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The post Marshall Ramsey: Withdrawals appeared first on Mississippi Today.

As state leaders continue their perennial efforts to improve Mississippi’s workforce training and participation, federal pandemic dollars are providing a golden opportunity to address a major issue: child care for working parents, particularly single moms.

Will the state take advantage of this, and fix a program that has struggled, and often failed, to help many working parents? That remains to be seen. The state Department of Human Services, an agency plagued with mismanagement, malfeasance and scandal, appears to be dragging its feet on how it might spend $519 million in American Rescue Plan Act money earmarked for child care.

Mississippi’s Child Care Development Fund is a federal block-grant program that provides child care assistance to working parents earning up to 85% of the state’s median income, $45,937 for a family of three.

In the past, the program has received about $60 million in federal funds each year, and was serving an estimated 10% of low-income children. Congress bumped Mississippi’s allocation up to around $90 million for 2018 and 2019, and the state received nearly $145 million in 2020 due to pandemic relief, allowing the state to serve an estimate of up to 30% of income-eligible kids currently. But advocates argue there are still tens of thousands of low-income children disconnected from any publicly available early childhood program. The influx of hundreds of millions of additional federal dollars would appear to be a godsend for the program.

But it’s unclear exactly what DHS, an agency that reports to Gov. Tate Reeves, will do with much of the money. The agency has said it will provide stabilization grants to child care centers, but has provided few details, and offered no plans to help more working parents. Child care advocates have made recommendations — and other states are moving forward with planning and spending the funds — but DHS has only submitted a “placeholder” plan and says it’s still developing its strategy.

READ MORE: Mississippi procrastinates as other states plan for, spend billions in pandemic stimulus

DHS leaders have said that since the ARPA funds are technically one-time money that must be spent by 2026, they’re loathe to use it to expand the program to help more families and children.

“God forbid we serve another kid this year that we can’t serve four years from now when the money runs out,” said Carol Burnett, director of the Mississippi Low Income Child Care Initiative.

PODCAST: Federal funds provide opportunity to fix child care program for working parents

Meanwhile, the program, which has been described as a “minefield of bureaucracy,” is serving only a fraction of low-income families. Single working moms report a byzantine, nearly impossible to navigate web of red tape to get into the program, then a “redetermination” system that frequently kicks them out once they’ve gotten in. Parents have reported losing their workforce child care vouchers for providing copies of paperwork that were too dark, or required documentation they submitted expiring because DHS took too long in making eligibility determination.

Recently, the Mississippi Low Income Child Care Initiative reported between 3,600 and 4,100 parents lost their child care assistance amid the worst of the pandemic. Child care centers have also suffered from the pandemic, and from problems with the state’s voucher program for working parents.

One major issue with the child care program in Mississippi is that parents, typically single moms, are required to participate in the state’s child support system, using state contracted attorneys to go after their spouses in court. In essence, working moms have to navigate through one poorly run state bureaucracy in order to try to participate in another. This requirement provides mounds of red tape for parents, and often results in child care vouchers being denied or lost.

Other states are using their ARPA child care money to help eliminate red tape burdens and expand their workforce child care.

Advocates have made many recommendations to DHS for using the federal funds, including serving an additional 35,000 children, eliminating the child support requirements, and helping child care centers recruit, hire and retain qualified staff with higher wages and training. As for the money drying up, advocates say that more children could at least be served over several years, and money could also be used to help train single parents for better jobs.

Poverty-plagued Mississippi has struggled with its workforce. The state’s labor force participation rate, currently at 55.9%, is the lowest in the nation. Having an anemic and under-trained workforce holds the state back economically, and hampers economic development efforts to attract industry and jobs to the state. Helping single parents with child care so they can work would appear a no-brainer as officials focus on workforce development.

As Burnett recently said, “Parents with young children need child care in order to work. Because child care is expensive, many Mississippi parents need help affording the high cost … DHS should be working quickly to use these funds to serve more families.”

The post Pandemic funds could fix Mississippi’s troubled workforce child care program appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A third of Mississippians can’t afford basic household necessities but fail to meet the federal definition of poverty, a new United Way report finds. 

The report, released in August, measures the number of households that earn above the federal poverty level (FPL) but are still struggling to make ends meet. This is a group the report refers to as ALICE — asset limited, income constrained, employed. 

The report was presented to the Senate Labor Committee last week during their two-day hearings on raising the minimum wage, which is currently set at the federal rate of $7.25 an hour. 

“Everyone knows ALICE,” said Michele Connelly, executive director of the United Way of West Central Mississippi and co-chair of the Mississippi ALICE Project. “If you haven’t been ALICE, you very much know ALICE and interact with ALICE every day.”

The report found 1 in 2 Mississippians experience financial constraints, though only 19% live below the federal poverty level (neighboring states Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee fall between 15-18% on this metric). The report attributes this gap to the outdated nature of the FPL; the authors instead use a metric they developed, the basic household survival budget, which accounts for modern necessities like smartphones and is adjusted geographically based on local costs. 

The basic household survival budget accounts for housing, child care, food, transportation, healthcare, technology, miscellaneous expenses, and taxes at the least expensive rates. An annual salary of $21,924 would cover these basic costs for a single individual, $55,980 for a family of four. 

Connelly specifically pointed to the oversized impact on single mothers — 83% of families headed by single mothers fall below the ALICE threshold. 

“So many single mothers cannot make ends meet, and that is wrong,” Connelly told Mississippi Today.  “I’m a strong believer that we need to make childcare accessible to ensure that women can do what we need to do to go out and support our families.”

Connelly also pointed out that many of the professions which fall below the ALICE threshold are the essential workers who have been keeping our economy running during the pandemic, but as the report shows, cannot provide for themselves. 

Lead Researcher Stephanie Hoopes identified the state’s low workforce participation rate, 56% before the pandemic, as a barrier to employers voluntarily raising wages. With so many people out of the workforce, these individuals act as a reserve of potential workers that enable employers to offer non-competitive salaries.

“The strength of the state economy is tied to the financial security of its residents,” Hoopes said in the Senate hearing.

Advocates have a lot of ideas about how to improve conditions for ALICEs — down payment assistance, laws against discriminatory lending practices, and payday lending regulations, but Sara Miller, a member of the report’s research advisory committee and analyst at the Hope Policy Institute, said that she thinks the most pressing issue for ALICE families is the looming eviction crisis. 

“Evictions have long-term consequences, damaging credit scores and making it harder to get housing… In addition to what we hope will be the swift deployment of rental assistance funds, state and local governments can enact local eviction moratoriums to give that money time to get out,” Miller told Mississippi Today. 

READ MORE: With federal eviction moratorium ending, Mississippi has spent 6.2% of federal rental assistance funds

Cassandra Welchlin, lead organizer of the Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable, specifically cited the need for two Mississippi policy changes: Medicaid expansion and an equal pay bill. Through her work, she has met the women who are the breadwinners of many ALICE families and found that they often fall in the coverage gap. Expanding Medicaid would allow these households to allocate their limited resources to other necessities, she said. 

“Mississippi can do better,” Welchlin said. “Just as there were policies that were created that made these households ALICE, we can create policies to give these households solutions.”

The post Though half of Mississippians struggle to make ends meet, 31% don’t qualify for assistance appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A long-anticipated independent audit of the Mississippi Department of Human Services meticulously describes some agency expenditures but provides little explanation of the misspending of tens of millions of welfare dollars in recent years.

Accountants from CliftonLarsonAllen LLC found a total of $12.4 million worth of possible fraud, waste or abuse, such as high-dollar contracts with vague responsibilities or a lease on a building that sat empty. It found $36.1 million in welfare purchases that weren’t allowed under federal rules, such as a virtual reality lab and sports camps. The firm could not account for another roughly $41 million.

Nancy New, a key figure awaiting trial in the alleged welfare embezzlement scheme, had suggested the forensic audit would vindicate her. 

But then she refused to cooperate with the audit, so the firm was unable to parse out what happened to $40.6 million her nonprofit spent.

The auditors did not determine whether any of these purchases — some of the most egregious and widely publicized in a scandal uncovered last year — constituted fraud, waste, or abuse, or whether they were even allowed under federal grant rules. 

Auditors deemed just $1.7 million, or 3%, of the New nonprofit’s spending “allowable,” meaning the purchases conformed to federal rules for welfare spending.

The state spent $2.1 million for the outside firm to conduct the audit of the welfare agency’s spending in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 under its former director John Davis.

The report did not analyze payments from New’s nonprofit, Mississippi Community Education Center, to:

• retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre’s company
• the biomedical company Favre and former Gov. Phil Bryant tried to recruit to Mississippi
• the foundation of famed high school running back Marcus Dupree
• high-powered lobbyists, or
• Nancy New’s private education company.

This latest report does offer more details surrounding $12.4 million in potential fraud, waste or abuse — most of which focused on how former Mississippi Department of Human Services director Davis used his influence to direct federal money to his friends and family. Because the accountants didn’t have access to Davis’ personal financial records, they could not determine whether he personally benefited from the scheme.

Some payments indicative of possible fraud, waste or abuse from the report include:

• $5,101,710 to retired WWE wrestlers Ted DiBiase, Ted DiBiase Jr. and Brett DiBiase.
• $1,112,285 to Brian and Austin Smith, Davis’ brother-in-law and nephew.
• $168,733 to Nick Coughlin and $250,790 to Adam Such, individuals introduced to Davis by the DiBiases.
• $1,309,183 to Victory Sports Foundation, owned by retired professional linebacker Paul Lacoste.
• $26,962 for youth to travel to an out-of-state football tournament.
• $200,000 to Soul City Hospitality, a public-private partnership represented by Jackson restaurateur Jeff Good.
• $2,734 in first-class air fare for Davis and his former deputy Jacob Black.

In February of 2020, agents from the State Auditor’s Office arrested Nancy New, her son Zach New, Davis, retired wrestler Brett DiBiase, agency employee Latimer Smith, and nonprofit accountant Ann McGrew within an alleged scheme to embezzle a total of $4.15 million in federal grant dollars. Brett DiBiase is the only one who has pleaded guilty.

In May of 2020, the auditor released an audit that officially questioned more than $90 million in agency spending from 2017 to 2019 and involved dozens of subgrantees and individuals. 

But the revelation of a potentially much more massive scheme — and an ensuing FBI investigation — has resulted in no new arrests nearly a year and a half later.

“This independent forensic audit commissioned by DHS corroborates my team’s work over the last two years, and it shows what we have known for some time: there was a tragic amount of welfare money misspent here,” State Auditor Shad White said in a statement Friday. “The completion of the audit is an important step toward fixing the problems with how the state handled TANF money.”

Most of the money in question came from a block grant called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), a few-strings-attached federal fund which states can use to provide cash assistance, formerly known as the welfare check, to very low-income families or on a number of other programs.

The Mississippi Department of Human Services had offered small contracts to New’s nonprofit and another nonprofit called Family Resource Center of North Mississippi over the years. But in 2017, the agency began funneling tens of millions to the two organizations under the guise of a family-stabilizing initiative called Families First for Mississippi. The two organizations then subgranted with dozens of other people and organizations but kept very poor track of the spending or what the recipients were supposed to be accomplishing.

Even though Family Resource Center and Mississippi Community Education Center were working on the same initiative, the nonprofits would swap funds and sometimes paid the same employees or contractors for the same work.

The forensic audit shows Family Resource Center made several of the purchases that were indicative of fraud, waste or abuse, including:

• $375,750 to Chase Computer Services to build a program to track participants in Families First for Mississippi, an application that ultimately did not function.
• $27,500 to Marcus Dupree, Families First for Mississippi “motivational speaker and celebrity endorser.”
• $57,953 to Amy Harris, the nonprofit’s media coordinator.
• $25,000 to Through the Fire Ministries, LLC for religious children’s books authored by Christian musician Jason Crabb.
• $118,936 to Southtech Inc.
• $30,000 to Northeast Mississippi Community College Development Foundation, a sponsorship for the Northeast Mississippi Football Coaches’ Association All-Star game.
• $49,190.06 to Warren Washington Issaquena Sharkey Community Action Agency or WWISCAA for fabricated services, Mississippi Today first reported in June.

A large chunk of Family Resource Center’s misspending involved the New family or their companies, according to the report:

• $2,137,436 to Mississippi Community Education Center.
• $583,096 to New Learning Resources, Inc., Nancy New’s for-profit private school company.
• $1,761 to Nancy New.
• $57,456 to Zach New.
• $34,506 to Nancy New’s other son Jess New.

While the overall Families First for Mississippi program was riddled with alleged corruption, the current criminal cases focus more on the money that mysteriously flowed through New’s nonprofit, Mississippi Community Education Center. New has maintained her innocence.

“The forensic audit is going to prove a lot,” Nancy New told reporters in November. “This has become a numbers case.”

The forensic audit states that attorneys for New’s nonprofit provided all the documentation the accountants requested, but that it contained errors.

When the firm followed up with the nonprofit representatives who would have direct knowledge of the finances — defendants Nancy New, Zach New and McGrew, the nonprofit accountant — they refused to meet with the auditors.

Zach New provided a written response to the firm stating, “MCEC disagrees with all of the MCEC-specific findings listed in the OSA report and welcomes the opportunity to discuss further any findings listed in the auditor’s report.”

But he never responded to the firm’s requests for such a discussion.

Attorneys for Nancy New, Zach New, McGrew and Davis did not return calls to Mississippi Today on Friday.

To determine how certain individuals came to be welfare recipients, the forensic auditors had greater access to internal records from its client, the Mississippi Department of Human Services — such as Davis’ emails — than it did to the private businesses that received subgrants.

“Based on the contents of email communications identified,” the report states, “it was apparent that John Davis had a very close relationship to the DiBiase family and may have had some control over the establishment of certain entities owned by the DiBiases.”

Davis had a hand in awarding direct agency contracts to Ted DiBiase Sr.’s Christian ministry Heart of David to conduct faith-based programming and to Brett DiBiase’s company Restore2 or Recover2 (the name alternates on agency documents) for opioid addiction education.

Ultimately, it was the $48,000 contract with Brett DiBiase, which the department paid him while he was in rehab in California, that landed the wrestler and Davis in jail.

But, the auditors found, Davis also played a role in securing contracts — much larger ones — between the nonprofits running Families First for Mississippi and Ted DiBiase Jr., or “Teddy.”

Davis frequently copied the DiBiases, especially Teddy, on emails discussing internal agency business.

“The inclusion of various DiBiase family members in emails regardless of their official role with the respective organization shows the fluidity of the relationships and the level of involvement of John Davis with Ted DiBiase, Ted DiBiase, Jr., and Brett DiBiase,” the report states.

The emails weave a tangled web: At one point, Davis even asked Nancy New’s son Jess New to help him find an available corporation name for Ted DiBiase Jr.’s new motivational speaking and leadership training venture called Law of 16. Much of the $3 million Ted DiBiase Jr. received in federal public assistance money was for “leadership outreach.”

In addition to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds, the $3 million Ted DiBiase Jr. received also included emergency food assistance money and funds from another federal program called the Social Services Block Grant.

The audit states that in 2017, Brett DiBiase introduced Davis to Nick Coughlin, who co-owned a company and attempted to produce a movie with Ted DiBiase Jr. Davis immediately began discussing a role for Coughlin at the agency, in which he would “create opportunities for conversations with industry leaders and potential employers for indiviudals [sic] seeking [MDHS] services.”

Coughlin’s company NCC Ventures received a total of $168,733 in payments from the agency and each of the nonprofits.

“Based on the lack of any deliverables from NCC Ventures and the limited information included in the invoices to MDHS, there is little evidence to support any time and effort by NCC Ventures to perform the services as described in the agreement,” the audit states.

Davis then also hired one of Coughlin’s relatives in the state office. Coughlin now works for the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, according to his LinkedIn.

Coughlin’s attorney, Francis Springer, advised Coughlin not to discuss his work with the welfare department since the criminal investigation is ongoing. Springer said he didn’t believe Coughlin was under investigation.

“As far as I know it was all legitimate work and was verified by the auditor’s office,” Springer said.

Similarly, Ted DiBiase Jr. introduced Davis to consultant Adam Such, whose firm SBGI, LLC then received a contract and an up-front payment of $250,000 from Family Resource Center. While the contract was initially intended for programs to help at-risk youth, Family Resource Center told auditors “the scope as intended concept was not feasible,” so the nonprofit gave him an administrative role.

“Although there is some evidence of activities performed by Such, there is limited information to support a fee of $250,000,” the audit reads.

Mississippi Today could not reach Such on Friday.

Overall, auditors could only determine that $49.4 million, 40% of the $126 million in welfare spending they examined, was allowable.

Because the agency was skirting rules under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, it’s possible that some legitimate organizations running necessary programs in accordance with their agency subgrant also made unallowable purchases if the subgrant agreement they signed with the department did not follow welfare guidelines.

When the Mississippi Department of Human Services hired CliftonLarsonAllen in September of 2020, it said in a press release, “The audit will provide a complete review of the agency’s practices and ensure it is operating with integrity and in compliance with departmental policies and state and federal laws.”

An agency spokesperson said an additional report on the agency’s current operations and internal controls will be released in coming weeks. The latest reports published Friday “look back, while the controls report will look forward.”

The post New audit shows ‘a tragic amount’ misspent, but can’t find what happened to $40 million in welfare funds appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi’s voucher program to help single working parents has been underfunded and difficult to navigate because of red tape. Carol Burnett and Matt Williams of the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative explain how an influx of federal pandemic stimulus dollars could help. 

Listen to more episodes of The Other Side here.

Read a transcript of the episode below.

Geoff Pender: Welcome to The Other Side Podcast. This is Geoff Pender with Mississippi Today. I’m joined today by my colleague, Anna Wolfe. Anna, hello. How are you doing? 

Anna Wolfe: Good. Thank you. Thanks for having me. 

Geoff Pender: And we’re also joined today by Carol Burnett. She’s the founder and director of the Mississippi Low-Income Childcare Initiative. Hello.

Carol Burnett: Hello. 

Geoff Pender: Welcome to the show. Thank you for being on. 

And we are also joined with Matt Williams, who is the research director for the Mississippi Low-Income Childcare Initiative. Matt, thank you for joining us. 

Matt Williams: Thank you so much for having us this morning. 

Geoff Pender: Sure, and a lot of topics to discuss. Anna, this is something you’ve been looking at closely for quite some time. Can you explain what brings us here today and some of the topics we’re going to cover? 

Anna Wolfe: Sure. So Carol and I have been talking about this for years now. And she’s here to talk about this sort of ever present problem within the state’s administration of the childcare payment program, which is the voucher that allows low income parents to afford childcare so that they can go to work, which is that it’s only ever reached a sliver of families in the state who qualify, who need it. But as I understand it in this particular moment, we have this unique opportunity to address this disparity because of all of this money that we’ve been getting from COVID relief packages. And we can really address this if the state has the vision to do something different and decide to target that money to help families who need it.

So I’ll let you explain sort of how we got here. And where we are. 

Carol Burnett: Alright, thanks. The state gets a federal block grant, and it’s called the Childcare Development Fund. States are allowed to shape that program with a great deal of discretion about the rules at the state level. There are very few federal rules, and Mississippi calls that program the Childcare Payment Program, and our state agency that administers that is the Department of Human Services. Parents apply to get childcare assistance. The assistance is provided in the form of vouchers to eligible parents. The vouchers that a parent receives help cover the cost of the childcare. They use the voucher, they go out and buy their childcare from a provider that participates in the program and the voucher covers the lion’s share of the cost.

So it makes childcare affordable for working parent who otherwise would find it very difficult to afford childcare because childcare is very expensive. That program serves families up to 85% of the state median income, which is a pretty high income level. I mean for a family of three we’re talking about like $45,000 a year.

So it really is a work support. It’s intended to be an assistance for those families who are among the working poor. Always that program has been super helpful for the families that have been fortunate to get a voucher. But as you pointed out, it’s always been inadequate to serve more than just around 25, 30% of the eligible families in this state.

So we’ve advocated that bigger investment go in, so more of our families in the state can be served. We’ve gotten a lot of information from our state economist who’s said that parents with young children would participate more in the labor force if they had affordable childcare. So there are lots of reasons for this program to be invested in that would be good for the children for getting early childhood, the parent for being able to go to work, the state for getting additional income into the economy.

So it’s good for everyone, but it’s been limited by the amount of money. And the other thing that has been a constant problem is the state has imposed a lot of application procedural barriers that make it difficult for parents to get into the program. And then once they’re in, they have to be redetermined eligible periodically.

And that redetermination process also has a lot of barriers in it. And so the other part of the work we’ve been doing is trying to make that whole access and retention process easier for the parents. So we have a moment now, as you pointed out, because the state has over $500 million in childcare money that can go toward shoring up the childcare industry that has suffered a lot of impact from COVID, expand services to larger number of children. The state has a lot of options under HHS guidance for how those funds could be used. And so it’s a moment when we could really do a lot better with this program that helps everybody.

Geoff Pender: And for prospective, $519 million that’s available through the American Rescue Plan Act. And that’s compared to typically we would get $60 million a year for this program, around that. So huge. 

Carol Burnett: It’s a big increased investment. It’s really unprecedented.

Anna Wolfe: What has the state indicated that they’re going to do with that money?

Carol Burnett: In the short term, they’re continuing some investments that have been really helpful. They’re continuing to eliminate the requirement that parents have to pay a copayment, share a portion of the childcare fee. They’re reimbursing childcare providers for services at a higher reimbursement rate, and they are also paying providers based on the number of eligible children that are enrolled in the center as opposed to the number of days eligible children attend, which helps to stabilize the revenue stream for providers.

And that’s really helpful. They have said that they’re going to make grants available to childcare centers for activities that are identified as eligible under the HHS guidelines for the stabilization grants, but we haven’t seen that grant program emerge yet. So we don’t really know what the scope of that is going to be and what eligible activities will be included.

Anna Wolfe: You’re in close contact with childcare centers all over the state, and you’ve surveyed them. Can you tell us what problems they’ve been dealing with lately? 

Carol Burnett: Yes. We recently completed a survey of the childcare centers across the state that participate in this childcare payment program. Not all childcare centers do, but most do.

And we heard a pretty consistent response from the large number of centers who responded to our survey, identifying these access and retention barriers that I was referring to. And the biggest one of those is that the state requires single parents who are 96% of the families on this program, mostly single moms, the state requires single parents to comply with child support enforcement before they can qualify to get childcare assistance. And that requirement childcare providers identified on our survey is an enormous deterrent for parents to even try to apply. For parents who are trying to comply, it is also procedural barrier that makes it difficult for them to navigate the application process.

And so the majority of the respondents told us that that requirement was the number one thing that is problematic for parents trying to get their childcare assistance.

Anna Wolfe: Right. So it’s, it’s kind of two-pronged. So we’ve got like funding issues historically that we haven’t received enough money in past years to serve everyone who needs it. But then the state doesn’t really make it very easy to get on the program in the first place even if you do qualify. What can we ask of the state to fix this?

Carol Burnett: The application process problems that were identified on our survey included things like not being able to get anybody from DHS on the telephone or submitting documents that DHS says weren’t submitted, even though the provider or the parent has evidence that they were in fact submitted or that a document was submitted, but DHS said that it was too dark or it didn’t, you know, there was something about it wasn’t adequate and so they had to be submitted again. Well, the application process has to be completed within a 60 day period of time. So if DHS gets around to looking at the documents on day 58, and says, “These aren’t acceptable,” you’ve got to send them in again. And if they’re not submitted before the 60 day deadline, that’s another problem. We also heard that DHS requires that a parent submit their most recent pay stub as documentation of their income. Well, if they’re paid every two weeks, and they submitted the most recent one when they submitted the application, but DHS doesn’t get around to looking at it until another month, then all of a sudden the pay stubs is not the most recently received. 

And so then they have to start over again, or if they bump up against the 60 day deadline, it means they have to go back and reapply and start that whole process again. So that’s the kind of stuff that happens when providers who frequently intervene in this to try to kind of be a parent advocate with DHS to get the parent through this process.

And often providers even have copies of a lot of the documents that are required because they know that they have the internet connection that some of the times the parents don’t have the capacity to scan an email and upload or, you know, do the application online as it’s required. So providers intervene a lot to help out, and they see a lot of occasions where this kind of communication problem and procedural problem get in the way. And the majority of the providers that responded to our survey said they have eligible parents on their waiting list, trying to get their child into the childcare center, they’ve got room for them to be there.

And the reason they can’t move the child into an available slot is because they can’t get the parent through this application process at DHS. 

Anna Wolfe: Right. And when the pandemic hit, they waived some of those eligibility requirements for parents to get the voucher, right?

Carol Burnett: Well, only for parents in a special new program that they created. They named it a special voucher program that was supposed to be available with some of that initial COVID funding for essential workers. But those essential workers they exempted from having to meet income requirements. They also exempted from having to meet the child support requirement while the regular voucher recipients also were essential workers, but still had to meet the income requirement and had to meet the child support requirements.

So it was a very inequitable setup, but that program has ended now. 

Anna Wolfe: And we just went through redetermination period in this last year for parents who were on the voucher prior to that, and apparently kicked off lots of parents from the program. 

Carol Burnett: Yeah. The annual redetermination of eligibility that I mentioned was waived for a time during COVID, but recently DHS has put it back in place.

And when that got put back in place, it resulted in the termination of families off of the program, not because they weren’t eligible again, but because they just weren’t able to navigate the process. 

Anna Wolfe: Yeah. I mean, this is a workforce problem, right? I mean, what is the impact when women, single moms, typically cannot get the care that they need?

Carol Burnett: It’s very much a workforce problem. And we think it would be really helpful if some employers and some of our allies in the workforce system would recognize the significance of this program to increasing Mississippi’s labor participation rate— 

Geoff Pender: which is lowest in the country, or has been often. 

Carol Burnett: Exactly. Improving that rate is a goal of many of our state leaders. And so making this program work so that parents get the childcare they need so they can go to work would be a very effective strategy for meeting the goal that they have. 

Geoff Pender: Carol and Matt talked about some of this money available could definitely help, but as I understand from DHS or the governor’s office right now, it’s not been really clear that any of this money will be used to help more children. What’s the status of that?

Carol Burnett: DHS says they’re reluctant to use the money in any way that can’t be sustained past the time the money is available. So in terms of increasing the number of children currently being served, they’re reluctant to do that now because they might not be able to continue serving those children three or four years from now when the money’s no longer here.

And we contend that that three or four years of service would be hugely beneficial in terms of early childhood education. It would also be hugely beneficial in terms of a workforce and income investment for the parent to get affordable childcare. And if you plan in advance for having that spike in income, you could find ways to manage the loss of those funds in future years if you were looking into the future. I strongly feel like if sustainability of service was a real goal, the procedural problems that parents currently on the program have through redetermination would be a great place to start because right now the biggest sustainability challenge we have is parents currently on the program right now making it through redetermination.

So there’s so many things that could be done if sustainability was really the issue. 

Matt Williams: I would add that the survey we just did really supported that. I mean, we did not hear from childcare providers that their concern was taking on too many new kids and not being able to sustain the services three years from now. What we heard was as one provider put it in response to a question that we included on the survey about whether or not DHS should spend the ARPA funds for childcare on increasing the number of kids receiving childcare, one provider said they definitely need childcare. And 92% of the providers that we surveyed said that Mississippi needs to spend these funds to serve more children than CPPP. 

Geoff Pender: Matt or Carol said early on that only a fraction of probably the eligible kids are being served. What are those numbers roughly?

Carol Burnett: The most recent number that we’ve seen reported from Mississippi was from last year that our state served 20,900 kids, and we estimate that about 112,000 are eligible. 

Anna Wolfe: You know, our state leaders love to talk about the emphasis on early childhood development, but childcare centers, private childcare providers usually are not being included in that conversation. Can you talk about sort of how the childcare payment program relates to early childhood development and how that’s kind of left out of the conversation? 

Carol Burnett: Childcare centers that participate in this program have fielded over the years. I mean, we did a report on how Mississippi’s handled this childcare program over its 20 years of existence. And one of the interesting things was how frequently there were efforts from the state level to impose different quality improvement ideas onto the childcare centers that participate. Those quality improvement ideas would change frequently. So we had tried this idea and then it would be gone and then we would try this idea and then it would be gone.

So the childcare centers that participate are always the impacted centers for any of these ideas for how to address the quality of early childhood education. But they are rarely able to participate successfully because they’re so under-resourced. Every survey that we’ve done of childcare providers has shown that they’re eager to participate in quality improvement activities, but the obstacle that stands in the way is that they don’t have the money to implement the kinds of quality improvement criteria that are usually used to evaluate whether a center has a quality early childhood education experience or not. We recently surveyed providers on that point, and they were in complete agreement with what the traditional definition is of quality, but they added to that definition that they needed to be financially resourced to be able to implement those criteria.

And they wanted to add to the definition that the service needed to be affordable to parents and the service needed to be available hours, that support employment, so that the system was equitable. Because when the affordability isn’t there and the hours that support work isn’t there, it’s too frequently the case that it’s women and women of color in particular who are most impacted by the absence of those features of any kind of equality definition. 

Geoff Pender: Do you know at this point, are there deadlines coming up as far as DHS having to say what they might do with this money? As I understand it from speaking with you earlier, they’ve essentially only done kind of a copy and paste plan, a placeholder plan, I guess, is how maybe they’ve even described it. So we really don’t know yet how they might use this money. When does that have to be figured out? 

Carol Burnett: What you’re referring to is the states are all required to submit state plans to HHS, even absent of the American Rescue Plan Money, so it’s just a regular sequence in administering this program. It just happened to be the case that this year when they had all that extra ARPA funding, it also came at the same time that they were supposed to submit their new state plan to HHS for the years 2022 to 2024. And the state plan they submitted really didn’t reveal much about what they plan to do in the future.

And as you cite, you know, we were concerned about the fact that the plan that did get submitted had old information in it from prior plans that had been submitted. And DHS indicated that it was, as you say, a placeholder and that they would amend it as they figured out what they were going to do.

So, no, we don’t yet know. With regard to the deadlines for when they have to make a decision or when they have to spend these funds, Matt, do you know offhand? I mean, there are some liquidation of funds and obligation of funds deadlines that are built in to some of the funds, but I’m not really sure what the deadline is for when they need to spend these?

Matt Williams: Yeah. I don’t know offhand the details, but I believe the ARPA money and some of the other money we’re looking at a liquidation period of about three years. 

Geoff Pender:  Yeah. The ARPA plan in general, looking at other funds, I don’t know if this would be the same. I think it’s gotta be allocated by December 24 and actually spent by December 26.

I don’t know if that would be the same for this money. Somewhere in that range perhaps.

Anna Wolfe: How hard is this program to administer? Like what might the state be dealing with that is preventing them from pushing this money out? 

Carol Burnett: It’s not hard to administer. I think there are two issues at play. One is it’s so influenced by politics. Because it’s housed at the Department of Human Services and DHS is an executive agency, the head is appointed by the governor. And so it really is what DHS does and doesn’t do is really determined by political decisions more than by how to do best with the program you’re charged to administer.

The other thing is it’s a very decentralized program. Vouchers go to individual parents. The vouchers are used in a whole lot of very small businesses located all over this state, and the decentralization of it I think contributes to the lack of awareness that many people have about it but it’s very influenced by the attitudes around public assistance.

And that means that we’re dealing with a lot of negative attitudes toward poor people, toward Black people that there’s just a lot of gender and race bias that’s overlaid onto this program. And that’s why we really feel like it needs to be characterized as a work support program and seen as one of the things that we could invest in that could increase the number of employees.

I mean, gosh, for net right now, it would be hugely helpful to have a larger number of available employees. And I just want to say too that, you know, DHS says that they don’t have a waiting list for this program that anybody who wants a voucher right now can get one. And that was another thing we found from the survey we did that providers actually have waiting lists, as I mentioned, of eligible parents who can’t get in because they can’t afford it, and they’re trying to navigate the application process. So it isn’t true that everybody who needs and wants childcare assistance has it right now. It is the case that there are a large number of parents who either haven’t been able to get through the application process or got kicked off through redetermination and need to get back on. 

Geoff Pender: Do childcare centers themselves have the capacity to serve more kids? 

Carol Burnett: They do. We’ve surveyed that they are as a system. I mean, there are individual centers that are full and some that have way more capacity than others, but system-wide our surveys show that there is about 30% under-enrollment among the centers that are in this program right now.

So the slots are there. The parents are there, the kids are there. The money is there. Let’s make it work.

Geoff Pender: What are some things that would make this work, set it up? And I think you’ve mentioned this before, provide it to kids until they age out, you know, three, four years or however long this money is going to last?

Carol Burnett: The children remain eligible until they’re age 12 in this program. So parents, even of young school aged kids, can get assistance. I mean, the number one thing that we have called for for a long time is to eliminate the requirement that parents have to comply with child support enforcement. That would be a huge help. 

Anna Wolfe: And that’s just automatically going to increase the number of eligible parents who are able to get the voucher because they don’t have to go through this process.

Matt Williams: Yeah. Our survey strongly supports that recommendation. We included two structured questions as I will refer to them where we had answer choices built in, and overwhelmingly providers indicated that the child support requirement is experienced as harmful to parents’ efforts to obtain CCPT assistance.

And what that looked like from the survey response was 83.2% of CCPT providers said the requirement deters parents in that they serve from even applying at all to CCPT. And another question found 73.2% of CCPP providers said the requirement results in parents, CCPT application denial. So parents that have tried to apply have been denied for that reason.

So that’s the vast majority of CCPT providers, indicating that this is a huge problem for parents that try to apply, for parents that can’t even begin the application process because of that requirement specifically. And when we looked at the number that providers reported of parents they serve that are affected by this policy either that it’s deterring their application or resulting in their denial, what we found was an estimated number of about 5,500 to 6,300 parents in Mississippi being served by the centers that participate in CCPT are locked out of that program because of this requirement. And that multiplies out into almost 10,000 kids.

I want to say too the survey finding on child support being a major barrier is really significant because not only did we get that response in those structured questions I mentioned, but we also asked an open-ended question and we didn’t include any structured response. And we didn’t even say, “Tell us about child support.”

In this open-ended question we just asked providers, “What are the main reasons that parents can’t get approved for CCPT?” And even in those open-ended responses, the providers, the vast majority of providers wrote in the child support requirement. And so it’s just another very strong indication from the survey, how harmful that requirement in that policy is.

And I do think these survey results show that if that policy was removed, we would be looking at a very immediate increase in parents who are able to get into this program. 

Geoff Pender: So parents can’t wade through one pile of red tape because they can’t get through the other pile of red tape, basically. 

Matt Williams: And that point just reminded me that the survey, also it providers and parents, when you talk to them about the child support enforcement requirement, it is essentially its own application process.

So when you’re, you know, you have a single mom applying for childcare assistance, she actually has to go also in that process apply essentially through the child support enforcement division. So it’s really a dual application process.

Carol Burnett: And it depends on DHS to be internally communicative about an application. So we’ve had parents that were trying to comply, and child support just didn’t get the information that childcare needed within DHS. And so that kind of stuff happens. But the other thing I just wanted to underscore about this child support requirement is that it’s not federally mandated in this program.

I want to make clear that it is a choice the state has made to impose this requirement, and it’s a choice they could make to eliminate it.

Anna Wolfe: And just in case for our listeners, this is a requirement that it makes usually single moms sue their children’s father in order to get child support, they have to turn that money over to the state in order to qualify for this assistance.

It’s not something that’s federally required. It creates problems for single moms who, you know, might not want to go that direction with their child’s father, but even when they are in the program through redetermination for childcare assistance, they have to go to a child support office and get a letter of certification, proving that they’re in the program in order to qualify for childcare.

So even just the process of going to get that letter can create a barrier, one because there’s not child support offices in every county and it can be difficult to make that happen, so I’ve found talking to parents and providers. 

Carol Burnett: Yeah. And parents have a range of reasons that this is such a barrier from, you know, a mom who might have a decent relationship with the dad and they’ve arranged an informal agreement where he’s going to pay the rent or the car note or whatever. And those agreements get renegotiated depending on if his employment situation changes all the way to cases where the absent dad is abusive either to the mom or to the children, and so there is literally a worry about harm. And in those cases, DHS says that there is a way to seek an exemption from having to comply. But we’ve had parents who had legal documentation of injunctions in court orders. And even in those cases, the DHS still imposed the requirement. We’ve had a mom tell DHS that the dad was dead, and the DHS was still requiring— I mean, it’s just really a barrier. It’s really a barrier. 

Anna Wolfe: And in particular is indicative of those attitudes surrounding public assistance and who should get them and why. 

Geoff Pender: Matt, Carol, thank you both for being here. This sounds like something we could perhaps schedule some future episodes and definitely want to keep track of what happens here.

We truly appreciate you joining us today and pointing out these issues, and yeah, we’re going to have to be watching to see what DHS does or doesn’t do. Hopefully some of these issues can be addressed with this extra funding. 

Carol Burnett: Well, thanks for having us. It’s good to talk about these issues and, you know, we are very hopeful. I think I was trying to make clear DHS has a lot of power to make decisions that would correct the problems. The survey gives us information from people who I think have the greatest expertise in this program because they use it. The parents who have it or trying to get it, the providers who rely on it, they see it in operation on the ground.

And so it’s consumer input for DHS to hear about how it’s working and not working and how changes could be made, and it’s easy for DHS to make those changes. So we would call on them to do so. 

Geoff Pender: Thank you everyone for being here.

Matt Williams: Thank you.

Adam Ganucheau: As we cover the biggest political stories in this state, you don’t want to miss an episode of The Other Side. We’ll bring you more reporting from every corner of the state, sharing the voices of Mississippians and how they’re impacted by the news. So, what do we need from you, the listener? We need your feedback and support.

If you listen to the podcast on a player like iTunes or Stitcher, please subscribe to the show and leave us a review. We also have an email in which you can share your feedback. That address is Podcast@MississippiToday.org. Y’all can also reach out to me or any of my colleagues through social media or email. And as always thank you for your feedback and support.

Subscribe to our weekly podcast on your favorite podcast app or stream episodes online at MississippiToday.org/the-other-side. For the Mississippi Today team, I’m Adam Ganucheau. The Other Side is produced by Mississippi Today and engineered by Blue Sky Studios. We hope you’ll join us for our next episode.

The post Podcast: Federal funds provide opportunity to fix child care program for working parents appeared first on Mississippi Today.

At the Country Club of Jackson this weekend, Joe Sanderson surely enjoyed what he has desired all along since he stepped up and effectively rescued Mississippi’s only PGA Tour tournament from extinction back in 2013.

Now, we’ll see what the future holds for the 54-year-old Sanderson Farms Championship, which has raised millions upon millions for Mississippi charities, primarily Children’s of Mississippi Hospital. We’ll get to that uncertain future shortly, but first let’s count the ways that the 2021 championship was precisely what Sanderson has envisioned:

• Weather. When humid, warmer-than-normal October temperature is the lone complaint for a tournament that has endured spring floods, broiling July heat, tornadoes, hurricanes and more, we can consider that a good thing.
• World class golf. Sam Burns, one of the tour’s hottest young guns won with a final round 67 and a 72-hole total of 22 under par. You’ve never seen so many birdies. Ten golfers finished the 72 holes with scores of 19-under par or better. The most accomplished field in the tournament’s history took advantage of the cooperative weather and the pristine greens to pepper the leaderboard with red numbers from start to finish.
• Crowds. There were none last year because of COVID, but the galleries returned this past week — and especially over the weekend — helped by Mississippi’s major college football programs all playing road games Saturday. Mississippi’s PGA tourney had the look and feel of a what we see on network TV on a weekly basis.

Any other time you’d say the future appears brighter than Sunday’s sunshine. And it still could be. But it is no great secret what clouds the Sanderson Farms tournament’s future. It’s the pending $4.5 billion sale of Sanderson Farms, the Laurel-based poultry company, to Cargill and Continental Grain, two international agricultural conglomerates. The sale is expected to go through before the end of the year or early 2022 at the latest.

Yes, Sanderson Farms is under a current 10-year contract the PGA Tour to sponsor the tournament through 2026, but that contract is non-transferable in the event of new ownership, Joe Sanderson said earlier this week. What that means is that it will be up to the new ownership to determine whether to keep funding the event.

“There are no guarantees, but I am optimistic,” said Sanderson. “Both the buyers are community minded companies. I have high hopes they will see fit to continue. This tournament has been a blessing for Jackson, for Mississippi and for Mississippi children.”

And perhaps the new owners will continue what has become a Mississippi tradition. But there’s no possible way the new ownership could be as invested in the Magnolia State as Sanderson. You should know that Sanderson is as Mississippi as grits and biscuits. He grew up in Laurel, played halfback in high school for the legendary Barney Poole and went to college at Millsaps. Sanderson Farms, under his guidance, has grown from a community farm supply store — a family business that sold seed, feed, fertilizer and other farm supplies — into the country’s third largest poultry producer. Yes, and corporate offices are still listed at 127 Flynt Road, Laurel, MS 39443.

In contrast, Continental Grain was founded in Belgium and has offices in 10 countries with headquarters in New York City. Cargill has home offices in Minnesota and Delaware.

“I have high hopes this tournament will continue and will continue to grow here,” said Sanderson, who said he will make the first payment to the PGA Tour toward 2022 tournament next month.

Meanwhile, Steve Jent, the tournament’s executive director, says work on the 2022 event will begin immediately.

“We are working on the assumption that we have five years left on the agreement with the PGA Tour,” Jent said. “But we aren’t privy what is going on with the sale. For us, right now, it is business as usual.”

Business was good, really good, this past week. As for the future, clearly, it is very much up in the air. Count the championship’s newest champion, Burns, among those hoping to see it continue. The 25-year-old Shreveport native and former LSU player turned pro in 2017. His first PGA event that year was Joe Sanderson’s baby.

“This is one of my favorite events on tour, I always enjoy coming here, being close to home…” Burns said. “God willing I’ll be able to play here for the next 20 years, and it will always have a special place in my heart.”

The post Sam Burns won the Sanderson Farms Championship. Now we’ll see what the event’s future holds. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with Karen Matthews, Chief Executive Officer and President of the Delta Health Alliance. Matthews talks about growing up in Fulton, Mississippi, studying engineering and accounting and how she made the pivot to healthcare.

She also shares some of the success stories of the Delta Health Alliance from the past 20 years and some of its (and the state’s) biggest challenges. Created by the late Senator Thad Cochran, DHA funds and operates 40 different healthcare initiatives in 38 Mississippi counties. Health truly does equal wealth.

The post Mississippi Stories: Karen Matthews appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Last year, the state crime lab completed an autopsy from 2011.

Today, the backlog of 1,600 autopsies for the crime lab to perform includes those where the deaths occurred in 2015.

Commissioner of Public Safety Sean Tindell recently stressed that the policy is to perform as soon as possible the autopsies needed for criminal investigations and trials.

“I will emphasize most of that backlog on autopsy reports are non-homicides..,” Tindell recently told the Legislative Budget Committee members who are working to develop a budget recommendation for the next fiscal year starting in July. “There just has not been a lot of pressure on getting them done. That is no excuse.”

He added, “I think where there is a murder or homicide we want to expedite those as soon as possible.”

 Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who is chair of the Budget Committee, said six years is too long to wait for any autopsy.

“The non-murders are, for example, one who contacted us was a mother and two children whose husband died unexpectedly,” Hosemann said. “They couldn’t get their life insurance benefits and that is the only money they had. With all due respect, I think those are important.”

Tindell wholeheartedly agreed and said that is why he is working to ensure all autopsies are completed in 90 days. And truth be known, Tindell, who was appointed public safety commissioner when Reeves’ term as governor began in January 2020, cannot be held responsible for a backlog, caused at least in part, by years of underfunding of the state crime lab.

The underfunding does not end with the crime lab. Point a random finger at almost any entity in state government and an example of underfunding can be found. For years, Mississippi, the poorest state in the nation, has been beset with a multitude of problems and a limited amount of state revenue to address those woes. Whether it be teacher salaries or salaries for employees at multiple other governmental agencies, or aging technology or dilapidated school buildings or poor health care, the list of problems facing the state goes on and on.

Yet in about a five-year period during the last decade, about 50 tax cuts were enacted that when finally, fully phased in will take more than $700 million annually in revenue out of the state’s coffers.

Now Reeves and legislators are eyeing more tax cuts. Thanks in large part to the massive influx of federal COVID-19 relief funds that arguably helped Mississippi more than any state in the nation, state coffers are relatively flush. Many leaders are bragging about the state’s fiscal condition, taking credit for it and saying now is the time for a tax cut.

Yet, during one day of recent budget hearings, one agency head after another bemoaned the problems they face because of primarily a lack of funding. Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain reported that if he does not find a way to hire more prison guards, who have perennially been underpaid, then the federal Department of Justice is going to step in and sue because of the state’s inadequate prison conditions.

Brad White, executive director of the Department of Transportation, lamented his agency’s inability to hire employees.

“We are no longer in a position to adequately compete with the private sector,” White said.

Revenue Commissioner Chris Graham said, “Our applications (for employment) have dried up.”

State employees and teachers are paid less than their counterparts in surrounding states.

Wendy Bailey, executive director of the Department of Mental Health, said the work force for her agency has decreased by almost 4,000 since 2009.

Various studies have even cited the state’s declining workforce as one of the reasons for the struggles to fund the Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System. Put simply, the reports say there are not enough workers paying into the retirement system to support it.

Back in the last decade as legislators were cutting taxes, many leaders said their goal was to starve government.

“We Republicans have campaigned for many, many years that we are for living within our means. We are for controlling spending. We are for reducing the size of government,” House Speaker Philip Gunn said in 2017 as reported by the Associated Press. “We don’t have a revenue problem; we have a spending problem. We are for reducing the tax burden.”

The governor echoed those thoughts.

“That’s what voters elected us to do. They elected us to live within our means,” Reeves said. “They believe they ought to send less money to the government. They believe that they are already overtaxed and overburdened.”

Perhaps Reeves could add that many Mississippians, whether it’s the family waiting for that autopsy report needed to collect life insurance or the child lacking a certified teacher, are also underserved.

The post As leaders eye tax cuts, state services go unmet appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Last week, Pfizer announced that its COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective for children ages 5 to 11. Currently, the youngest group eligible for vaccination are ages 12 to 17. Overall, minors have accounted for almost 18% of total cases in Mississippi to date.

View our data comparing the total COVID-19 cases by age group and their approval for vaccination.

View more COVID-19 in Mississippi demographic data here.

READ MORE:

• COVID-19 in Mississippi schools, 2021-22 school year

• Vaccination progress by age group in Mississippi

The post Data: COVID-19 cases in children appeared first on Mississippi Today.