wherever it lands, he or she can find a fascinating story.

Thursday afternoon, if that paper airplane landed at the feet of Cliff Little, the head coach of both the Biggersville High School Lions boys and girls basketball teams, the writer had a potential novel — or at least one heck of a screenplay.

First things first: Tiny Biggersville is located in Alcorn County, Hill Country, in the northeast corner of the state. Biggersville, named for its founder and not its size, is one of the smallest communities represented at Mississippi Coliseum. The town is not even populated enough to have its own ZIP code. But, boy oh boy (and girls), those Lions can ever more play basketball.

Before nightfall Thursday, Biggersville had won two state championships over a period of four hours. The Lions’ basketball-mad fans will take two shiny, gold ball trophies over a ZIP code and a stoplight any day.

First, the Biggersville girls erased an 11-point third quarter deficit to McEvans High of Shaw and won a thrilling, 56-53 victory for the Class 1A state championship. Then, after an abbreviated celebration with his girls and a short but emotional post-championship interview, a sweat-drenched, teary-eyed Little returned to the floor to coach his boys to a hard-fought 45-37 victory over H.W. Byers High of Holly Springs.

Hard to say whose celebration was wilder, the girls or the boys. I’m going to give a slight edge to the girls, probably because this was Biggersville’s first-ever girls state championship. Little’s boys have now won three in the last 10 years and Thursday made two straight. Believe this: At least 400 or so fans made the nearly four-hour drive to Jackson, and they commenced to scream themselves hoarse. And then they screamed more.

Someone asked Dylan Rousey, one of the boys team’s standouts, how many people were left in Biggersville Thursday. He thought for a couple seconds, smiled and answered, “I’m guessing nobody.”

That’s the way it goes in this tournament where, annually, dreams are lived and dashed in equal measure. When this week has ended, there will have been 36 games played, 24 in the semifinals and 12 championship games, nearly all the sports equivalents of a passion play — so much ecstasy and so much agony.

Little, the 43-year-old Biggersville coach, knows this tournament well. An Alcorn County native, he has been been coming to the state tournament every year since the age of 5. Both of his parents played ball. So did he. “I love basketball,” he said. “And what I love most is this tournament. It just matters so much.”

This guy can coach. His teams play sound, disciplined basketball. And they play as if they are playing for their mothers’ lives. Said Rousey, “In my mind, he’s the best coach in the state. He has to be to coach two teams at once and then to win win like he does. I don’t know how he does all he does. I’m just glad he does.”

Little will tell you he can do it because he has a lot of help and support. He has two assistant coaches. One is Tracy Stafford, his right-hand man. The other is Jana Little, his wife. And, boy, is there a story there.

Cliff and Jana Little met when he was coaching as an assistant at East Webster High in Maben. She was the scorekeeper. They dated, then married and then she became pregnant. In late February of 2007 East Webster’s girls won North State to qualify for the state tournament. Meanwhile, Jana, two months from her due date, was diagnosed with toxemia (pregnancy-induced hypertension).

“This could be really serious,” a doctor told them.

The Littles stayed behind while East Webster went and won the state semifinal game. On March 3, 2007, Jana gave birth to a one-pound, 15-ounce girl. They named her Lainey Jackson Little. Jackson? That’s where they had planned to be that night. That’s the place they loved to go every March. They called her Lainey Jack.

“You should have seen her,” Cliff Little said. “She would have fit in the palm of my hand.”

The prognosis was grim. Doctors said it could go either way. Lainey Jack spent the first six weeks of her life in the hospital.

Did we say this tournament is all about agony and ecstasy? Cliff Little knows both sides. The only time Cliff left the hospital during that six-week stay was for East Webster’s championship loss. Now, that’s agony. A year later, in 2008, the first basketball game Lainey Jack ever attended was when her daddy’s East Webster boys team beat Durant for the state championship. Now, that’s ecstasy.

Skip ahead four years to 2012, when Cliff Little coached the Biggersville girls to the state championship game with five-year old Lainey Jack seated nearby on the bench. Biggersville lost to Coldwater that day, a defeat Cliff was able to better put into perspective when his daughter skipped up and hugged his leg during his postgame interview.

Back to the present: Thursday presented the Little family with a double dose of ecstasy. And here’s what made it even better. Down the bench from Cliff and Jana Little, sat Lainey Jackson Little, now an eighth grader already playing for the Biggersville varsity. She didn’t play Thursday but she did play in the Lions’ semifinal victory. And she has four more years.

A reporter asked Cliff Little what it meant to share such a remarkable moment with both his wife and his daughter beside him.

Little began to answer and then he couldn’t. His voice shook. His eyes moistened. He didn’t need to finish.

We already knew.

And, besides, he had another game to coach — another championship to win.

The post Biggersville wins a double dose of Nirvana — and two gold balls appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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The easiest problem to solve politically is the one that doesn’t exist. But it does motivate the base.

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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.

READ MORE: Every Black Mississippi senator walked out as white colleagues voted to ban critical race theory

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.

READ MORE: Critical race theory in Mississippi, explained

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 dozens of 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.

VIDEO: What you need to know about critical race theory in Mississippi

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.

READ MORE: Inside Mississippi’s only class on critical race theory

The post Despite objection from every Black Mississippi lawmaker, anti-critical race theory bill passed to governor appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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.”

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.

Over the next few years, baby boomers will age and hundreds of thousands of nurses — more than half of RNs nationally are 50 or older — will retire. 

“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.

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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.

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The post WATCH: Alluvial Collective’s Von Gordon discusses critical race theory appeared first on Mississippi Today.