Mississippians who are dead set on enacting private school vouchers could do like their counterparts in Kentucky and attempt to change the state constitution to allow public funds to be spent on private schools.

The courts have ruled in Kentucky that the state constitution prevents private schools from receiving public funds, commonly known as vouchers. In response to that court ruling, an issue was placed on the ballot to change the Kentucky Constitution and allow private schools to receive public funds.

But voters threw a monkey wrench into the voucher supporters’ plans to bypass the courts. The amendment was overwhelmingly defeated this month, with 65% of Kentuckians voting against the proposal.

Kentucky, generally speaking, is at least as conservative or more conservative than Mississippi. In unofficial returns, 65% of Kentuckians voted for Republican Donald Trump on Nov. 5 compared to 62% of Mississippians.

In Mississippi, like Kentucky, there has been a hue and cry to enact a widespread voucher program.

Mississippi House Speaker Jason White, R-West, has voiced support for vouchers, though he has conceded he does not believe there are the votes to get such a proposal through the House Republican caucus that claims a two-thirds supermajority.

And, like in Kentucky, there is the question of whether a voucher proposal could withstand legal muster under a plain reading of the Mississippi Constitution.

In Mississippi, like Kentucky, the state constitution appears to explicitly prohibit the spending of public funds on private schools. The Mississippi Constitution states that public funds should not be spent on a school that “is not conducted as a free school.”

The Mississippi Supreme Court has never rendered a specific ruling on the issue. The Legislature did provide $10 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds to private schools. That expenditure was challenged and appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court. But in a ruling earlier this year, the state’s high court did not directly address the issue of public funds being spent on private schools. It instead ruled that the group challenging the expenditure did not have standing to file the lawsuit.

In addition, a majority of the court ruled that the case was not directly applicable to the Mississippi Constitution’s language since the money directed to private schools was not state funds but one-time federal funds earmarked for COVID-19 relief efforts.

To clear up the issue in Mississippi, those supporting vouchers could do like their counterparts did in Kentucky and try to change the constitution.

Since Mississippi’s ballot initiative process was struck down in an unrelated Supreme Court ruling, the only way to change the state constitution is to pass a proposal by a two-thirds majority of the Mississippi House and Senate and then by a majority of the those voting in a November general election.

Those touting public funds for private schools point to a poll commissioned by House Speaker White that shows 72% support for “policies that enable parents to take a more active role in deciding the best path for their children’s education.” But what does that actually mean? Many have critiqued the phrasing of the question, wondering why the pollster did not ask specifically about spending public funds on private schools.

Regardless, Mississippi voucher supporters have made no attempt to change the constitution. Instead, they argue that for some vague reason the language in the Mississippi Constitution should be ignored.

Nationwide efforts to put vouchers before the voters have not been too successful. In addition to voters in Kentucky rejecting vouchers, so did voters in ruby-red Nebraska and true-blue Colorado in this year’s election.

With those election setbacks, voucher supporters in Mississippi might believe their best bet is to get the courts to ignore the plain reading of the state constitution instead of getting voters to change that language themselves.

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

Nov. 16, 1972

A law enforcement officer shot and killed two students at Southern University in Baton Rouge after weeks of protests over inadequate services. 

When the students marched on University President Leon Netterville’s office, Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards sent scores of police officers in to break up the demonstrations. A still-unidentified officer shot and killed two 20-year-old students, Leonard Brown and Denver Smith, who weren’t among the protesters. No one was ever prosecuted in their slayings. 

They have since been awarded posthumous degrees, and the university’s Smith-Brown Memorial Union bears their names. Stanley Nelson’s documentary, “Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities,” featured a 10-minute segment on the killings. 

“They were exercising their constitutional rights. And they get killed for it,” former student Michael Cato said. “Nobody sent their child to school to die.” 

In 2022, Louisiana State University Cold Case Project reporters, utilizing nearly 2,700 pages of previously undisclosed documents, recreated the day of the shootings and showed how the FBI narrowed its search to several sheriff’s deputies but could not prove which one fired the fatal shot. The four-part series prompted Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards to apologize to the families of the victims on behalf of the state.

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

GLOSTER — Drax, the United Kingdom-based wood pellet producer that’s violated air pollution limits in Mississippi multiple times, is asking the state to raise the amount of emissions it’s allowed to release from its facility in Gloster.

In September, the state fined Drax $225,000 for releasing 50% over the permitted limit of HAPs, or Hazardous Air Pollutants, from its facility Amite BioEnergy. In a pending permit application that it submitted to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality in 2022, the company is seeking to transition from a “minor source” of HAPs to a “major source.”

A “major source” permit would remove the limit over the facility’s total HAP emissions, but it would apply a new limit over the rate at which Drax could release the pollutants.

This year’s fine was its second penalty for violating Mississippi law around air pollution limits. In 2020, the state fined the company $2.5 million for releasing over three times the legal threshold of Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOCs, one of the largest such fines in state history. Drax underestimated its VOC releases since the facility opened in 2016, but didn’t realize it until 2018. The facility didn’t come into compliance until 2021.

The Environmental Protection Agency lists a variety of potential health impacts from exposure to HAPs, including damage to the immune system and respiratory issues. VOCs can also cause breathing problems, as well as eye, nose and throat irritation, according to the American Lung Association.

For years since Drax’s violations became public, nearby residents have attributed health issues to living near the facility. During a public hearing on Drax’s permit request Thursday in Gloster, attendees reiterated those concerns.

“We all experience headaches every day,” resident Christie Harvey said about her and her grandchildren. Harvey said she has asthma too, and her doctor was “baffled” by her symptoms. “Each week I have to take (my grandchildren) to the clinic for upper respiratory issues … It’s not fair that we have to go through this. Drax needs to lower the pollution as much as possible.”

Part of the public outcry is the proximity of people’s homes to the plant, which is within a mile of Gloster’s downtown.

“The wood pellet plant in Lucedale is situated in an industrial park outside of town,” Andrew Whitehurst of Healthy Gulf, an environmental group dedicated to protecting the Gulf of Mexico’s natural resources, said at the meeting. “The wood pellet plant that (Enviva is) trying to put in Bond will be situated north and west of the downtown area. Not like this when it’s right smack in the middle (of the city). It’s totally inappropriate. People can’t take it, they don’t deserve it.”

In a statement to Mississippi Today, Drax said it prioritizes the public health and environment in Gloster, adding that the permit modification is a part of standard business practice.

“When we first began operations, some of our original permits were not fit for purpose,” spokesperson Michelli Martin said via e-mail. “We are now working to acquire the appropriate permits for our operating output and to improve our compliance. Within these permits the requirements may change based on engineering data and industry standards. This permit modification is part of our ongoing plan to provide MDEQ with the most accurate data. Drax fully supports the resolution of our permitting request and looks forward to working with MDEQ to finalize the details.”

While researchers, including from Brown University, are studying the health symptoms of residents near the wood pellet plant, there is no proven connection between the facility’s emissions and those symptoms.

Erica Walker, a Jackson native who teaches epidemiology at Brown and who’s leading the study, spoke to Mississippi Today earlier this year. Regardless of the cause and effect, she said, the decision to put the plant near disadvantaged communities with poor health outcomes is concerning.

“We want to make sure we aren’t additionally burdening already burdened communities,” Walker said.

About 1,300 people live in the city, according to Census data, and 39% live below the poverty line.

Moreover, Gloster residents often have to travel hours, to cities such as McComb and Baton Rouge, to find the nearest medical specialist. Amite County, where Gloster is, has a higher rate of uninsured residents than the rest of the state, according to County Health Rankings, and the ratio of residents to primary care physicians is over three times greater in the county than Mississippi as a whole.

As part of its application, Drax is seeking a Title V permit under the Clean Air Act, which the EPA requires for major sources of air pollutants. This gives the EPA the opportunity to review Drax’s application and public comments submitted with it. The public can submit comments on the application until Nov. 26, and can do so through MDEQ’s website.

The Mississippi Environmental Quality Permit Board, which is made up of officials from several state agencies, will then decide whether or not to grant the new permits. A full overview of the process and Drax’s application is available online.

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