Mississippi Today
Coalition of 36 organizations pushes lawmakers for Medicaid expansion in Mississippi
As Medicaid expansion remains a top political issue in Mississippi — and sure to be debated this legislative session — one group will be advocating for the policy on the front lines.
Care4Mississippi is a coalition of 36 partner organizations, and growing, focused on getting Medicaid expanded in Mississippi.
Co-chair Kimberly Hughes, who's also the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network's government relations director, says this is the first time the coalition will be “active” during the legislative session, but the work on this issue began years ago.
Many of the coalition's current partners were part of the Yes on 76 campaign, which was a statewide effort to get expansion of Medicaid on the 2022 ballot through the state's ballot-initiative process.
However, the campaign was suspended in May 2021 after the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that the state's initiative process was invalid. Since then, efforts to reinstate it have failed.
There is currently no ballot initiative process in Mississippi, which is meant to allow citizens to circumvent politicians and place an issue on a statewide ballot for voter consideration.
Yes on 76 stakeholders took a few months off, Hughes said, before convening to create Care4Mississippi in 2022.
“We've tried to keep the issue alive and keep partners engaged, especially after we had to change our plans to more of a legislative campaign,” Hughes said.
The organization was less active in 2023 because it was an election year, she said, and focused its efforts on recruiting partners. It appeared many people were waiting to see who won the gubernatorial election, in which incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves bested his pro-expansion Democratic opponent Brandon Presley, before deciding to get involved with the coalition, Hughes said.
Since the coalition spent the past year preparing for this legislative session, it's coming armed with a trove of information on Medicaid expansion.
“We want to be that clearinghouse for information,” she said. “There's momentum around this issue, in the public and the press and with some of our lawmakers, so we've been trying to get ready for that.”
The coalition's website already features resources for people who want to learn more, including national and state research that underlines the policy's benefits for Mississippi, as well as a data map created by the coalition that shows how Medicaid expansion would impact every county in Mississippi.
Researchers estimate somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 Mississippians currently fall in Medicaid's coverage gap — they make too much to qualify for Medicaid but can't afford insurance on their own — and would be insured if the policy was expanded to the working poor as most other states have done.
Coalition leaders say information is essential to dispelling myths about expansion perpetuated by state officials and empowering Mississippians to advocate for the policy.
Reeves remains a staunch opponent and has referred to expanding Medicaid health coverage as adding more people to the state's welfare rolls.
“We want to be a credible center voice on the issue of creating a solution or covering those who have no affordable option for health insurance,” said Blair Ewing, the coalition's program coordinator and lobbyist. “We want to challenge our leaders to work together to find solutions, stop hospital closures and create access to care for Mississippi families.”
Moving forward, Ewing said the coalition's strategy will revolve around recruiting more partners and getting the word out as much as possible, which will include hosting a “Capitol Day” on Feb. 22. The coalition will have a table in the State Capitol's rotunda to educate passersby about expansion and host a press event on the Capitol steps.
Hughes is hopeful about movement on expansion in Mississippi during this year's legislative session, especially since new Speaker of the House Jason White says the House will at least consider the policy. His predecessor, Phillip Gunn, was an outspoken opponent and prevented the full House from voting on it during his tenure.
Ewing said that getting the policy passed starts with arming people with the information they need and stressed that anyone, organization or individual, can join on the coalition's website. Some of its current members include the heavily involved Mississippi Health Advocacy Program, as well as the Mississippi Center for Justice, Mississippi Hospital Association, American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, Center for Mississippi Health Policy and American Heart Association.
“I think if constituents knew more, if there was more information out there and they actually started going to their congressman about it, then things would change,” she said. “There's an unbelievable amount of support in the state for closing that Medicaid coverage gap — we know people want our legislators to do something about it.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
2024 Mississippi legislative session not good for private school voucher supporters
Despite a recent Mississippi Supreme Court ruling allowing $10 million in public money to be spent on private schools, 2024 has not been a good year for those supporting school vouchers.
School-choice supporters were hopeful during the 2024 legislative session, with new House Speaker Jason White at times indicating support for vouchers.
But the Legislature, which recently completed its session, did not pass any new voucher bills. In fact, it placed tighter restrictions on some of the limited laws the state has in place allowing public money to be spent on private schools.
Notably, the Legislature passed a bill that provides significantly more oversight of a program that provides a limited number of scholarships or vouchers for special-needs children to attend private schools.
Going forward, thanks to the new law, to receive the vouchers a parent must certify that their child will be attending a private school that offers the special needs educational services that will help the child. And the school must report information on the academic progress of the child receiving the funds.
Also, efforts to expand another state program that provides tax credits for the benefit of private schools was defeated. Legislation that would have expanded the tax credits offered by the Children's Promise Act from $8 million a year to $24 million to benefit private schools was defeated. Private schools are supposed to educate low income students and students with special needs to receive the benefit of the tax credits. The legislation expanding the Children's Promise Act was defeated after it was reported that no state agency knew how many students who fit into the categories of poverty and other specific needs were being educated in the schools receiving funds through the tax credits.
Interestingly, the Legislature did not expand the Children's Promise Act but also did not place more oversight on the private schools receiving the tax credit funds.
The bright spot for those supporting vouchers was the early May state Supreme Court ruling. But, in reality, the Supreme Court ruling was not as good for supporters of vouchers as it might appear on the surface.
The Supreme Court did not say in the ruling whether school vouchers are constitutional. Instead, the state's highest court ruled that the group that brought the lawsuit – Parents for Public Schools – did not have standing to pursue the legal action.
The Supreme Court justices did not give any indication that they were ready to say they were going to ignore the Mississippi Constitution's plain language that prohibits public funds from being provided “to any school that at the time of receiving such appropriation is not conducted as a free school.”
In addition to finding Parents for Public Schools did not have standing to bring the lawsuit, the court said another key reason for its ruling was the fact that the funds the private schools were receiving were federal, not state funds. The public funds at the center of the lawsuit were federal COVID-19 relief dollars.
Right or wrong, The court appeared to make a distinction between federal money and state general funds. And in reality, the circumstances are unique in that seldom does the state receive federal money with so few strings attached that it can be awarded to private schools.
The majority opinion written by Northern District Supreme Justice Robert Chamberlin and joined by six justices states, “These specific federal funds were never earmarked by either the federal government or the state for educational purposes, have not been commingled with state education funds, are not for educational purposes and therefore cannot be said to have harmed PPS (Parents for Public Schools) by taking finite government educational funding away from public schools.”
And Southern District Supreme Court Justice Dawn Beam, who joined the majority opinion, wrote separately “ to reiterate that we are not ruling on state funds but American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds … The ARPA funds were given to the state to be used in four possible ways, three of which were directly related to the COVID -19 health emergency and one of which was to make necessary investments in water, sewer or broadband infrastructure.”
Granted, many public school advocates lamented the decision, pointing out that federal funds are indeed public or taxpayer money and those federal funds could have been used to help struggling public schools.
Two justices – James Kitchens and Leslie King, both of the Central District, agreed with that argument.
But, importantly, a decidedly conservative-leaning Mississippi Supreme Court stopped far short – at least for the time being – of circumventing state constitutional language that plainly states that public funds are not to go to private schools.
And a decidedly conservative Mississippi Legislature chose not to expand voucher programs during the 2024 session.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1925
MAY 19, 1925
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska. When he was 14, a teacher asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up and he answered that he wanted to be a lawyer. The teacher chided him, urging him to be realistic. “Why don't you plan on carpentry?”
In prison, he became a follower of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad. In his speeches, Malcolm X warned Black Americans against self-loathing: “Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair? Who taught you to hate the color of your skin? Who taught you to hate the shape of your nose and the shape of your lips? Who taught you to hate yourself from the top of your head to the soles of your feet? Who taught you to hate your own kind?”
Prior to a 1964 pilgrimage to Mecca, he split with Elijah Muhammad. As a result of that trip, Malcolm X began to accept followers of all races. In 1965, he was assassinated. Denzel Washington was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of the civil rights leader in Spike Lee's 1992 award-winning film.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.biloxinewsevents.com/?p=359877
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1896
MAY 18, 1896
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-1 in Plessy v. Ferguson that racial segregation on railroads or similar public places was constitutional, forging the “separate but equal” doctrine that remained in place until 1954.
In his dissent that would foreshadow the ruling six decades later in Brown v. Board of Education, Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote that “separate but equal” rail cars were aimed at discriminating against Black Americans.
“In the view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens,” he wrote. “Our Constitution in color-blind and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law … takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.biloxinewsevents.com/?p=359301
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