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Mississippi lawmakers resolve impasse over K-12 spending, hope to end session Thursday

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Mississippi lawmakers resolve impasse over K-12 spending, hope to end session Thursday

by Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender, Mississippi Today
March 29, 2023

The Mississippi Legislature, finally reaching a budget accord, worked late Wednesday night to pass that agreement with hopes of ending its 2023 session on Thursday.

A key peg in that deal is an agreement between House and Senate leaders to provide an additional $100 million for local school districts. The agreement will be divvied out to schools based on student enrollment with the understanding the money cannot be used to provide pay raises for administrators.

A key obstacle in the prolonged budget stalemate that began before last weekend was the desire of the Senate to place an additional $181 million in the funding formula in state law that provides for the basic needs of local school districts.

The Senate plan was to make minor adjustments in the Mississippi Adequate Education Program formula, and fully fund it for an additional $181 million for the first time since the 2007-08 school year.

READ MORE: Senate, Hosemann want to spend $181 million more to ‘fully fund’ public education in Mississippi

But House Speaker Philip Gunn and other members of his leadership team opposed placing additional money in MAEP. They have been advocates in the past of scrapping or overhauling the program.

Gunn stressed late Wednesday the additional $100 million will not go into the formula. But it will be provided to the schools, like the MAEP is, based on student enrollment. And while school districts will not have as much discretion as with MAEP in how the funds are spent, they still will have significant leeway in expending the funds.

Overall, Gunn said he is pleased with the agreement.

“We are going to make significant progress tonight and probably finish up on Thursday,” he said. “We are grateful to the Senate for working with us.”

The agreement also will include additional funds to deal with the devastation caused by last week’s tornadoes that ripped through the Delta and north Mississippi killing at least 21. Final details of the amount of money that will be set aside for storm relief was still undecided late Wednesday.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said the amount of funding “will be a significant amount of money.”

The agreement will take shape in multiple appropriations bills that must be passed by both chambers. Additionally, a handful of general bills — some controversial — still are pending to be taken up.

House Bill 1020 is perhaps the most controversial. In its original form it created a separate judicial district in the white and more affluent areas of Jackson where the judges would be appointed instead of elected by the Black majority population of the city.

A version of that proposal is still alive and expected to be taken up on Thursday.

Another measure, Senate Bill 2343, would give Capitol Police, under direction of the state Department of Public Safety, jurisdiction to patrol within the entire city of Jackson.

But efforts to restore the state’s initiative process where citizens can gather signatures to place issues on the ballot for voters to decide was not part of any agreement. That proposal is dead for the session unless an additional agreement is reached overnight. The state had an initiative process until May 2021 when the state Supreme Court ruled it invalid because of a technical flaw. At the time, legislative leaders vowed to fix the concerns of the Supreme Court and restore the process. But for the past two sessions, legislative leaders have been unable to agree on a fix to restore the process.

READ MORE: Senate, in 11th hour, tries to revive ballot initiative measure it previously killed

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi College will change its name and drop its football program

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November 18, 2024

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mississippitoday.org – Associated Press – 2024-11-18 17:42:00

Mississippi College will change its name and drop its football program after the current season, the board of the private institution announced Monday.

The college, in the Jackson suburb of Clinton, will become Mississippi Christian University beginning with its bicentennial in 2026. It said in an announcement that the new name emphasizes the school’s status as a comprehensive university while keeping the MC logo and identity.

“These transformational and necessary changes are extremely important to the future of this institution,” Mississippi College President Blake Thompson said. “As we look ahead to the institution’s bicentennial in 2026, we want to ensure that MC will be a university recognized for academic excellence and commitment to the cause of Christ for another 200 years.”

Mississippi College sports teams compete in NCAA Division II. The college will have 17 sports after football is discontinued.

“As we consider the changing landscape of college football, the increasing influence of the NIL and transfer portal, as well as increasing costs to operate and travel, we felt it was necessary to focus our efforts on building first-class programs that can compete for championships,” MC Athletic Director Kenny Bizot said.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Doctors group asks state Supreme Court to clarify that abortions are illegal in Mississippi

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9 hours ago

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November 18, 2024

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mississippitoday.org – Bobby Harrison – 2024-11-18 14:27:00

A group of anti-abortion doctors is asking the state Supreme Court to reverse its earlier ruling stating that the right to an abortion is guaranteed by the Mississippi Constitution.

The original 1998 Supreme Court ruling that provides the right to an abortion for Mississippians conflicts with state law that bans most abortions in Mississippi.

The appeal to the Supreme Court comes after an earlier ruling by Hinds County Chancellor Crystal Wise Martin, who found the group of conservative physicians did not have standing to bring the lawsuit.

Mississippi members of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists argued that they could be punished for not helping a patient find access to an abortion since the earlier state Supreme Court ruling said Mississippians had a right to abortion under the state Constitution. But the Hinds County chancellor said they did not have standing because they could not prove any harm to them because of their anti abortion stance.

Attorney Aaron Rice, representing the doctors, said after the October ruling by Wise Martin that he intended to ask the state Supreme Court to rule on the case.

It was a Mississippi case that led to the controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed since the early 1970s a national right to an abortion.

Mississippi had laws in place to ban most abortions once Roe v. Wade was overturned, But there also was the 1998 state Supreme Court ruling that provided the right to an abortion.

Despite that ruling, there are currently no abortion clinics in Mississippi. But in the lawsuit, the conservative physicians group pointed out the ambiguity of the issue since in normal legal proceedings a Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of an issue would trump state law.

But in her ruling, Wise Martin pointed out that the state Supreme Court in multiple recent high-profile rulings has limited standing or who has the ability to file a lawsuit. Wise Martin said testimony on the issue revealed that physicians had not been punished in Mississippi for refusing to perform abortions.

Both the state and a pro abortion rights group argued that the physicians did not have standing to pursue the lawsuit. The state also contends that existing law makes it clear that most abortions are banned in Mississippi.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Podcast: A critical Mississippi Supreme Court runoff

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17 hours ago

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November 18, 2024

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mississippitoday.org – Adam Ganucheau, Bobby Harrison and Taylor Vance – 2024-11-18 06:30:00

Voters will choose between Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Jim Kitchens and state Sen. Jenifer Branning in a runoff election on Nov. 26, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Mississippi Today’s Adam Ganucheau, Bobby Harrison, and Taylor Vance break down the race and discuss why the election is so important for the future of the court and policy in Mississippi.

READ MORE: As lawmakers look to cut taxes, Mississippi mayors and county leaders outline infrastructure needs

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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