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In the year after a State Auditor’s investigation forced Mississippi’s former welfare director to retire due to massive alleged misspending and theft, the state spent the lowest amount welfare dollars in the program’s history.

The effect was that fewer dollars flew out the door unchecked, but also that fewer people in the poorest state in the nation received the aid during a particularly difficult year.

Prior to three years ago, low-income child advocacy groups had reamed the state for not using all of its federal welfare funding; in turn, the welfare agency started shelling out cash. In 2020, as the scandal unfolded, the agency accumulated an “unobligated” balance of nearly $50 million, back up to where it was when the agency was catching so much flack for leaving funds unspent.

From October 2019 to September 2020, half of which was during a global pandemic and economic recession, the state spent $77 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) grant funds compared to $135 million just two years earlier.

New federal data shows the state in 2020 spent less than 5%, about $3.7 million, on direct cash assistance to poor families, what people generally think of when they hear “welfare.” Nationally, that number is 22%. This low spending on direct assistance is typical for Mississippi’s program. However, a recent legislative increase to the cash assistance benefit amount should result in a uptick in this spending in 2021. The data reflecting this year won’t be released until 2022.

The departure in expenditures for 2020 follows three years of allegedly reckless spending, where millions of welfare dollars went to celebrity athletes, rents on buildings that sat empty, Christian rock concerts, legislative lobbying, luxury rehab stints and more. Following the arrest of former agency director John Davis, retired WWE wrestler Brett DiBiase, nonprofit founder Nancy New, her son Zach New, and two other employees, the agency promised to clean up the program and institute tighter controls on its subgrantees.

The $77 million spent in 2020 includes around $18 million that Mississippi spends in state dollars every year for college scholarships, many of which go to students from middle class families, that it records as welfare spending for the purpose of meeting its federal match. It also includes almost $8.5 million in federal aid the state spends on administration and $22 million that the state transfers to Child Protection Services to supplement the budget of the state’s foster care system.

This means less than a third of welfare spending in 2020 went to dedicated services for families in poverty: cash assistance ($3.7 million), work supports like transportation ($5.7 million) and Fatherhood and Two-Parent Family Formation and Maintenance Programs ($15.4 million).

The state did not transfer any funds in 2020 to the Child Care Development Fund, which provides child care vouchers to working families and, due to funding shortfalls, serves only a fraction of children in need each year. In some past years, the state has transferred the maximum of 30% of its TANF grant to child care.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families released the new data in October.

Mississippi receives $86 million through the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant each year to assist very poor residents or prevent families from falling into poverty. The state must provide a state match of around $22 million. In 2020, Mississippi spent just 64% of its federal funding.

Every year, the state issues a portion of its funding as TANF subgrants to private organizations, such as local planning and development districts, the Boys & Girls Club, or international humanitarian organization Save the Children, to offer services to families, such as workforce development, parenting classes or after school programs. The new federal data suggests the department primarily codes these expenditures under the “fatherhood” category. For more than 20 years, the state has called some of these TANF subgrants, which went to many small organizations across the state, “Families First grants.”

Prior to Davis’ administration, the state had not been spending all of its grant funds each year, leaving millions unspent despite great need across the state. Advocates for affordable child care for low-income families frequently lambasted the state for failing to spend down its welfare dollars in ways that best serve the state’s struggling residents. By 2016, the state had accumulated $47 million in unspent welfare dollars.

The state recognized it had money to blow.

The department opened itself up to trouble in 2017 when it chose to subgrant with just two nonprofits to run the statewide “Families First for Mississippi,” and it began sending up-front, multi-million payments to the private organizations. The agency selected Nancy New’s nonprofit without a competitive bid process to run the program in the southern half of the state. She called her organization a “flow-through” in an interview with Mississippi Today in 2018, and said most of the money was going to its “partners,” but the money did not flow to many legitimate organizations, audit reports revealed.

Instead, millions went to her own private businesses and the pet projects of political allies and celebrities, auditors found. That year, the state spent $135 million. The initiative ceased once auditors uncovered the scandal.

By the end of fiscal year 2020, the state’s unspent balance of welfare dollars was back up to $47 million, where it was before the Families First debacle.

Federal spending data for government programs typically publishes at least a year after the fact. As for 2021, Mississippi Today requested every TANF subgrant agreement the agency has signed in the last year, which may be viewed here.

The post Mississippi spent lowest welfare total ever in 2020, one year after massive scandal appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Taylor Defense Products in Louisville has won a $261.7 million competitive bid contract to build cranes for the U.S. Army.

The contract work is expected to extend through November of 2024 to produce commercial cranes modified for military use, said U.S. Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, who announced the contract award on Tuesday.

Taylor Defense is part of Mississippi based The Taylor Group, which owns several manufacturing companies. The company dates back to 1927 with the creation of Taylor Machine Works in Louisville. Taylor employs about 1,200 employees and has annual sales of $550 million. The Taylor Group is one of the largest heavy lift manufacturers in the United States.

Taylor Defense in May was awarded a $1.27 million contract to develop a modernized rough terrain container handler for the Army and in June 2019 was selected by the Marine Corps for an $84 million, 10-year contract to repair and maintain all-terrain cranes.

In a statement, Hyde-Smith said: “I commend Taylor on its successful bid, which will benefit our national defense and our state’s economy.”

The post Mississippi company wins $262 million Army contract appeared first on Mississippi Today.

When Brandon Elementary School Principal Vallerie Lacey’s son was in the third grade, something happened that changed her as both a parent and an educator.

That change would play a huge role in why Brandon Elementary was recognized as a national Blue Ribbon school for closing the achievement gap between groups of children who historically underperform their peers. 

The U.S. Department of Education’s National Blue Ribbon Schools Program recognizes extraordinary schools in two separate categories: overall academic excellence and progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups. This year, 325 schools received the honor nationwide. Brandon Elementary School in Rankin County School District, along with Woolmarket Elementary School in Harrison County School District, received the distinction for having the highest rates of closing achievement gaps among their students over a three-year period. 

East Hancock Elementary School in Hancock County School District and Della Davidson Elementary School in the Oxford School District were recognized for their students’ overall academic performance.

The achievement gap is calculated by comparing the proficiency levels of certain reference groups (students who are white, do not have disabilities, are not economically disadvantaged and speak English as their first language) on state tests with other groups, including English learners, students with disabilities, and African-American and Hispanic students.

What this school has done is no small feat — statewide, the gaps between all but one of these subgroups have widened over time. At Brandon Elementary School, the proficiency gap between economically disadvantaged students and their more affluent peers decreased in both English Language Arts and mathematics from 2017 compared to 2019. The gap also decreased in both subjects between students with disabilities and those without disabilities, in addition to Black students compared to white students.

There was around a 30% gap in proficiency in both mathematics and English Language Arts between Black and white students in 2019. There are also similarly wide gaps between economically disadvantaged students and their more affluent peers in both math and English, in addition to students with disabilities and those without. 

These gaps only widened in the spring of 2021 as a result of the pandemic. 

Lacey attributes these gaps closing at Brandon Elementary as a direct outcome of her vision and mission: inclusion. In education lingo that refers mostly to students with disabilities, but she and the staff at Brandon apply it to everything.

When Lacey was an assistant principal at Florence Elementary, her son also attended school there. 

“When he was in third grade, a team of educators came and sat me down and told me my baby was autistic,” she remembered. “It was the first time I’d ever heard it, and it completely changed my life in that moment as an educator and as a parent.” 

He was given a special education ruling and received an individualized education plan (IEP), or a written document that includes annual goals, special services, any needed testing modifications and how the student’s progress will be measured, among other items. He was routinely removed from his general classrooms to receive services from a special education teacher.

Until one of his teachers came to Lacey with a concern. 

“She said, ‘When he gets pulled out of the classroom, he’s missing instruction. I need him not to be pulled out of my classroom,’” Lacey recalled. She went to his special education teacher and they made some adjustments to his plan. 

“That was the only year of my son’s whole academic career that he was not minimal on state achievement tests … all because there was a teacher caring enough about my kid to say, ‘Don’t let him be pulled out of the room,’” she said. “It changed my whole mindset.” 

Since then, Lacey has emphasized inclusion in every sense of the word. It’s what she was determined to instill in the culture when she came to Brandon Elementary in 2018. 

Whenever someone has an idea for a club or an event, her first question is always the same: Is it inclusive or exclusive?

The term “inclusion” even applies to the way the teachers teach. Special education teachers work alongside other teachers in the classroom, similar to co-teaching. The teachers say students don’t view them as general and special education teachers, and they will often alternate teaching lessons to the whole class.

“It’s really easy when you have a student who comes in with an IEP … to look at that label and say ‘Oh, they’re not going to be able to do what everybody else can do,’” said Jeremy Cooper, a fifth grade special education inclusion teacher. “Whereas we start with trying to get them to do what everybody else is doing first. We hold them up to a standard of rigor and of excellence because we want just as much for them as we want for our other students.”

She and the other teachers also make a concerted effort to know every individual child — both academically and personally.

Despite the fact there are around 800 students who attend the school, she and a team of teachers, guidance counselors and an interventionist meet monthly to discuss every individual student in depth. If the student is not growing, Lacey and other teachers say, the conclusion is not that the student can’t. The conclusion is they need to try something different to help the child grow.

And they know more about the students than just their academics. 

“I can tell you what kind of car people drive because I stand outside every morning and wave goodbye every afternoon. If I don’t do anything else, I’m intentional about saying good morning and goodbye every single day, rain, snow, sleet or shine,” she said. “I do it because you can tell a lot about how a child comes in, how they get out of the car, their body language.” 

Susie Dill, an interventionist for the school who helps identify students who may need special services, echoed Lacey. She said teachers make an effort to know everything they can about each student who walks in the doors.

And recognizing the importance for students to have teachers they can relate to outside of academics, Lacey prioritizes diversity when recruiting and hiring teachers. 

Students who may be struggling with issues at home often have weekly check-ins with teachers to whom they can relate. It’s part of a larger school and district-wide initiative to focus on the social and emotional aspects of a student’s well-being, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when students’ lives have been disrupted, they or their caregivers have gotten sick or, even died.

“As a result of COVID-19, we have had to take an even deeper look at students’ social and emotional health … We are more intentional than ever with incorporating social and emotional health into our target zone,” said Lacey, who mentioned the school, along with the district, is reading Jimmy Casas’ “Culturize,” a book about instilling values such as kindness, honesty and compassion in students while challenging them academically.

“While we are still very committed to continuing our charge in closing achievement gaps … we are more intentional than ever with incorporating social and emotional health into our target zone,” said Lacey.

The post Brandon Elementary was recognized nationally as an extraordinary school. Here’s why. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The state would be better off expanding Medicaid even if the federal Build Back Better bill that would provide health care coverage for poor Mississippians becomes law, a diverse group of health care advocates claim.

Among the provisions in the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better legislation, which passed the U.S. House last week and faces a close Senate vote in coming days, is “workaround” language to provide health care coverage to primarily the working poor in the 12 states, including Mississippi, that have not expanded Medicaid.

But groups like the Mississippi Hospital Association and the Mississippi Center for Justice still maintain that it would be to the state’s financial advantage to expand Medicaid. A provision of the Build Back Better bill increases the federal match from 90% to 92% for the existing Medicaid program, meaning Mississippi could stand to gain hundreds of millions more in federal funds if the state’s leaders chose to expand.

“Build Back Better is not a panacea,” said Vangela M. Wade, president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Justice. “The provisions that close the coverage gap are only temporary. Yes, it is a victory for working Mississippians, but it is a fleeting one. Mississippi’s legislators must enact Medicaid expansion at the state level.”

Wade continued: “For hold-out states like Mississippi, the financial incentives to expand Medicaid are enormous… We are in a position to greatly benefit both the overall health and economic well-being of our state. Medicaid expansion is a no-brainer.”

READ MORE: State economist refutes politicians’ claim that Mississippi cannot afford Medicaid expansion

In an attempt to close the health care coverage gap, Build Back Better allows people earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level — which equates to up to $17,774 per year for an individual or $24,040 for a couple — to obtain health insurance at no cost to them through the health insurance exchanges that were established through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.

The federal government would pay all the costs for the health care coverage offered to the poor in the Build Back Better legislation.

Mississippi is one of 12 primarily Southern states that have refused to expand Medicaid. It is estimated that expansion would provide coverage for between 150,000 and 300,000 Mississippians, primarily the working poor. The federal government, in recent months, has upped the financial incentives for the 12 states.

While state leaders, led by Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn, maintain the state cannot afford the expansion despite studies, several studies by leading economic experts show that Medicaid expansion would effectively pay for itself while significantly aiding both the Mississippi economy and treasury.

Tim Moore, chief executive officer with the Mississippi Hospital Association, said while he applauds provisions of the Build Back Better legislation providing more health care coverage to Mississippians, the state still will be penalized if Medicaid is not expanded.

Under the legislation as it is currently written, Mississippi hospitals would lose about $300 million in federal funds that are designed to help them pay for uncompensated care or care for those with no insurance and no ability to pay for the care. The loss of the funds for uncompensated care could be viewed as “a hammer” to try to convince the final 12 states to expand Medicaid.

“While we are very supportive of increasing access to coverage for all Mississippians, it should not come at the expense of hospitals across our communities that continue to care for large numbers of children, the poor, the disabled and the elderly,” Moore said.

There is language in the Build Back Better legislation that increases the matching rate paid by the federal government for the costs of treating people covered through Medicaid expansion from 90% to 92%, resulting in additional savings for the state.

“We can implement a plan (through Medicaid expansion) that is more descriptive of the needs of Mississippians or our tax dollars can fund the federal plan. For true conservative Mississippians, I think the choice is clear,” Moore said.

The Build Back Better legislation also includes a provision that requires 12 months of postpartum coverage for poor mothers on the Medicaid program. Temporarily, the federal government is requiring all state Medicaid programs to provide 12 months of coverage. Build Back Better would extend that federal mandate. Before the federal mandate, Mississippi Medicaid provided 60 days of coverage after childbirth.

Mississippi has the highest infant mortality rate in the nation with 9.07 deaths per 1,000 births, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mississippi also has the 19th-highest maternal mortality rate at 20.8 deaths per 100,000 births, according to a study released by USA Today in 2019.

Build Back Better also would enhance federal funding for people who have health coverage through the ACA exchanges.

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat and only member of the Mississippi congressional delegation to vote for Build Back Better, said, “The Biden Administration has once again delivered for Mississippi. It was my honor to vote for legislation that presents such tremendous opportunities for our state. Now the Senate has the opportunity to support the Build Back Better Act, and it is my hope that they do so. Not just for the benefit or our state, but for the entire country.”

The bill also includes an extension of the child tax credit, expanded access for home and community-based care for needy seniors, tax cuts for low wage earners, expanded access to childcare, paid leave for medical and family emergencies, universal pre-kindergarten and funds to combat climate change.

Editor’s note: Vangela M. Wade is a member of Mississippi Today’s board of directors.

The post Experts say Medicaid expansion is still Mississippi’s best option as Build Back Better vote looms appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Through a $1.25 million grant from the Bower Foundation, Mississippi Today will launch a dedicated health section in early 2022.

Funding from the Bower Foundation will allow the newsroom to hire three new positions: Community Health Editor, Community Health Reporter and Community Health Data Reporter. Mississippi Today already has one health reporter on staff, which will make this four-person health reporting team the only of its kind in the state.

“The Bower Foundation is a leader in demonstrating philanthropy’s role in supporting journalism that builds a more informed Mississippi,” said Mary Margaret White, Mississippi Today CEO. “This generous grant will enhance the capacity for Mississippi Today to produce in-depth journalism about health issues and health care news.”

Mississippi Today will also be able to expand its reporting on how the Mississippi health care system — hospitals, doctors, nurses, insurers, governments, consumers — works while also reporting on public health and population health issues. The health team will build a readership targeted at thought leaders and the citizens of Mississippi who most need accurate and easy-to-understand information on health issues and health care news.

“Mississippi Today shines a bright light on many important issues and we are pleased to make this investment to make more information available about health issues in our state,” said Anne Travis, Bower Foundation CEO.

Mississippi Today plans a multifaceted portfolio of reporting, including daily/breaking news stories as well as deeper-dive investigative features, to explore our state’s complicated health framework and bring some much-needed transparency to its processes. Please visit our careers page to read more about the positions we have available.

We’re committed to building an inclusive newsroom that represents the people and communities we serve. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply for this position, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people and people who are differently abled.

Job Posting: Community Health Editor

Job Posting: Community Health Reporter

Job Posting: Community Health Data Journalist

The post Mississippi Today to launch a dedicated health section appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today is seeking a journalist who can code to join our new Health team. 

We believe data is one of the most important ways to effectively tell a story. But if it’s not done right, data can just as easily glaze your eyes over and steer you away from reading at all. We are seeking a data-minded journalist who is passionate about interactive storytelling and can help us present important, often complicated information in compelling formats. Whether it’s a tracker that shows how far each county has come in its vaccination efforts or an interactive database that shows readers where a nearest doctor is located, the opportunities to create fascinating health care-related data visualizations in Mississippi are endless.

The Community Health Data Journalist will be an integral, founding member of our new Health team, which will create a hub for Mississippians to access data, fact-finding and dissemination of in-depth and explainer public health journalism. Through this team, we will report on how the healthcare system works, and in some cases does not, in Mississippi. We will dig deep on how healthcare providers, hospitals, insurers, governments and consumers are interconnected and impacted, with an eye for equity and access. We will build a readership targeted at thought leaders and everyday Mississippians who most need accurate and easy-to-understand information on public health matters.

The ideal candidate will work hand-in-hand with the Health team to design creative graphics, charts and other visualizations to both help us frame news stories and also serve as stand-alone posts. We’re looking for a creative mind who can find ways to present important information in visually appealing, easily digestible formats. 

Expectations:

• Design and create interactive, user-friendly graphics
• Find, clean and analyze data — this includes submitting public records requests
• Search existing databases to identify trends, patterns and outliers.
• Work often with reporters and editors on interpreting datasets to find patterns and interesting details to present to readers in eye-catching, easy to understand formats.

It’s a plus if you have:

• Journalism experience. This person does not have to have worked in a newsroom before, but solid news judgement and the ability to discern what is important to readers is crucial
• Experience working in a collaborative setting
• Proven success implementing complex designs in HTML/CSS
• Demonstrated experience applying reader-centered design thinking to editorial work
• Familiarity with data analysis techniques

What you’ll get:

• The opportunity to work alongside award-winning journalists and make significant contributions to Mississippi’s only fully staffed, nonprofit, nonpartisan digital news and information source.
• Highly competitive salary with medical insurance, and options for vision and dental insurance.
• Cell phone stipend.
• 29 days paid time off.
• Up to 12 weeks of parental family leave, with return-to-work flexibility.
• Simple IRA with 3 percent company matching. Group-term life insurance provided to employees ($15,000 policy).
• Support for professional training and attending industry conferences.

How to apply:

Fill out an application at this link.

We’re committed to building an inclusive newsroom that represents the people and communities we serve. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply for this position, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people and people who are differently abled.

Questions? 

Email Editor-in-Chief Adam Ganucheau at adam@mississippitoday.org or Managing Editor Kayleigh Skinner at kayleigh@mississippitoday.org. 

The post We’re hiring: Community Health Data Journalist appeared first on Mississippi Today.

On Monday the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed Mississippi’s claim that neighboring Tennessee has siphoned groundwater across the states’ border for over 30 years.

In a unanimous decision, Chief Justice John Roberts explained that because the groundwater flows naturally underneath state boundaries, the Court must follow established precedent around interstate water disputes, deferring to what’s called the “equitable apportionment doctrine.”

The Supreme Court first heard oral arguments for the case in early October; this marked the first dispute it had ever heard over an interstate aquifer.

“It is certainly true that ‘each State has full jurisdiction over the lands within its borders, including the beds of streams and other waters,’” Roberts wrote, citing Kansas v Colorado and Wyoming v Colorado. “But such jurisdiction does not confer unfettered ‘ownership or control’ of flowing interstate waters themselves.

“Thus, we have ‘consistently denied’ the proposition that a State may exercise exclusive
ownership or control of interstate ‘waters flowing within her boundaries.’”

Mississippi argued that pumping in the Memphis area created a ‘cone of depression,’ forcing water that would be under Mississippi’s territory to slide over under Tennessee. Mississippi asked for over $6oo million in damages.

But, as the Supreme Court reasoned, the groundwater in the aquifer is a continuous body of water, and it naturally flows beneath state boundaries regardless of one state’s pumping.

As Roberts explained, giving one state ownership of a portion of interstate water when it’s in that state’s territory could set a dangerous precedent.

“Mississippi’s ownership approach would allow an upstream State to completely cut off flow to a downstream one, a result contrary to our equitable apportionment jurisprudence,” he wrote.

Equitable apportionment, which the Supreme Court has leaned on in the past to decide interstate water disputes, would decide how to fairly divide the groundwater between the states based on factors such as how many people need the water, what it would be used for, conserving the water, and others.

Although the special master — an expert the Supreme Court appoints for highly technical cases — recommended that Mississippi be able to amend a claim for equitable apportionment, the Court denied the state that option because Mississippi never requested it, and additional states who also share the aquifer might have to be involved.

The post U.S. Supreme Court dismisses Mississippi’s claim of stolen groundwater appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today is seeking an experienced reporter to join our new Health team.

The Community Health Reporter will be a founding member of our new team, which will create a hub for Mississippians to access data, fact-finding and dissemination of in-depth and explainer public health journalism. Through this team, we will report on how the healthcare system works, and in some cases does not, in Mississippi. We will dig deep on how healthcare providers, hospitals, insurers, governments and consumers are interconnected and impacted, with an eye for equity and access. We will build a readership targeted at thought leaders and everyday Mississippians who most need accurate and easy-to-understand information on public health matters.

The ideal journalist will be someone with reporting experience who understands the health care considerations of rural and suburban Mississippians alike. This candidate will serve on a four-person Health team — including an editor, two reporters and a data journalist — to thoughtfully create a multifaceted portofolio of reporting, including daily/breaking news stories as well as deeper-dive investigative features, to explore our state’s complicated public health framework and bring some much-needed transparency to its processes. 

Mississippi is a gold mine for eager journalists. What happens in Mississippi often affects the trajectory of the nation. Between the state’s abortion ban soon to be taken up by the highest court in the nation, an ongoing campaign to encourage Mississippians to get their COVID shots or else remain the one of the least vaccinated states, and a brewing battle over Medicaid expansion, the public health stories to be told here are limitless.

Expectations:

• Work with a small team of journalists who are focused solely on health in Mississippi.
• Develop your own health story ideas as well as be willing to collaborate closely with a small team of like-minded journalists
• Get people to talk, finding willing sources and being able to protect them while telling sensitive and timely stories
• Build trust: Many people who have been impacted by poor health services in Mississippi have been victims of predatory actions from other journalists or media outlets. This will require empathy, patience and savvy.
• Work with our Audience Team and data and visual journalists to create compelling story presentations.

It’s a plus if you have:

• Mississippi reporting experience
• Experience writing a combination of both longform stories and investigations
• A demonstrated ability to work quickly, and under tight deadlines
• A knowledge and understanding of nonprofit journalism
• Experience working in a collaborative newsroom setting

What you’ll get:

• The opportunity to work alongside award-winning journalists and make significant contributions to Mississippi’s only fully staffed, nonprofit, nonpartisan digital news and information source.
• Highly competitive salary with medical insurance, and options for vision and dental insurance.
• Cell phone stipend.
• 29 days paid time off.
• Up to 12 weeks of parental family leave, with return-to-work flexibility.
• Simple IRA with 3 percent company matching. Group-term life insurance provided to employees ($15,000 policy).
• Support for professional training and attending industry conferences.

How to Apply:

Fill out an application at this link.

We’re committed to building an inclusive newsroom that represents the people and communities we serve. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply for this position, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people and people who are differently abled.

Questions? 

Email Editor-in-Chief Adam Ganucheau at adam@mississippitoday.org or Managing Editor Kayleigh Skinner at kayleigh@mississippitoday.org.

The post We’re hiring: Community Health Reporter appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today is seeking an experienced journalist who can lead our new Health team.

The Community Health Editor will be the integral, founding member of our new Health team, which will create a hub for Mississippians to access data, fact-finding and dissemination of in-depth and explainer public health journalism. Through this team, we will report on how the healthcare system works, and in some cases does not, in Mississippi. We will dig deep on how healthcare providers, hospitals, insurers, governments and consumers are interconnected and impacted, with an eye for equity and access. We will build a readership targeted at thought leaders and everyday Mississippians who most need accurate and easy-to-understand information on health matters.

The ideal journalist will be a thought leader — someone who understands the health care considerations of rural and suburban Mississippians alike. This candidate will lead a four-person Health team — including two reporters and a data journalist — to thoughtfully create a multifaceted portofolio of reporting, including daily/breaking news stories as well as deeper-dive investigative features, to explore our state’s complicated public health framework and bring some much-needed transparency to its processes. 

Mississippi is a gold mine for eager journalists. What happens in Mississippi often affects the trajectory of the nation. Between the state’s abortion ban soon to be taken up by the highest court in the nation, an ongoing campaign to encourage Mississippians to get their COVID shots or else remain one of the least vaccinated states, and a brewing battle over Medicaid expansion, the public health stories to be told here are limitless.

Expectations:

• Oversee a team of journalists who report directly to you
• Work directly with the Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor to plan and publish short term stories, medium-term investigations and longer-term projects
• Work with our Audience Team and data and visual journalists to create compelling story presentations.
• Manage day-to-day editing, scheduling and publishing of stories and collaborate closely with the Mississippi Today Audience Team.
• Implement a distribution mindset among leadership and staff, helping reporters to think early about possible publishing partners on the local and national level

It’s a plus if you have:

• Newsroom editing experience
• Experience guiding longform stories and investigations from conception to publication
• A demonstrated ability to work quickly, and under tight deadlines
• A knowledge and understanding of nonprofit journalism
• Copy editing experience
• Experience working in a collaborative setting

What you’ll get:

• The opportunity to work alongside award-winning journalists and make significant contributions to Mississippi’s only fully staffed, nonprofit, nonpartisan digital news and information source.
• Highly competitive salary with medical insurance, and options for vision and dental insurance.
• Cell phone stipend.
• 29 days paid time off.
• Up to 12 weeks of parental family leave, with return-to-work flexibility.
• Simple IRA with 3 percent company matching. Group-term life insurance provided to employees ($15,000 policy).
• Support for professional training and attending industry conferences.

How to Apply:

Fill out an application at this link.

We’re committed to building an inclusive newsroom that represents the people and communities we serve. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply for this position, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people and people who are differently abled.

Questions? Email Editor-in-Chief Adam Ganucheau at adam@mississippitoday.org or Managing Editor Kayleigh Skinner at kayleigh@mississippitoday.org.

The post We’re hiring: Community Health Editor appeared first on Mississippi Today.

In college athletics, greener pastures don’t always turn out nearly so green. A case in point follows:

In 2016, Dan Mullen’s Mississippi State football lost to South Alabama to begin the season and then finished the season with a 6-7 record. Nevertheless, at season’s end, Mullen’s contract was extended back to the maximum four years allowed by Mississippi law.

In 2017, Mullen and State finished 9-4, and Mullen subsequently left the Bulldogs after nine years in Starkville to become the coach at Florida.

State athletic director John Cohen no doubt would have matched Florida’s financial offer, but it never reached that point. There was no negotiating. Mullen wanted out. He wanted to coach at one of country’s elite football schools. He wanted to be in the middle of all those Florida recruits. He wanted a better chance to win a national championship where his former boss, Urban Meyer, had won two.

Now, four years later, the Gators have a 5-6 record and Mullen has been fired.

At State, 6-7 got him an extension. At Florida, 5-6 got him fired. So it goes.

Greener pastures?

Look around. The season has not year-ended, but among the many jobs already open are Florida, LSU and Southern Cal, surely three of the most coveted jobs in college football. All have storied histories with multiple national championships. All are located in fertile recruiting territory. All pay a king’s ransom.

Yes, and all come with this caveat: Just win, baby. No hiccups allowed. 

Care to guess how many winning seasons (SEC games only) Mullen had at State?

One. That’s how many. One.

He had four break-even, 4-4 seasons. He had four losing seasons. He had one winning season, the 6-2 season of 2014. Mullen left State with a 69-46 overall record, but a 33-39 record in the SEC.

This is not to say Mullen isn’t a splendid football coach. He is. In 2014, he had Mississippi State ranked No. 1 in the land for five weeks, a remarkable accomplishment. As I have written before, he could have that on his tombstone.

At Florida, that’s expected. A losing season — or anything close — is not.

We’ve seen this happen before in Mississippi athletics. Basketball coach Bob Weltlich became at Ole Miss cult hero in six seasons at the school, including one in which he won the SEC Tournament. He could flat out coach. He often beat SEC teams that had superior talent. His overall record was 83-88. In the SEC, his teams were 20 games under .500.

But when Texas called in 1982, Weltlich answered. He lasted six seasons there with a similar record to what he had at Ole Miss. 

We’ll never know what might have happened had Weltlich stayed at Ole Miss. He might have raised expectations to a point where he eventually would have been fired. Or, who knows, there might now be a statue of him outside the new arena. We do know that the same type record that got him raises at Ole Miss got him fired at Texas.

Curley Hallman guided Southern Miss football to a 23-13 record over three seasons at Southern Miss. It helped to have Brett Favre as his quarterback. After an 8-4 record in 1990 (including victories over both Alabama and Auburn), Hallman left for LSU. He lasted four seasons in Baton Rouge and never had a winning team.

Greener pastures?

Moving vans will be especially busy during this off-season. Seven Power Five jobs are already open. More will open in the next three weeks. Lane Kiffin’s name already is mentioned in connection withe openings at Southern Cal (where he has been before), Florida and LSU.

Chances are, he’ll have a decision to make.

Greener pastures?

We’ll see. 

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