JACKSON, Miss. – Today State Auditor Shad White announced Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College (MGCCC) and their Work4College Scholarship program as the second Mississippi Public Innovations and Efficiencies (PIE) Award winner of the year. The PIE award is given to government offices by the Office of the State Auditor for innovative uses of taxpayer dollars.
“My office launched our PIE Award earlier this year to honor public servants who are thinking outside the box and bringing innovative solutions to the table,” said Auditor White. “So often the job of the auditor is to find wrongdoing, but I think it’s important to point out when government is working well.”
MGCCC’s Work4Collegeprogram provides students the ability to pay for college tuition while gaining real work experience in their chosen course of study. While similar to a traditional “work-study” program, the Work4College aligns with students’ post-college plans by providing relevant work experience and a full-tuition scholarship. Eligible courses of study include landscaping, culinary arts, hospitality, tourism, and the performing arts—fields that dovetail with the needs of the coast’s economy.
“MGCCC’s goal is to provide students with the best opportunities for success and the Work4College Scholarship program exemplifies that,” said Dr. Mary S. Graham, MGCCC president. “We are excited that the college is being recognized for this innovative program and will continue to seek new ways to help our students succeed.”
The State Auditor’s office will continue to release more PIE Awards winners in the coming weeks.
The Mississippi Department of Health announced on Wednesday that the state’s Women, Infants and Children’s Nutrition Program (WIC) is adding new baby formulas to its approved product list to improve access amid the national formula shortage.
Typically, only four types of formula can be purchased with WIC benefits in Mississippi unless an infant gets an exemption through a medical diagnosis. Now, eight additional Enfamil formulas have been added to the list.
The new formulas will be available until Aug. 31. A list of the newly approved formulas can be found here.
There were 84,000 women, children and infants who participated in WIC in Mississippi in 2018, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Two additional policy changes were also announced that aim to help WIC participants who use medically prescribed formulas or have purchased formulas that have been recalled.
The USDA Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) waived the requirement for medical documentation to be provided before WIC participants are allowed to change the medical formula their child is prescribed. Instead, they will be able to call the clinic they use to change to another formula that is currently available in stores.
“Nationwide manufacturers’ shortages means we, too, are experiencing constraints in our ability to order medical formula,” Jameshyia Ballard, Director of Vendor Management at the state health department, said in a press release. “These new options for WIC participants are being used to help meet the needs of families.”
FNS has also provided the WIC program with a waiver that will allow people to return any recalled formulas directly to the store they purchased them from in exchange for cash back, store credit, or another formula product.
The baby formula shortage is having a major impact in Mississippi, which has the second-lowest rate of breastfeeding in the nation.
Supply-chain issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic are one cause of the formula shortage. Manufacturers are struggling to obtain certain ingredients, and labor issues have affected distribution.
The shortage was heavily exacerbated by the recall of three major baby formula brands manufactured by Abbott Nutrition after a probe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found bacterial contamination at one Abbott facility in Sturgis, Mich. At least four babies were hospitalized and two died after consuming contaminated formula, the Food and Drug Administration said. That facility, which is estimated to produce one-fifth of the U.S. baby formula supply, has been shut down since February.
Private child care providers across Mississippi are scrambling to spend around $150 million, the remainder of their federal stabilization funds, in the next four months.
The centers, which were hit hard by the pandemic as many were forced to stay open while schools closed, may use the large grants broadly on payroll, mortgages and rent, goods like food, classroom equipment, diapers, masks and cleaning supplies, among other expenses.
Though the federal government allows states to spend these child care stabilization funds — $319 million of which it allocated to Mississippi — through September of 2023, the Mississippi Department of Human Services has given child care centers a deadline of September 30, 2022, to expend the funds.
Advocates say the rush might hinder providers from making the best financial decisions for their centers, many of which serve low-income parents and have been cash-strapped for years, resulting in low wages for child care workers.
But centers may also use past operating expenses dating back to the beginning of the pandemic in their reimbursement requests to draw down the funds, called the Child Care Strong grant, in which case they can bank the money and do with it whatever and whenever they wish.
Mississippi Department of Human Services received 1,204 applications for funding and awarded grants to 1,114 centers, over half of which are owned by Black women, MDHS Director Bob Anderson told lawmakers at a Mississippi Democratic Caucus legislative hearing in May.
The Democratic Caucus requested the hearing with MDHS after advocates complained that the agency is not adequately answering questions from providers who want to make sure they spend and record the funds properly so they aren’t hit with demands for repayment — or worse, punishment — next year. The lawmakers said that MDHS has denied requests that it partner with the Mississippi Small Business Development Center program at the University of Mississippi, for example, to help centers with grant accounting.
Anderson told Mississippi Today that any child care provider is free to seek help from the business development center on their own. Asked whether the university’s program has the capability to provide guidance about the specific Child Care Strong grant, he said he didn’t know, but that his agency has provided adequate assistance to its grant recipients.
“Everybody has a perception of whether our technical assistance has been adequate. I think it has been. I don’t think we’ve had a provider that reached out to us that we ignored,” Anderson told Mississippi Today. “Everybody has a different perspective about whether they got enough assistance but I will say, we can’t take every child care provider by the hand and walk them through this grant process and tell them, ‘Yes, you can do A. No, you can’t do B.’ They have to make some business decisions on their own. And that’s beyond the scope of our technical assistance. We’ve laid out the guidelines for how they can use the funds. I mean, that’s on our website.”
Some providers say that MDHS employees who respond to their questions often simply refer them back to the website, which is where their confusion came from in the first place.
“Wherever there’s confusion, there’s misuse, and wherever there’s misuse, there’s jail time,” Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville, said in the hearing. “I don’t want to be part of a system, and none of my colleagues do, want to be part of a system where we set somebody up to fail. If these providers are telling you they’re having some problems with some clarity and some understanding, I’m requesting that you try to resolve those issues so we don’t send somebody to jail arbitrarily. $400,000 is a lot of money. If you got a bad accountant, somebody’s finna to do something wrong.”
An agency spokesperson said that the vast majority of providers are on track with their grant spending and are accurately recording their monthly purchases with the agency — which should prevent any surprises on the back end.
“We validate the fact that there are some concerns,” MDHS communications director Mark Jones said. “We hear our providers, but by in large, we see that 86% or 90% of providers are not having these issues.”
As for the tight deadline, which gives centers nine months at most to spend the grant funds, Anderson explained that it took the agency about a year to close out the accounting for $47 million in “booster shot” grants it awarded to centers in 2020. Anderson said the federal government expects a full accounting of how states spent the stabilization funds by the Sept. 30, 2023, federal deadline. Learning from the past, Anderson said, the agency is giving itself a full year to conduct the paperwork.
“The Sept. 30, 2022, deadline gives you a year to be able to do what you need to do for the federal government. My question is, why is it that the reporting period is longer than the time you’re giving providers?” Rep. Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson, asked in the hearing.
The federal stabilization grants, which Mississippi calls Child Care Strong grants, are intended to provide relief to centers by paying for unexpected business expenses due to the pandemic. The grants are funded by the American Rescue Plan Act signed in March 2021. The state opened up grant applications nine months later in December. MDHS has said it took that long to review guidance from the federal government so it could administer the money within the guidelines. The application period closed at the end of January.
The act also allotted Mississippi nearly $200 million in additional funding for the annual Child Care Development Fund block grant discretionary fund, which may be used to help more low-income children get into child care through vouchers or to improve center quality.
To ensure every center got the amount they were eligible to receive based on a formula MDHS created that mostly accounted for the center’s size, the agency allocated an additional $35 million from the discretionary fund for a total of $354 million in stabilization grants it awarded. Centers received grants ranging from $21,000 to $640,000, which could represent as much as a year’s budget for a center. Through April, MDHS says it has mailed over $158 million in payments to centers.
In a press release MDHS issued Thursday, the agency quoted a child care provider in Hattiesburg, who said, “These funds are providing numerous working parents the assistance to receive free quality childcare in a safe and nurturing environment fostering developmental, academic, social/emotional skills and mental and physical health with qualified and adequate staffing with the proper PPE, support, classroom materials, and environment improvements.”
In the release, Anderson said the agency is also exploring other child care expansion ideas.
“The pandemic has tested the resilience of Mississippi’s child care providers,” he said. “As centers continue to provide services critical to the growth of our workforce and preparation of children for k-12 success, MDHS will work with providers to sustain the industry beyond the current round of Child Care Strong,” he said.
The Child Care Strong grant allows centers to submit reimbursement for expenditures dating back to the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, which advocates say presents a sophisticated accounting exercise for centers who may not have a financial manager on staff. Providers were not permitted to use the money to hire an accountant.
Kassandra Fisher, owner of Agape Love Learning Center in Greenwood, said MDHS’s format for submitting monthly financial reports has changed several times, creating confusion on how the agency wants providers to record their purchases each month.
“They had enough months to have an accurate system where we could have more clarity on how to submit everything. And it seems like we’re trying to learn as we go,” Fisher said. “And providers are already stressed with the time they gave us, the timeframe, we don’t need any more stress.”
Fisher, whose center has received $188,000, has used the money to purchase new equipment and furniture, air purifiers, personal protective equipment, and make building upgrades and repairs. Fisher has been in business 12 years, she said, so many of her classrooms are outdated.
Other providers are worried that if they use the funds on building repairs, contractors might still be working on their centers past the deadline due to delays in construction or items being on backorder. Anderson said in the hearing that work allocated before the September 2022 deadline but not expended until after, such as in the contractor scenario, are permitted, but providers expressed confusion over the explanation, which they say contradicts what they’ve been told.
Suspicion towards the welfare agency from child care providers has lingered during the ongoing fallout of a massive fraud scheme. More than two years ago, the State Auditor’s Office arrested six people, including the former MDHS director John Davis, for taking money from the federal anti-poverty program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Davis continues to maintain his innocence, while the court has delayed his trial several times. Four others who pleaded guilty to several felonies ranging from conspiracy to fraud and bribery have yet to be sentenced to prison as officials continue investigating. Forensic auditors determined the agency and its grantees misspent at least $77 million.
Considering the agency’s recent history, Rep. Hines said it should be doing everything it can to help current grantees follow the rules.
“That agency should be holding those hands to make sure we don’t have the same kind of debacle that took place with the TANF funds,” Hines told Mississippi Today. “They should welcome holding people’s hands to guide them through this process so we don’t be embarrassed like that ever again.”
The agency is attempting to claw back a total of roughly $24 million through a civil suit — though most of the defendants likely do not possess the money to settle or pay on any potential judgements.
The known TANF scheme occurred during 2016-2019, but around the same time, from about 2013-2018, child care providers were screaming about a separate disaster: the department didn’t approve a single new child care voucher from the federal Child Care Development Fund for five years. TANF and CCDF, two federal block grants U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awards to each state’s welfare agency, interact because typically parents receiving TANF automatically receive the voucher, but many more Mississippi parents qualify for the CCDF child care certificate, which has a higher income threshold than TANF.
“With all the fraud that happened, all the years we went through without getting approved a certificate, with parents being on waiting lists, and now we’re finding out why, then I feel like our providers should be compensated,” Fisher said. “All this money they’re talking about they want to regain, going after a lot of people, what about the providers who suffered during that time? What kind of compensation can you offer those providers, you know, for those years that we really struggled and wondered why funding wasn’t there for our children and for the communities that needed it?”
Mississippi Department of Human Services and its auditors have never explained how the agency’s sprawling fraud scheme and misspending of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds may have impacted the child care program, and a similar forensic analysis of federal child care funds has not taken place. Today, MDHS says it spends 85% of its CCDF on child care vouchers — the federal government only requires states to spend 75% on certificates — and that the agency does not have a waitlist. But parents still face issues during the application and redetermination, the antiquated process the agency uses to determine parents are still eligible for the benefit.
While the state positions itself and taxpayers as the victim of theft, Fisher thinks about the low-income parents and what they lost because of corruption inside the agency.
“The system failed. They failed the providers. They failed the low-income parents. And we’re talking about funding that’s misused, but what compensation are they going to put in place?” Fisher told Mississippi Today. “What if a parent was trying to finish school and they couldn’t? You know what I’m saying? It’s some years that we struggled real hard.”
“And now you’re rushing us to spend funding that was provided by the federal government, not the state,” she continued. “Then, my thing is, you’re not being fair. You’re not being fair.”
A federal lawsuit alleging Mississippi law made it more difficult for naturalized citizens to vote than in any state in the country has been dismissed by a federal judge.
But the 2019 lawsuit was not dropped until the state law challenged as discriminatory was repealed.
After a bill passed during the 2022 legislative session repealing the law that placed an extra burden on naturalized citizens, U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves of the Southern District of Mississippi on Tuesday dismissed the lawsuit.
The groups that filed the lawsuit — the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Mississippi Center for Justice — and Secretary of State Michael Watson, who was the named defendant in the case, jointly asked Reeves to dismiss the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance and League of Women Voters of Mississippi challenging a 1924 state law that required naturalized citizens to present documentation of their citizenship when registering to vote. The lawsuit claimed federal law and the U.S. Constitution mandated naturalized citizens (those born in other countries but who have met standards to be U.S. citizens) be treated the same as native born citizens.
“No state in the United States other than Mississippi subjects naturalized citizens to a higher proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration than U.S.-born citizens. The time has come for the state of Mississippi to stop doing so,” the lawsuit filed in November 2019 said.
In 2021, the groups filing the lawsuit and Watson asked Reeves to postpone ruling on the issue to give the Legislature time to act. In the 2022 session, the Legislature passed House Bill 1510 that repealed the old law. The bill established a system where people who have been marked as non-citizens by a Highway Patrol database when registering to vote will be double-checked through a more reliable United States Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements program.
Only those flagged when registering to vote by both the state driver’s license database and the federal program will have their applications placed on hold while they are notified and required to provide proof of citizenship.
“Having gone through the naturalization process and pledged their allegiance to the nation, naturalized citizens deserve better than to be targeted for unequal treatment. Their patriotism deserves to be honored, not punished,” said Ezra Rosenberg of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “The addition of this new safeguard will help prevent naturalized citizens from being erroneously blocked from registering to vote through no fault of their own. While implementation of this new provision will require monitoring, we are pleased with this resolution and are committed to ensuring every eligible Mississippian is able to register to vote.”
Rob McDuff of the Mississippi Center for Justice said: “We would prefer that there be no database matching. There is no problem in Mississippi with non-citizens trying to vote. But given that the Secretary of State created such a database matching program, HB 1510 makes the situation better and decreases the number of erroneous non-matches.”
The legislation repealing the 1924 law passed both chambers earlier this year by overwhelming margins. Those who opposed the bill were Democrats who maintained that there was no need to require any extra scrutiny of naturalized citizens when they register to vote. State law already requires all people registering to vote to attest of their citizenship, and those who register but are not citizens face criminal prosecution.
“We are grateful that our legislators have taken this step to help ensure naturalized citizens can exercise their fundamental right to vote,” said Vangela M. Wade, president of the Mississippi Center for Justice. “But we have a long way to go to fully protect Mississippians’ democratic rights. Today, many Mississippians, particularly people of color, face enormous hurdles to access the ballot box. We must continue removing barriers to voting and make access the standard, not the exception.”
Editor’s note: Vangela M. Wade, president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Justice, is a member of Mississippi Today’s board of directors.
PEARL, Miss. (MEMA) – The Atlantic Hurricane Season officially starts June 1 and runs through November 30. The NOAA Climate Prediction Center predicts above-average hurricane activity this year, predicting 14-21 named storms. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency urges residents to prepare for the season ahead.
“Being prepared can be life-saving in the wake of a hurricane or tropical storm,” said MEMA Executive Director Stephen McCraney. “Make sure your family has a go-kit and evacuation plan. Don’t wait for a storm to enter the Gulf of Mexico to begin your family’s preparations. Now is the time.”
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency has many resources to help residents prepare for a storm. Our 2022 Disaster Guide demonstrates what to do before, during, and after a storm, including making an evacuation plan and building a disaster kit. The Disaster Guide can be downloaded in Spanish and Vietnamese on the MEMA website.
After a storm, residents are encouraged to contact their insurance provider if there is any damage and file a claim. Residents should report damage to their local Emergency Management Office as soon as possible. They can do so by using the Crisis Track self-reporting tool. This information-gathering platform allows local officials to determine the amount of damage within a community.
Protecting lives and property are MEMA’s top priorities, and we hope that residents will make a plan, prepare, and be vigilant this hurricane season.
All three of the citizen-sponsored ballot initiatives that have been ratified by Mississippi voters have since been approved by state lawmakers, ensuring the laws cannot be struck down as a result of a landmark May 2021 Supreme Court ruling that ended the initiative process.
Since voters approved the now-defunct initiative process in 1992, just three initiatives have made it all the way through the process to gain the approval of voters. They are:
A photo identification requirement to vote.
The legalization of medical marijuana.
A prohibition on the government taking private property for the use of another private entity.
Late in the 2022 session, the Legislature approved and Gov. Tate Reeves signed into law a bill that has the practical effect of preventing the taking of private property by the government for the use of another private entity.
The bill placed in state law essentially the same language approved by voters in 2011 after the Farm Bureau Federation raised enough signatures through the initiative process to place the issue on the ballot.
The reason Farm Bureau and others supported the Legislature passing the eminent domain bill is the May 2021 Supreme Court decision saying the state’s initiative process was invalid.
That Supreme Court decision came after voters in November 2020 approved an initiative legalizing medical marijuana. But the medical marijuana initiative process was struck down by the Supreme Court in May 2021 at the same time the entire initiative process was ruled invalid. Earlier, in the 2021 session, a bill was passed and signed into the law to enact a medical marijuana program.
The Supreme Court struck down the medical marijuana initiative and the entire initiative process because the process required the mandated number of signatures to place an issue on the ballot be gathered equally from the five congressional districts as they existed in 1990. The state lost a congressional seat in 2000.
Some feared that because the initiative process had been struck down by the Supreme Court, a future court ruling also could invalidate the eminent domain initiative. The bill passed during the 2022 session alleviates those concerns.
Voters in 2011 also approved an initiative requiring a government-issued photo identification to vote. Voter ID was not viewed as being in jeopardy because of the May 2021 Supreme Court ruling since it was approved by the Legislature after it was approved by voters in 2011.
While all three initiatives are now safe through action of the Legislature in spite of the Supreme Court ruling, the state no longer has an initiative process. The Legislature could not agree in the 2022 session on language to revive the process.
So why would I leave the northern lights of Canada for the Natchez Trace running through Mississippi?
While most international students choose larger metropolitan cities to pursue work and education, I found the smaller town of Clinton, Mississippi better fit for me. Over my past three years of attending Mississippi College, I have been able to build community and make lasting connections with people who have roots here.
America was special to me because I had visited it many times with my family growing up. The Magnolia State seemed familiar since my sister also went to school in Mississippi. I originally chose a southern school because I wanted to pursue higher education at a private school and be able to learn through the lens of Christianity.
However, beyond my initial pull to the state, I have learned that Mississippi has a unique culture with many different backgrounds coming to an intersection. For myself, I was able to break down a lot of stereotypes that I had coming to Mississippi. International students broaden American minds and in turn, coming to the U.S. broadens their view of Americans. Students are able to return home having a deeper understanding of American values with a lifelong connection to the country.
The rich culture of the state brings a depth that often gets overlooked by those passing through. Many international students, myself included, come to the states in order to explore cultural diversity. The development within the country pulls in people from various backgrounds in order for a diverse expansion to happen over education, economic, and governmental systems. Foreign students within the classrooms and workplaces contribute to the internationalization of the community as a whole.
Mississippi has over2,500 international students that attend colleges and universities within the state. Coming to a country with such highly formulated governmental, military, and economic systems can be intimidating. With America as a whole being the most innovative country in the world, the south offers a safe place to transition.
Most southerners are curious people and rarely lack questions for internationals. Because of this, it makes it easier for people like me to be able to move into a new place and get to know people. I have noticed Mississippians have a core commitment to helping each other in whatever field they find themselves in.
The main pull that Mississippi offers to foreigners is the initial hospitality and slower way of life.
I have been able to get more interpersonal experience in both my work and my education since I first moved to Mississippi over 3 years ago. Although much of my school experience has been largely impacted by the pandemic of Covid-19, I have still been able to connect with the surrounding community.
Despite all the culture shocks, hard adjustments, and barriers; the American study and work experience is irreplaceable. The challenges that occur physically, culturally, socially, and psychologically when coming to a new country all contribute to the acculturation process. The biggest thing I have learned is that just as our modern society brings out countless dividing factors between us, we also learn there are many more commonalities between us if we are willing to look for them.
Mississippi’s population is larger and most likely more diverse than what was reported last year in the official 2020 U.S. Census.
Reports that the state lost population during the past decade were incorrect based on follow-up research done by the U.S. Census Bureau.
It is probable, though, based on the Census Bureau’s follow-up work, that most — if not all — of the population growth the state experienced since the 2010 Census was among Mississippi’s racial minority groups.
The bureau, using various types of statistical sampling of households, vital records and other data, released a U.S. Census report earlier this month surmising the population of Mississippi and five other states was undercounted in the official 2020 U.S. Census. There were eight other states with significant overcounts.
Mississippi’s population was undercounted by 4.11%, according to the bureau. Only Arkansas at 5.04% and Tennessee at 4.78% had higher undercounts. The state with the largest overcount was Hawaii at 6.79%.
In the 2020 Census, Mississippi was identified as one of just three states that lost population during the 10 years between official census counts. The state lost about 6,000 people and had a population of 2,961,279, according to the original 2020 Census. So in reality, based on the follow-up reports, the state gained about 100,000 people and has a population of more than 3 million.
A key question is what does the undercount mean for Mississippi? First of all, it was not large enough to result in the state losing one of its four U.S. House seats, which are divvied out to the states based on population. But if the minority population is indeed growing at a faster pace than originally cited in the official 2020 Census, that would mean that in redistricting efforts the minority population would not be fairly represented on the federal, state or local levels.
In addition, the amount of federal funds directed to the state often is based on the official census.
“Hundreds of federal programs use decennial census data in their funding formulas, so if Mississippi had an undercount, it would miss out on its rightful share of funding over the coming decade,” according to the Urban Institute.
The Urban Institute estimated the undercount in Mississippi was 2.59% among African Americans and 2.18% among Hispanics.
According to the Census Bureau, the follow-up, called a post-enumeration survey, is not broken down on the state level to determine undercounts or overcounts within state demographic groups because the sample sizes are not large enough.
But another recent follow-up conducted by the Census Bureau revealed that many minorities were undercounted on the national level. The undercount among African Americans was 3.3%, and 4.99% among Hispanics. The white population was overcounted by 1.64%.
Based on the original 2020 Census, Mississippi’s solely white population declined by 95,791 people from 2010 to make up 56.01% of the total state population. Based on the 2020 Census, the African American population declined 13,940 people to 36.62% of the total population. During the same time period, the percentage of Mississippians identifying as other than solely white or African American was 3.85% in 2010 and was 7.36% of the total population in the original 2020 Census.
It is reasonable to assume the national numbers in terms of the undercount of minorities and the overcount of those identifying as solely white also apply to Mississippi. And if that assumption is correct, that means Mississippi’s minority population grew during the past 10 years at a faster rate than originally thought.
Another report released by the Census Bureau as it was working on the 2020 Census indicated that about 27% of Mississippians live in hard-to-count neighborhoods. A map from the Census Bureau reveals most of those hard-to-count areas as being along the Mississippi River, where there are Black majority populations and in other areas with substantial minority populations. That research bolsters the argument of a significant undercount in Mississippi’s Black communities.
“We have always advocated for an accurate count and doubted the accuracy … of the numbers,” Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann wrote on social media of Mississippi’s undercount.
He added, “Our office is working now to gain clarity on the impact of this undercount and any steps which can be taken to mitigate it.”
In reality, there is not much that can be done.
In the 1990s during the Bill Clinton administration, census officials argued that by using the statistical sampling of households and other more advanced technology they could deliver a more accurate population count than what is ascertained by the traditional manual count. Republicans at the time opposed using the technology. The Supreme Court supported the Republican argument saying that the Constitution required an actual manual count be conducted to develop the official census.
The result of that ruling, among others, is the current undercount for Mississippi.
The latest Data Dive is State of Mind, a report of compiled statistics on the current state of mental health and health care in Mississippi. This analysis zooms in on several categories such as substance abuse disorder, major depression, lack of treatment related to health care coverage and more across the country and among adults and youth.
MHA uses a complex set of criteria to categorize and rank each state. Their overall ranking specifically weighs the prevalence of mental health issues in a state with an estimated rate of access to care to address those issues. Those states ranked 1-13 have a lower prevalence of mental illness and a higher rate of access to care, while those states ranked 39-51 show a higher prevalence of mental illness and a lower rate of access to care.
The data shows that Mississippi generally ranks lower in multiple categories related to the accessibility of mental health services for adults, including adults with any mental illness (AMI) who do not have health insurance. Notably, all thirteen states at the bottom of this ranking had not expanded Medicaid between 2018 and 2019. Mississippi’s percentage of uninsured adults with AMI is only preceded by:
Alabama (19.3% or 154,000) Missouri (19.3% or 209,000) Texas (21.5% or 759,000)
Furthermore, over 27 million American adults are going untreated for a mental illness or other mental health issues. Lack of insurance coverage contributes to this, but also a majority of people who do have coverage — 54% — still go untreated.
Over 70% of children in Mississippi with major depression did not receive treatment. That rate outbeats even the national percentage, which is 60.3%. Texas is the state with the highest individual percentage of 73.1%.
CLEVELAND — Under beer bottle chandeliers and a Last Supper-style mural of the Blues masters, faculty and staff prepared for the fifth and final night of “Department Trivia” at Hey Joe’s, a dive-y bar just down Sunflower Road from Delta State University.
The competition, one of several community events at Hey Joe’s, is exactly how it sounds. Every last Wednesday, from January to May, faculty (and some non-university regulars) vie on behalf of their department. At stake are two prizes: The “Stanley Cup,” a perforated metal sculpture named for its creator, Michael Stanley, a former art professor at Delta State, and a sweepstakes check for $1,000 in funding.
Justin Huerta, the owner of Hey Joe’s, started the competition in 2009 with his friend and fellow Delta State grad Kirkham Povall. It was the Great Recession,and Huerta thought his regulars, who were largely faculty, would appreciate the money as the state made deep cuts to higher education.
For his part, Povall said he just “wanted to hang out.” He volunteered to host when no one else wanted to.
“I’m just a guy who had time to do it,” he said during a break between questions Wednesday night.
“That’s like a lot of things in Cleveland,” interjected Don Allan Mitchell, an English professor at Delta State. “You get roped into it. And then it becomes your life.”
Mitchell had arrived at Hey Joe’s a little after 7 p.m. wearing a Delta State shirt and baseball cap, both okra green. He was going to meet a professor in the history department, but they had stayed home to process the shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
At Delta State, Mitchell said school shootings remind faculty of Ethan Schmidt, a professor who was shot and killed on campus in 2015. He floated around before joining a team named “The Department of Irrelevant Studies” that had five members, including Jess Szot, a math teacher at Cleveland Central High School.
Trivia got started shortly after 8 p.m. The stakes could have been higher. All five teams knew the Athletic Department was going to win, as it had for the last two times. Teams accumulate points over the semester, and the Athletic Department, with 142 points heading into Wednesday’s round, had far outpaced its competitors. (Trailing in second: The Alumni Department with 104 points.)
“It’s a war of attrition,” Mitchell said.
The standings heading into the final match of Department Trivia on Wed., May 25. Credit: Molly Minta/Mississippi Today
The English department has won four times before, Mitchell said, and they’ve used the prize money for a scholarship in memory of Schmidt. In 2019, most of Mitchell’s teammates stopped playing regularly after catching another team (not the Athletic Department, Mitchell specified) checking their phone during a question. They could no longer ignore the “rampant cheating.”
“We left in a huff,” he said.
The Athletic Department had never won prior to 2019, so the origin of the team’s sudden rise and continued dominance has inspired speculation. Were they the ones Mitchell caught cheating? Or was it simply that the Athletic Department was the only team to show up every week?
“For $1,000, we could buy some new equipment, we’d make a lot of use of it,” said Campbell Saia, who plays for the Communications and Marketing Department. “But some departments don’t need it, like the Athletic Department.”
To level the playing field, the hosts — Rachel “Rowdy” Carson and Ben Yarbrough — started asking fewer sports-related questions. On Wednesday, the categories were “words that start with L,” “name the cartoon character by its parents” and miscellaneous.
The fourth and final round is always music, but that night it had a twist. Yarbrough introduced the “Esteemed Reverend” Josh Armstrong, a music professor at Delta Statewho had prepared renditions of 10 songs, from Nena to Justin Bieber, on a MIDI controller.
In prior years, Armstrong (who is not actually a reverend) might’ve recorded the backing track with the help of the student steel drum band. He wasn’t able to put that together this year, though, due to “low enrollment” at Delta State.
After Yarbrough scored the final round, a three-way tie emerged. The Department of Irrelevant Studies sent Szot, whose mom was in an 80s band. Armstrong played just two seconds of “Material Girl” before Szot’s hand shot up. She won the team a free pitcher of beer for the night, butthe Athletic Department had won the tournament.
“This should come as a surprise to no one, but the winner of the Stanley Cup is the Athletic Department,” Yarbrough said into a fuzzy red microphone.
There were scattered claps and a single, half-hearted “woo.”
At the bar, Ryan Tyler, a member of the Athletic Department team, discussed their winning steak, which he said is due to their size and diversity. The team plans to engrave the team’s name on the wooden base of the Stanley Cup, he said. They’re also considering displaying the cup in the trophy case on campus.
“I don’t know why we’d have to cheat,” Tyler said. “Like I said, we have the most diverse group of people.”
As participants paid their tabs, Huerta, sitting near a row of arcade games, talked about the ethos behindHey Joe’s. Born and raised in Cleveland, he’s sensitive to stereotypes about Mississippi. Hey Joe’s is his way of doing something about the realities of life here.
“I’m not gonna change Mississippi, I’m not gonna change the United States of America — my world is Cleveland, so I’m trying my best to change my world,” he said.
As for the rumors of cheating? “We’ve never caught anybody,” he said, pausing to take a sip of his beer. “But we did have a shirt that said, ‘no cell phones.’”
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This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
