Mississippi Today

Watchdog report slams state barber board, recommends axing it

Published

2 years ago

December 20, 2022

Watchdog report slams state barber board, recommends axing it

by Geoff Pender, Mississippi Today
December 20, 2022

The state’s legislative watchdog committee has issued a report critical of the Mississippi Board of Barber Examiners, and suggests lawmakers consider dissolving it and the separate cosmetology board and put regulation of both under the Health Department.

Findings of the report by the Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review, or PEER, include:

Mississippi has more restrictive requirements for a barber’s license than 40 other states.

The board’s exam practices “are not effective in evaluating a candidate’s preparedness for licensure.” In the last year, only 39% of candidates taking barber exams passed.

In the last year, the board inspected only 191 of the state’s 2,134 barber shops and schools.

The board last year paid its members improper per diem and travel reimbursement, including paying board members for days they did no board work and paying travel expenses without proper documentation. It also improperly paid staff members at a lower mileage rate than that set in state policy.

The board lacks internal accounting controls, which puts it at risk for mismanagement and fraud.

The board’s “lack of knowledge and expertise related to required retirement contributions” cost the board and its licensees nearly $20,000 in delinquent interest payments. And, “the board might have extended its current lease with terms that are not in the state’s best interest.”

The board’s records are hard to decipher and not easily accessible to staff. The board is not located in a state-owned office building and not easily accessible to licensees or the public.

Lawmakers “should consider dissolving the Barber Board and the State Board of Cosmetology to create a Barbering Advisory Council and a Cosmetology Advisory Council within the Department of Health’s Professional Licensure Division.” Also, lawmakers should consider making age and education requirements comparable to those of surrounding states and consider prohibiting board members from administering exams.

Lawmakers and other state politicians have for years discussed and debated consolidating or eliminating many of the states scores of small agencies, boards and commissions and reigning in bureaucratic red tape in professional licensure and regulations. They are run by appointed boards, mostly members of the industry they regulate, which raises questions of fairness and competition.

But efforts to reduce or consolidate such boards have had minimal success. They have legislative and political clout. For instance, no elected leader relishes the prospect of thousands of barbers or cosmetologists mad over consolidation come election time.

The barber board refutes many of the PEER report’s findings and “does not agree or concur with dissolving (barber and cosmetology) boards under any circumstances.”

In a written response, the board said it does agree some changes need to be made, but “Dissolving boards does not address the issues of the industry. You will lose the knowledge, history and expertise of the current professionals attempting to streamline or effect cost savings over time.”

The board said it has tried but has not received support from the Legislature in updating current laws. It says it lacks funding to find a third party to administer exams and that its inspectors are part time and limited to working 60 hours or less a month, which limits the number of inspections annually. It said it also lacks funding for a records management system.

The board said, “All board members, inspectors and staff have been provided a copy of the state travel policy rules and regulations. All board members, inspectors and other staff will have training.” But it said it was not asked by PEER to provide documentation of travel and expenses and has since provided them. It also said the state has failed to provide help for the agency to secure better office space.

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

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Mississippi Today

On this day in 1906

Published

2 hours ago

January 22, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2025-01-22 07:00:00

Jan. 22, 1906

Willa Beatrice Brown served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Civil Air Patrol. Credit: Wikipedia

Pioneer aviator and civil rights activist Willa Beatrice Brown was born in Glasgow, Kentucky.

While working in Chicago, she learned how to fly and became the first Black female to earn a commercial pilot’s license. A journalist said that when she entered the newsroom, “she made such a stunning appearance that all the typewriters suddenly went silent. … She had a confident bearing and there was an undercurrent of determination in her husky voice as she announced, not asked, that she wanted to see me.”

In 1939, she married her former flight instructor, Cornelius Coffey, and they co-founded the Cornelius Coffey School of Aeronautics, the first Black-owned private flight training academy in the U.S.

She succeeded in convincing the U.S. Army Air Corps to let them train Black pilots. Hundreds of men and women trained under them, including nearly 200 future Tuskegee Airmen.

In 1942, she became the first Black officer in the U.S. Civil Air Patrol. After World War II ended, she became the first Black woman to run for Congress. Although she lost, she remained politically active and worked in Chicago, teaching business and aeronautics.

After she retired, she served on an advisory board to the Federal Aviation Administration. She died in 1992. A historical marker in her hometown now recognizes her as the first Black woman to earn a pilot’s license in the U.S., and Women in Aviation International named her one of the 100 most influential women in aviation and space.

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

Mississippi Stories Videos

Mississippi Stories: Michael May of Lazy Acres

Published

18 hours ago

January 21, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – rlake – 2025-01-21 14:51:00

In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey takes a trip to Lazy Acres. In 1980, Lazy Acres Christmas tree farm was founded in Chunky, Mississippi by Raburn and Shirley May. Twenty-one years later, Michael and Cathy May purchased Lazy Acres. Today, the farm has grown into a multi seasonal business offering a Bunny Patch at Easter, Pumpkin Patch in the fall, Christmas trees and an spectacular Christmas light show. It’s also a masterclass in family business entrepreneurship and agricultural tourism.

For more videos, subscribe to Mississippi Today’s YouTube channel.

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

Mississippi Today

On this day in 1921

Published

1 day ago

January 21, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2025-01-21 07:00:00

Jan. 21, 1921

George Washington Carver Credit: Wikipedia

George Washington Carver became one of the first Black experts to testify before Congress.

His unlikely road to Washington began after his birth in Missouri, just before the Civil War ended. When he was a week old, he and his mother and his sister were kidnapped by night raiders. The slaveholder hired a man to track them down, but the only one the man could locate was George, and the slaveholder exchanged a race horse for George’s safe return. George and his brother were raised by the slaveholder and his wife.

The couple taught them to read and write. George wound up attending a school for Black children 10 miles away and later tried to attend Highland University in Kansas, only to get turned away because of the color of his skin. Then he attended Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, before becoming the first Black student at what is now Iowa State University, where he received a Master’s of Science degree and became the first Black faculty member.

Booker T. Washington then invited Carver to head the Tuskegee Institute’s Agriculture Department, where he found new uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes, soybeans and other crops.

In the past, segregation would have barred Carver’s testimony before Congress, but white peanut farmers, desperate to convince lawmakers about the need for a tariff on peanuts because of cheap Chinese imports, believed Carver could captivate them — and captivate he did, detailing how the nut could be transformed into candy, milk, livestock feed, even ink.

“I have just begun with the peanut,” he told lawmakers.

Impressed, they passed the Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922.

In addition to this work, Carver promoted racial harmony. From 1923 to 1933, he traveled to white Southern colleges for the Commission on Interracial Cooperation. Time magazine referred to him as a “Black Leonardo,” and he died in 1943.

That same year, the George Washington Carver Monument complex, the first national park honoring a Black American, was founded in Joplin, Missouri.

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