OurTupelo

A school nurse told students and families on Tuesday there were so many cases of COVID-19 in the school it was “almost impossible to contact trace” and for all seventh through 12th graders to assume they’d been exposed as a result. 

The situation at West Lincoln Attendance Center in Brookhaven, where there is not a mask mandate – and its quick transition to a hybrid model of instruction following the holiday break – is not unique. 

Schools are battling staffing and substitute teacher shortages, closures and a large number of student absences as teachers and administrators attempt to kick off the spring semester.

Omicron, the dominant and extremely contagious strain of the coronavirus, is making its way across the state, and schools are not spared. The state saw a record-high number of new cases on Thursday with over 8,000 Mississippians testing positive in a single day.

The Department of Health reported 1,541 teachers and staff who had tested positive across 633 schools for the week of Jan. 3-7, the highest number of positive staff reported at any point in the pandemic. 

On top of logistical and health challenges, school leaders are also dealing with students and families’ COVID-19 fatigue. Oxford School District Superintendent told his school board last week he wasn’t sure the community “would stomach another mask mandate.” A board member made a motion to require masks anyway, but other board members did not support it. 

On Thursday, the district announced it would be closed on Friday and extend the observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

“Today, we have a total of 107 staff members out and 58 of those are classroom teachers,” a memo sent to parents and students stated. “… WIth so many employees out, it is difficult to provide the quality of instruction our students are accustomed.”

Roberson and another district-level administrator had been acting as elementary school principals earlier in the week after four administrators tested positive for COVID-19, the district’s public relations official told Mississippi Today. 

The Yazoo County School District delayed its in-person start date an additional two days after more than 10 faculty and staff members were either quarantined or sick with the virus, said Superintendent Ken Barron. 

All students and staff returned to campus this week, and each school has seen hundreds of absent students in the first three days of school. 

Barron, along with many other school leaders, emphasize they’re doing everything they can to keep kids in school, including the mask mandate that has been in place since the beginning of the school year.

“As long as we have enough adults up here to hold school, we will be here,” he said. 

Teachers and staff who got vaccinated by the end of last year were eligible for a financial incentive, which Barron said has helped reduce infection and quarantine numbers in that group. The district has also continued to require masks all year.

“We are trying everything we can to stay open,” he said. 

Nearly 7,000 students in Vicksburg Warren School District on Friday began a five-day, district-wide quarantine, according to a press release. Schools and offices will be closed until Wednesday of next week.

School officials did not provide current case and quarantine numbers for the district, but public relations official Christi Kilroy said the “numbers were climbing rapidly this week.”

“The safety of our students and staff is always on our minds and, with numbers rising quickly, the board felt it best to do a shutdown,” she said in an email. “With so many out, we were also having difficulty covering staff needs to keep schools and offices open.”

In the DeSoto County School District, where masks are not mandatory, Superintendent Cory Uselton said the district’s biggest challenge right now is staffing issues. Despite increasing substitute teacher pay this year, they have still had to utilize teacher’s assistants as substitutes and some teachers have had to forego their planning periods to cover a colleague’s class.

A few classrooms across the district are currently quarantining, following the Department of Health’s guidance that a classroom should isolate if three students test positive, but Uselton said at this time there have not been enough clusters to necessitate switching an entire school to remote learning. 

He said all teachers have been told to be prepared to pivot to virtual learning within 24 hours notice, and said that while this surge has been tough on both teachers and students, he is proud of the work teachers are doing to continue educating despite the circumstances. 

The post K-12 schools reopened across Mississippi this week. Omicron has forced many into virtual learning. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Say what? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Sen. Kevin Blackwell recited Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” — “everybody must get stoned” — and passed out various sized hemp samples before the Senate on Thursday passed a long-debated Mississippi medical marijuana program.

The vote on Senate Bill 2095 was initially counted as 45-5, well beyond what would be considered a veto-proof majority, but subject to change as it was by use of morning roll call and senators could change their votes or check in through the end of the day.

The measure was held on a technical motion, but is expected to move to the House on Monday. Its passage is expected to be a heavier lift there, but Rep. Lee Yancey — who has worked with Blackwell for months on the legislation, said he’s confident it will pass, if not by a veto-proof two-thirds majority. On Thursday several House members, including Yancey, stood on the Senate floor or gallery during the debate.

“He’s just handed me the football,” Yancey said after he congratulated Blackwell.

Gov. Tate Reeves threatened a veto of an earlier version of the legislation, saying it allowed patients too much marijuana and would be a toehold for recreational use. The bill the Senate passed had been tweaked, lowering the amount from 4 ounces a month to 3.5 ounces, but that would still appear to be far more than Reeves wanted, and the daily dosage unit in the bill was left the same, 3.5 grams, which Reeves said would amount to 11 joints a day.

Blackwell, a Republican from Southaven, passed out a 1.5-gram hemp cigarette, a 3.5-gram packet of hemp, and a 1-ounce package. He noted that it was recently said on a radio program that an ounce was the size of a loaf of bread.

“I don’t know where they get their bread,” Blackwell said, as some lawmakers passed around the samples while others declined.

READ MORE: Senate vote on Mississippi medical marijuana bill expected Thursday. Here’s a look at the bill.

Blackwell gave a brief history lesson on how cannabis has been used as medicine for centuries and is now legal in 35 other states then spent the next two hours successfully fending off amendments to the bill. One, he said, was a killing amendment offered by Sen. Angela Burks Hill, R-Picayune. It was a “strike all” that would have rewritten the entire bill to prohibit patients smoking marijuana, required pharmacists to distribute it and limited production to four place statewide.

READ MORE: Lost in the shuffle: Chronically ill people suffer as Mississippi politicians quibble over medical marijuana

Hill said she was trying to ensure the state had a conservative medical marijuana program that wouldn’t morph into recreational use as has happened in many other states.

“You don’t smoke medicine,” she said.

Other offered amendments included one from Sen. Barbara Blackmon, D-Canton, to allow outdoor growing of medical marijuana “and let Mississippi farmers take advantage of this new cash crop.”

Blackwell countered that regulation of the product “from seed to sale” would be difficult and having lots of outdoor farms would open the program to the black market and organized crime, as has happened in other states.

“We are not Oklahoma, and this program is not going to be Oklahoma 2.0,” Blackwell said.

He assured senators that he and others have done much work over months to ensure the program would be medical, not recreational or expanding the black market, and well regulated.

READ MORE: How regulated should Mississippi medical marijuana be?

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann recently called it the most scrutinized legislation in recent history and said Thursday, “It’s been well vetted, including again here today on the Senate floor.” Hosemann said he has not talked with Reeves about the bill and does not know if he’s still considering a veto. Other House and Senate leaders said the same Thursday.

“I think he has been briefed on the bill,” Hosemann said.

Lawmakers are attempting to reenact a medical marijuana program after voters overwhelmingly passed one in 2020, only to have it shot down on a technicality by the state Supreme Court. But the Legislature in this conservative state has struggled for years with the issue, despite growing voter sentiment — and even a citizen-passed ballot initiative — that the state join most others in legalizing marijuana for medical use.

Advocates of medical marijuana, including many who pushed for passage of Initiative 65, watched the Senate vote from the gallery and were in a celebratory mood after.

Bethany Hill, president of We Are the 74 — a group named for the 74% of voters who chose Initiative 65 over another option in 2020 — said she’s confident the measure will pass the House and that Reeves will withhold his veto stamp.

Hill said she was pleased to see Blackwell hand out samples showing various weights and measures of hemp.

“The governor’s colorful description of cannabis has kind of scared people,” Hill said. “You can’t get 11 joints out of 3.5 grams … If he vetoes it at this point, that’s insane. I think he’s kind of backed off.”

Blackwell on Thursday told lawmakers that the state’s medical marijuana program, if passed into law, will require ongoing monitoring and likely future legislative tweaks but “It will be one of the better bills throughout the nation.”

At the end of his time presenting the legislation to the Senate, Blackwell said: “We talked about a lot of things up here today, but one thing we didn’t talk a lot about was the people that we are doing this for. There are a lot of sick folks out there that this is going to help, and there are a lot of people that have been waiting a long time.”

After the vote, Blackwell had to return to the mic to ask, “that the samples that I sent out please be returned to us.”

The post Senate overwhelmingly passes Mississippi medical marijuana appeared first on Mississippi Today.

One fact I’ve learned over the decades: If there’s a huge football game or event – anywhere – there’s a Mississippian, usually several, somehow involved. 

It was true in the National Championship game Monday night, when Horn Lake native Nakobe Dean terrorized Alabama’s defense and Gulfport native Matt Luke’s offensive line took over the game in the fourth quarter of Georgia’s 33-18 victory. There was also Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett, who resurrected his career at Jones College in Ellisville, making the key passes on plays called by former Southern Miss head coach Todd Monken.

And it was true also earlier this week when 2022 the class of the College Football Hall of Fame was announced and three men with strong Mississippi ties – Dennis Thomas, Sylvester Croom and the late Billy “Spook” Murphy – all made the grade. Thomas, of Heidelberg, played and coached at Alcorn State. Croom, an Alabama native, famously became the SEC’s first Black head coach at Mississippi State. Murphy, who grew up in Arkansas, was a two-time All-SEC tailback at Mississippi State before becoming a legendary coach at then-Memphis State.

Thomas and Croom made the Hall of Fame as players, Murphy as a coach. Thomas just might be the most interesting story of all.

Thomas, an offensive lineman, was two times an All American at Alcorn. And, get this: In 1973, the legendary Walter Payton’s spectacular junior season at Jackson State, Thomas, not Payton, was named the SWAC’s Offensive Player of the Year. That season, Payton rushed for 1,139 yards, scored 24 touchdowns, kicked two field goals and 13 extra points. Thomas, a center, just blocked. Clearly, he must have knocked people over like bowling pins. After all, Jackie Slater, who blocked for Payton, went on to become a Pro Football Hall of Famer, considered one of the greatest offensive linemen in his history of the sport.

And you may ask, how in the world is that possible? A center beat out one of college football’s all-time legends for Player of the Year.

Says Thomas, who now lives near Tampa, Fla., “Walter and I were arch-rivals but also friends. After he went to Chicago and went on to become a big star in the NFL, he used to kid me about me winning that award over him. I told him, I said, ‘Walter, as well as you could run, I could block. If you’d have had me blocking for you, you would have rushed for 2,000 yards.’ We both got a big laugh out of that.”

Thomas played high school ball at Southside High in Heidelberg in Jasper County, where he was coached by Archie “The Gunslinger” Cooley. James Brooks recruited Thomas to Alcorn, where he played for another College Football Hall of Famer, Marino Casem. At Alcorn, Thomas’ position coach was none other than Jack “The Ripper” Spinks, the first Black player from Mississippi to play in the NFL. 

We’re getting deep into Mississippi football history here, much of it previously unwritten.

“Jack Spinks was the ultimate tactician as far as playing offensive line,” Thomas says. “He knew every technique. What’s more, he was a great man. You know, he was part of every championship Coach Casem won at Alcorn.”

Cooley also coached Thomas at Alcorn, before going on to fame as head coach at Mississippi Valley State where he coached Jerry Rice and Willie Totten and rewrote the NCAA offensive record books. On Nov. 4, 1984, a Sunday, Alcorn and Mississippi Valley State, both undefeated, played what has become known as “The Game of the Century” before the largest crowd in history of Veterans Memorial Stadium. It was Marino “The Godfather” Casem coaching against Archie “The Gunslinger” Cooley. Coaching defense for Alcorn was none other than Dennis Thomas. Valley was averaging nearly 60 points per game. Alcorn usually won with defense. It really was a classic matchup.

“We studied Valley’s offense and all the personnel groupings they used,” Thomas said. “Lots of times, we could tell by how they lined up, and who was in the game at the time, what plays they were going to run.”

Alcorn defeated Valley 42-28, using a defensive scheme devised by Thomas and Casem.

Surely, Thomas’ extensive research of Valley’s formations and personnel groupings helped. So did cornerback Isaac Holt’s smothering defense of Rice. Holt had his hands on Rice on virtually every play.

Said Holt, after the game, “Coach Casem told me the officials can’t call holding on every play.”

And they didn’t. It remains one of the great days in Mississippi football history.

Thomas went on to become head coach at South Carolina State and then athletic director at Hampton University, before becoming the commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) from 2002 until last December.

Croom and Murphy made football history in different ways: Croom as a two-time All American at Alabama and then as a head coach at Mississippi State, and Murphy, as the coach who built a rock-solid football program at Memphis.

Before that, Murphy was the tailback in the single-wing offense of coach Allyn McKeen, when McKeen’s Bulldogs were a SEC powerhouse. In fact, McKeen gave Murphy his famous nickname “Spook.” McKeen called Billy Jack Murphy a “speed spook.” That was shortened to Spook – and it stuck.

And perhaps that’s enough Mississippi football history for one day.

The post Mississippi’s rich football history includes Heidelberg’s Thomas appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Hinds County District Attorneys Office is asking a grand jury to consider new information gathered during its investigation into Nancy and Zach New, figures in Mississippi’s welfare scandal.

The state has also asked Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Faye Peterson to postpone the New case, which is set for trial on Feb. 7, to give the grand jury enough time to convene. The recent motion suggests the state expects a grand jury to hand down new criminal indictments against the News, which will likely have many parallels to the first.

Meanwhile, attorneys for the News wrote a scathing 12-page motion accusing State Auditor Shad White, who originally investigated the case, of attempting to try their case in the media.

“Auditor White’s statements went beyond the information contained in the indictments and instead amounted to character attacks and assurances that those charged were indeed guilty,” the attorneys wrote. “White’s emphasis on ‘influential people,’ ‘politically connected’ persons, and allegations of stealing from the poor for personal gain gave the story special pique and media saturation across Mississippi.”

Attorneys for another defendant in the scheme, former welfare director John Davis, made similar arguments in his case recently.

The News’ motion asks the court to suppress White from speaking to the media — even though there is already a gag order in the case — and also asks the judge to move the trial, known as a change of venue, “due to the relentless actions taken by the State Auditor to poison the jury pool.”

The auditor’s office declined to comment for this story.

A Hinds County grand jury first accused the News in 2020 of each defrauding the state and embezzling over $4 million in federal dollars their nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center received from Mississippi Department of Human Services. A year later, a grand jury combined their charges into one case.

The News are also facing separate federal charges related to public school funds they allegedly bilked from the government for their private schools. Most recently, U.S. District Court Judge Judge Carlton Reeves set trial in that case for May 9.

The state criminal charges address just a fraction of a sprawling alleged scheme that resulted in $70 million wasted or misspent, according to auditors. Though the money was supposed to help the poor and prevent poverty, much of it enriched the friends and families of powerful officials.

In October, a forensic audit revealed new details about the state’s welfare spending, but because the News did not cooperate with the audit, the accountants could not parse out exactly what happened to $40 million the New nonprofit spent. The public still doesn’t know where millions went.

“The State of Mississippi has conducted a through (sic) investigation of the financial and corporate records of the Defendant Nancy New, her Co-Defendant, Zachary New, as well the various corporations in which those defendants hold either ownership or directorship interests or positions in,” the state’s latest motion reads. “…additional involvement of a Hinds County Grand Jury is necessary to address specific instances of potential criminal conduct … which may result in a superceding (sic) indictment.”

What makes the New case so complicated is the manner in which they kept their books. The News had several bank accounts for each of the family’s ventures — from Mississippi Community Education Center to New Learning Resources, most well known as New Summit School, to New Learning Resources Online to Spectrum Academy and private LLCs, such as 204 Key or Avalon Holdings, which shared a $6 million commercial loan with NLR, documents show. The nonprofit MCEC was the one receiving the welfare funds, but in their accounting, fund sources were co-mingled. Over the last two years, welfare agency officials and the auditor’s office have expressed their difficulty following the money.

“This has become a numbers case,” Nancy New told reporters in November of 2020, before a judge issued the first gag order.

Prosecutors allege the News took welfare money from their nonprofit to make personal investments of over $2 million into a biomedical startup that was trying to develop a new drug to prevent the damaging effects of concussions. The companies, Prevacus and PreSolMD, were started by Florida scientist Jake Vanlandingham. Brett Favre had endorsed and invested in the companies. The former NFL quarterback even hosted meetings at his house with welfare officials and the scientist, during which they came up with the deal.

Vanlandingham promised the News a 2% share “and getting paid regularly,” and Zach New told Vanlandingham to put the stock in the name of N3 LLC, public records show. Vanlandingham told Mississippi Today in 2020 that while he knew the nonprofit was associated with a public grant, he had no idea their money came from the federal welfare program.

The post Welfare scandal: Hinds DA pursues new indictment, News ask to relocate trial appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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

After years of debate and hang-fire, a Mississippi medical marijuana program for people with chronic and debilitating illnesses inched forward Wednesday, with a Senate committee passing a bill along to the full chamber.

A vote by the full Senate chamber is expected Thursday. Passage there would send it to the House, where some political observers say its passage is less assured. Last week, House Speaker Philip Gunn said “candidly, that is not a top issue for us.” Gov. Tate Reeves has been critical of an earlier version of the bill as allowing patients too much marijuana and refused to call a special legislative session for it this summer and fall. In a late change, the amount was reduced slightly, but it is unclear if that would prevent a Reeves veto.

“The more we tinker with this, the longer we debate it, the longer the delay for the people who voted for this and the patients who need this program,” Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven — who has worked for months crafting the measure — said as he fended off attempted amendments in committee.

READ MORE: Lost in the shuffle: Chronically ill people suffer as Mississippi politicians quibble over medical marijuana

Lawmakers are attempting to reenact a medical marijuana program after voters overwhelmingly passed one in 2020, only to have it shot down on a technicality by the state Supreme Court. But the Legislature in this conservative state has struggled for years with the issue, despite growing voter sentiment — and even a citizen-passed ballot initiative — that the state join most others in legalizing marijuana for medical use.

“It’s probably not a perfect bill, but we tried to be conservative, take the intent of (voters’) Initiative 65 and keep it within that framework,” Blackwell said. He said he and other legislative leaders looked closely at other states’ programs to learn best practices and what to avoid. The Senate Public Health Committee held hearings over the summer on the issue.

“We did a number of things to prevent us becoming Oklahoma,” Blackwell said. The Sooner State has a medical program that has become a de facto recreational one and has had problems with people abusing the system and black market and organized crime infiltration.

READ MORE: How regulated should Mississippi medical marijuana be?

Blackwell said it is estimated about 24,000 Mississippians will qualify for medical marijuana use in the first year of the program, increasing to about 125,000 within five years.

Angie Calhoun, founder of the Mississippi Cannabis Patients Alliance and a proponent of Initiative 65, said she was satisfied with the version of the bill approved by committee on Wednesday and cautiously optimistic about its passage into law.

“I think Sen. Blackwell has done an amazing job with this, and I know he’s done a lot of hard work,” Calhoun said. “As he said, the longer we postpone this, the longer patients who are suffering have to wait.”

She said she and her group have tried to talk with Reeves, but have “been unable to get a response.”

READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves dodging on promised medical marijuana session

Sen. Barbara Blackmon, D-Canton, unsuccessfully tried to amend the bill in committee Wednesday to allow outdoor growing, which she said would help Mississippi farmers more easily get into the business, which she said is a “new cash cow.” She also unsuccessfully tried to amend the measure to require “equity” and give preference to minorities with new cannabis businesses in Mississippi.

State Rep. Lee Yancey, R-Brandon, has worked with Blackwell on the measure for months and is leading the House movement for its passage there.

“I think we’re ready to get it through the House,” Yancey said. “I anticipate a conclusion soon to this long process. I’m very proud of Sen. Blackwell and the yeoman’s work he has done on this. I am looking forward to patients having another option besides opioids.”

Some particulars of Senate Bill 2095, the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act of 2022:

• Allows patients to receive up to 3.5 ounces of marijuana a month. Initiative 65 would have allowed up to 5 ounces a month. An earlier draft of the new bill would have allowed up to 4 ounces, but was reduced in late negotiations. Gov. Reeves had voiced opposition — and threatened a veto — over the 4 ounces. He had proposed cutting that amount in half, then later allowing maximum dosing only by physicians, not other practitioners.

• Allows people to receive medical marijuana for the 22 conditions listed in Initiative 65, such as cancer and epilepsy, and adds hepatitis, Alzheimer’s disease and spastic quadriplegia. It also allows it as treatment for chronic, debilitating pain. Conditions can be added to the list only by the Department of Health, not doctors.

• Allows physicians, certified nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants and optometrists to certify patients for cannabis use. A patient has to have an in-person assessment, a “bona fide relationship” with the practitioner and a follow up assessment within six months. Only physicians can certify minors for use. For people aged 18-25 — most susceptible to abuse of the drug, Blackwell said — a doctor plus another practitioner have to sign off on certification.

• Creates a “seed-to-sale” tracking system of marijuana production and sales, with strict reporting requirements for practitioners and cannabis businesses. It also provides criminal penalties and imprisonment for violations. It requires growing to be done indoors, which Blackwell said makes regulation easier and prevent black market and organized crime problems other states have seen.

• Applies the state sales tax (currently 7%) to retail sales of cannabis. Applies a 5% excise for cultivation. Money collected goes into the state general fund.

• Allows the governing boards of cities or counties to opt out of allowing medical cannabis by a vote within 90 days of passage of the act. If they opt out, citizens can opt the city or county back in by referendum.

• Prohibits any lawmaker or their spouses from having an interest in a cannabis business in Mississippi for one year. He said that with a part-time, citizen Legislature such a prohibition shouldn’t be permanent, but would prevent a conflict for lawmakers voting to enact the program.

• Cannabis businesses can be located in any areas with commercial zoning, but cannot be within 1,000 feet of a school, church or daycare, and dispensaries cannot be closer than 1,500 feet to each other. Cities or counties can require cannabis businesses to get licenses, permits or registration.

• Will not prevent any employer from firing or refusing to hire someone who is using medical cannabis, or from having drug testing policies. Landlords are not required to allow medical cannabis production or use in rental property.

• Prevents people losing custodial or visitation rights with their children for use of medical cannabis, and says users shall not be denied the right to purchase or possess a firearm. This has been an issue in other states, and federal firearms regulations prohibit marijuana use.

• Creates a tier system of cultivators and fees. This starts with a “micro-cultivator” of 1,000 square feet or less, with a one-time license fee of $1,500 and an annual renewal fee of $2,000 and goes up to a “tier 6” grower of 100,000 square feet or more, with a license fee of $40,000 and an annual renewal fee of $100,000. A similar tiered system and fees apply to dispensaries.

• Requires the Health Department to begin issuing cards to patients within 60 days of passage of the measure, and requires start of licensing of growers within 120 days and dispensaries within 150 days.

• Creates a nine-member medical cannabis advisory committee to monitor the program, with three members each appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker.

The post Senate vote on Mississippi medical marijuana bill expected Thursday. Here’s a look at the bill. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi continued to disproportionately subsidize in-state tuition for white, wealthier students at the expense of working class students of color last school year, according to the annual report released Thursday by the Post-Secondary Education Financial Assistance Board. 

Last year, Mississippi continued to spend almost half of its limited financial aid budget on programs that mainly benefit students whose families can already afford to pay for college, according to the report.

Of the 24,797 students who received state aid last school year, 20% were from poor families that make less than $30,000 a year. Nearly 50% of recipients came from families with an annual income greater than $75,000. In Mississippi, the median household income is $45,000. 

Broken down by race, the gap is starker. Seventy percent of students who received state aid were white while 20% were Black. Those percentages are nearly identical to OSFA’s report last year.  

The demographic breakdown also remained unchanged for each of the state’s three financial aid programs. The Higher Education Legislative Plan for Needy Students, or HELP, grant — the only state aid program that takes need into account — continued to be the most racially equitable. The vast majority of recipients of the Mississippi Eminent Scholars Grant, or MESG, were white students. 

A significant reason why working class students of color are disproportionately shut out from state financial aid has to do with the programs’ eligibility requirements. Low-income students who are eligible for the Pell Grant are automatically excluded from the Mississippi Tuition Assistance Grant, the most common aid award. HELP and MESG both have relatively high ACT requirements for Mississippi, where the average score is a 20. The minimum ACT score for HELP is a 20, and a 29 for MESG.

Overall, the number of students receiving state aid fell by 1,525. MESG was the only program that saw growth in the number of recipients. 

At its meeting Thursday, the Post-Secondary Board touched on potential reasons for this decline. Jennifer Rogers, who directs the Office of Student Financial Aid, said she had expected to see the number of recipients increase. Her office, which oversees state aid programs, had started accepting ACT superscores last year, making it easier for students to qualify. COVID may have affected that. She said it could also be that the state is “maxed out” on the number of students who meet the eligibility criteria for the three financial aid programs. 

The board also discussed OSFA’s budget. Last session, for the third year in a row, the agency needed to request an additional appropriation from the Legislature. But for the coming fiscal year, Rogers said her office did not need to ask for deficit spending. 

That could impact prospects for the Mississippi One Grant, the new financial aid program that the board proposed last year. In writing the One Grant, the board wanted to create a program that would stay on budget to avoid asking the Legislature for more dollars.

The One Grant has yet to be taken up this session. If passed, it would increase the disparities already present in Mississippi’s state financial aid. 

“What I’m hearing is this session is very full and it’s gonna be difficult to address this and get it worked out and get a bill passed,” said Jim Turcotte, board chairman. “I do think that there’s an agreement that we need to do something different because the programs as they are are not sustainable over time." 

The post Mississippi continues to give financial aid to students who can already afford college, report shows appeared first on Mississippi Today.

In less than 45 minutes Wednesday afternoon, the House approved legislation that would provide the largest tax cut in the state’s history and one of Mississippi’s largest teacher pay raises.

Both bills now go to the Senate, where members are working on their own tax cut and teacher pay raise bills. While the House passed both bills in only the second week of the 2022 session, it is likely that the final outcome for both proposals will not be known until much later in the 90-day session.

Still, House Speaker Philip Gunn said his chamber’s members sent a strong message on Wednesday.

“These two items were top agenda items,” said Gunn, a Republican from Clinton. “We intended to roll both out early. We are glad to get them passed in short order. I think both had overwhelming support.”

Indeed, they did. The Mississippi Tax Freedom Act, touted by the speaker for two years, passed 97-12, with all the no votes coming from a minority of the 43-member Democratic caucus. Nine Democrats either did not vote or voted present. The START Act (the Strategically Accelerating the Recruitment and Retention of Teachers) passed 114-6, with six members of the 77-member Republican caucus voting against it.

House Ways and Means Chair Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, who presented the tax bill to the House members, pointed out that passing both bills on the same day sent a message that the Legislature could enact the historic tax cut and still meet the needs of the state.

READ MORE: Gunn’s hallmark plan to eliminate income tax, reduce food tax

READ MORE: The House’s massive teacher pay raise proposal

House Education Chair Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach, said the teacher pay proposal would provide a raise of $4,000 for all teachers — and more than $6,000 for some teachers — starting July 1. He said the increase is needed because pay is the top reason young people are not entering the teaching profession.

“We are competing with other states for our teachers,” Bennett told members.

Of the tax bill, Lamar said, “I believe it is time for historic, transformative, game changing legislation. This is absolutely transformative.”

The tax bill would phase out the state income tax in an estimated 10 years to 12 years, reduce the sales tax on food from 7% to 5.5% this July and ultimately reduce it to 4% and cut the car tag tax by 35%. To partially offset the massive cut, the bill increases the sales tax on most retail items from 7% to 8.5%.

When fully phased in, it is estimated that the bill will cut taxes $1.5 billion in today’s dollars. The current state-support budget is about $6.6 billion.

Rep. Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson, unsuccessfully offered an amendment to the tax bill that would have given low-income “working families” an additional tax break. They would have been eligible to receive from the state 15% of the earned income tax credit they receive from the federal government. The earned income tax credit provides funds to low-income working families, based on a number of conditions such as their income and their dependents.

Lamar said he did not rule out working with Summers later in the process to incorporate her proposal once he receives more information on the program.

Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville, said he supported the tax cut bill because “it is an opportunity to give people some relief on buying their groceries and car tags. In Washington County, the biggest complaint we get is on the cost of car tags.”

Plus, he added the passage of the bill is an opportunity to work on “building consensus” in the House. Hines said the bill needs “to be tweaked,” but there is time in the process to do that.

Lamar said there is money to do both the teacher pay raise and tax cut because of last year’s unprecedented 15.9% revenue growth and anticipated double-digit growth for the current fiscal year.

While there was little debate of the proposal on the House floor, One Voice, a nonprofit advocating for working families, said of the proposal: “Working families in the state will still be left to shoulder an even greater burden of replacing lost revenue from the tax cut with increased sales taxes on everyday items. These families already pay, on average, a larger share of their income in sales and property taxes than wealthier households.”

The teacher pay raise proposal, costing about $219 million, would move the starting teacher pay in Mississippi from $37,000 to $43,124 annually compared to $39,897 for the region and $41,163 for the nation, according to information provided by the House leadership.

The bill also provides a $2,000 salary hike for teacher assistants.

The post Major tax cut, teacher pay raise proposals sail through House with bipartisan support appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Legislature is a gubernatorial signature away from doing what it has not been able to accomplish since the early 1990s: pass a plan to redraw the state’s U.S. House districts.

The Mississippi Senate, by a 33-18 vote Wednesday, approved the congressional redistricting proposal that was passed earlier this session by the House. The plan now goes to Gov. Tate Reeves, who can choose to sign it into law or veto it.

(Editor’s note: The new congressional map can be found at the bottom of this story.)

After both the 2000 and 2010 U.S. censuses, the state’s congressional districts were redrawn by the federal courts after the Legislature could not agree on a plan because of partisan bickering.

There also were partisan differences this year, but the Republicans’ grasp on the legislative process is firm enough to stifle any Democratic objections.

In the Senate, as was the case in the House last week, Democrats opposed the Republican plan to expand the African American majority District 2 almost the length of the state from Tunica County in northwest Mississippi all the way to the Louisiana border in southwest Mississippi. District 2, if the plan is signed into law, will encompass 40% of the landmass of the state.

Senate Pro Tem Dean Kirby, R-Pearl, who presented the Republican plan, said the proposed District 2 maintained “communities of interest” since the district would run along the Mississippi River on the western side of the state.

“We were trying go with what the courts drew (in the past) as much as possible,” Kirby said, adding the plan is fair and that no incumbent congressmen gets everything he wanted in the proposal.

READ MORE: Groups allege Redistricting Committee violated public meetings law

The state’s longest serving U.S. representative, Bennie Thompson, who also is African American and the sole Democrat in the delegation, had proposed that all of Hinds County be included in his District 2. But the Republicans rejected that proposal.

Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, said Thompson, who is from Hinds County, should be able to represent all of his home county like the three white, Republican incumbents are able to do.

Of the Republican plan, Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood, said, “it makes a person like me (an African American) wonder.”

Sen. Angela Turner Ford, D-West Point, offered a plan that was rejected by the Republican majority that would have included a portion of fast growing DeSoto County and all of Hinds in Thompson’s District 2.

All of the proposals strived to maintain a District 2 with a Black population around 60%. Turner Ford’s proposal also increased the Black voting-age population of District 3, located primarily in east Mississippi, from the low 30 percent level to 37%.

“It represents an opportunity for those individuals who are part of the Black voting-age population to have more influence and a greater voice in Congressional District 3,” said Turner-Ford, who is Black.

All of the chamber’s 16 Democrats opposed the plan offered by the Republican majority. Two Republicans — Melanie Sojourner of Natchez and Chris McDaniel of Ellisville — voted against the Republican plan. Sojourner represents portions of southwest Mississippi that are being moved from District 3 to District 2 under the Republican plan.

The post Republican lawmakers send redrawn congressional districts to governor for final signature appeared first on Mississippi Today.