Gov. Tate Reeves has vetoed four bills passed by the legislature, with more expected as he continues reviewing legislation.

Three of the vetoes targeted public health measures—two medical cannabis bills and a rural health oversight bill—while the fourth struck down a disaster relief loan program for communities recovering from last winter’s ice storm.

Disaster loan program

Reeves’ first session veto came on March 23, when he rejected Senate Bill 2632, a disaster relief loan program designed to help cities and counties recover from the winter ice storm that struck the state in late January and is considered the most severe winter weather event in Mississippi since 1994. The program would have been administered by the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency and provided short-term, low-interest loans to local governments after federal emergency relief was delivered.

The veto triggered a public clash between the governor and legislative leaders. Reeves alleged in his veto message that Senate staff had committed a “plainly unconstitutional (and possibly criminal) act” by changing the bill’s interest rate language after it had cleared the legislature. The dispute centered on whether the loans were to carry a 1 percent monthly rate—amounting to 12 percent annually—or a 1 percent annual rate. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann called the veto message “malicious, unnecessary, and false,” stating that the removal of the word “monthly” was intentional and had been unanimously approved by both chambers. The bill itself had passed both chambers unanimously.

Lawmakers reworked the program in a separate bill, House Bill 1646, which set the interest rate at 0 percent until FEMA reimbursements were processed, then 3 percent annually. Both chambers passed the revised version unanimously on March 26, and it was sent to Reeves for consideration.

Medical cannabis

Reeves vetoed both medical cannabis bills on March 26. House Bill 1152, the Right to Try Medical Cannabis Act, would have created a pathway for patients with serious illnesses who are not on the state’s list of qualifying conditions to petition the state health officer for access to medical cannabis. The bill was filed by Rep. Lee Yancey (R-Byhalia) and passed with veto-proof margins—104-7 in the House and 34-17 in the Senate. The votes are considered veto-proof because the numbers exist to override a governor’s veto.

Reeves wrote in his veto message that while the bill’s original intent was “commendable,” a Senate amendment removing the residency requirement would have extended the right to try medical cannabis to “every person on the planet.” Under the amended bill, residents of states where medical marijuana is not legal could have obtained a Mississippi medical cannabis card from a licensed Mississippi provider.

The governor also vetoed House Bill 895, which would have extended the validity period of practitioner recommendations, removed THC potency caps on tinctures, and adjusted caregiver background check requirements. Reeves wrote that the bill sought to “erode important safeguards” designed to prevent the diversion of medical marijuana for recreational use, arguing that the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act has been “largely successful” and that there was “no reason to alter it now.” HB 895 had passed 98-11 in the House and 33-19 in the Senate.

On March 30, medical cannabis patients, dispensary owners and growers rallied at the Capitol urging lawmakers to override the vetoes. Overriding a veto requires a two-thirds vote in both chambers.

Rural health oversight

Reeves’ most recent veto rejected a bill that would have increased legislative oversight of his administration’s spending of more than $200 million in federal funding through the Rural Health Transformation Program, a five-year initiative expected to deliver approximately $1 billion to the state. The bill would have required quarterly reports to the legislature, a competitive procurement process for a statewide health information exchange, and priority funding for rural areas and the Delta.

Making greater use of the veto pen

Overall, Reeves has been more aggressive with his veto power than recent predecessors. He vetoed eight bills in the 2025 session and is at four so far in 2026 with more expected. By comparison, Gov. Haley Barbour used the line-item veto only twice across eight years in office. Gov. Phil Bryant used it three times in eight years, all in 2017.

Overriding a governor’s veto in Mississippi is exceptionally rare. Only one of Reeves’ vetoes has ever been overridden—an education spending bill in 2020. Before that, no governor’s veto had been overturned since 2002, when the legislature overrode four vetoes by Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove. Barbour and Bryant both left office with zero overrides.

That history makes the current session notable. Both medical cannabis bills passed with veto-proof margins—HB 1152 cleared the House 104-7 and the Senate 34-17, while HB 895 passed 98-11 in the House and 33-19 in the Senate. Whether lawmakers actually attempt an override remains the open question.

More vetoes expected

Reeves’ four vetoes are half the number he issued in each of the previous two sessions, but he continues to review legislation and more rejections are expected. Lawmakers concluded their work for the session on April 4 but left open a procedural window allowing them to return through April 15 without a special session call—in part because many expect additional vetoes and may seek to override them.

Under the Mississippi Constitution, the governor has five days to sign or veto a bill presented to him during the legislative session; otherwise it becomes law without his signature. If the legislature adjourns during that five-day window, the governor gets 15 days from when the bill was transmitted to sign or veto it, or it becomes law without his signature.

Lawmakers finished their work on April 4, 2026, but because they left a procedural window open through April 15, the timing depends on when each bill hits the governor’s desk. Bills transmitted during the final days of session are still within the 15-day window.

Image: Gov. Tate Reeves at a bill signing (via Wikimedia Commons)

Mississippi legislators worked through Sunday evening on March 29, 2026, to adopt the bulk of a roughly $7.4 billion state budget for Fiscal Year 2027, advancing dozens of appropriations conference reports ahead of today’s deadline for final adoption and averting a repeat of last year’s budget collapse.

The Senate reconvened Sunday afternoon and unanimously approved funding for a $2,000 teacher pay raise—the first salary increase for K-12 educators since 2022—as part of an education appropriation expected to total approximately $3.4 billion.

Both chambers also approved $1.17 billion for the Mississippi Division of Medicaid, which had warned lawmakers for months that the exhaustion of federal COVID-19 relief funds left the agency facing a funding cliff without a significant increase in state dollars.

The budget work came during what is typically described as “conference weekend,” the annual stretch of late-session negotiations when House and Senate conferees reconcile competing versions of the appropriations bills that comprise the state budget.

Conference reports on appropriation and revenue bills were due by Saturday at 8 p.m., with March 30 set as the deadline for final adoption. The regular session is scheduled to adjourn by April 5.

Smaller teacher pay raise than either chamber initially proposed

The $2,000 teacher pay raise represents a significant retreat from the ambitions both chambers expressed earlier in the session. The House had proposed a $5,000 immediate increase, with an additional $3,000 for special education teachers. The Senate countered with a $6,000 raise phased in over three years at $2,000 annually. Each chamber killed the other’s proposal before reviving its own through procedural maneuvers—a pattern that has defined the 2026 session. The final compromise settled at $2,000, with competing budget demands, including the Medicaid appropriation, cited as the constraining factor.

The outcome disappointed educators. Mississippi teachers are the lowest paid in the nation on average, and the Mississippi Department of Education has reported rising teacher vacancies statewide. The last meaningful raise, approximately $5,100 in 2022, was quickly offset by inflation and health insurance premium increases.

Special education teachers, assistant teachers, speech therapists, and school psychologists will receive the same $2,000 increase. Special education teachers will receive an additional $2,000 supplement, totaling $4,000. School attendance officers will receive a $5,000 raise, with funding for nine additional positions to bring the ratio to one officer per 4,000 students statewide.

Medicaid drove the budget math

The Medicaid appropriation was among the more closely watched line items of the session. The Division of Medicaid’s own January budget presentation to the Senate Appropriations Committee put its FY 2027 state support request at $1.36 billion—roughly $390 million more than its current-year appropriation—after exhausting a reserve of pandemic-era federal dollars that had cushioned the agency’s budget in recent years. The governor’s office proposed a lower figure of approximately $969 million, close to last year’s appropriation, while the Senate initially proposed $1.07 billion. The $1.17 billion figure approved by both chambers Sunday represents a substantial increase but still falls short of what agency officials said they needed.

Senate Appropriations Chair Briggs Hopson had called Medicaid the session’s biggest wildcard. Federal Medicaid law does not allow states to negotiate the prices of services, leaving the legislature to estimate costs that fluctuate with enrollment and utilization. The agency’s enrollment peaked at 904,000 during the pandemic before falling to approximately 697,000 by December 2025 as post-pandemic redeterminations took effect.

Avoiding last year’s failure

The Sunday votes marked a departure from the dysfunction that has plagued budget-setting in Jackson for three consecutive years. In 2025, the House and Senate could not agree on a budget during the regular session, forcing Gov. Tate Reeves to call a special session that cost taxpayers an estimated $100,000 per day. House Speaker Jason White had refused to participate in “conference weekend” last year in protest of what he described as a broken process. This year, appropriations leaders signaled optimism earlier in the week that the two chambers were negotiating in good faith, and WLBT reported that behind-the-scenes discussions on teacher pay and PERS had been ongoing even as bills appeared stalled on the calendar.

The FY 2027 budget of approximately $7.4 billion represents a slight increase from the $7.3 billion enacted for FY 2026. The Joint Legislative Budget Committee’s initial recommendation had left $449.7 million in General Fund dollars available for appropriation beyond the committee’s baseline spending plan. The state had entered the session with approximately $1.5 billion in cash reserves plus another $700 million in the rainy day fund, though legislative leaders have warned against increasing recurring spending as the flow of federal pandemic dollars dries up.

What remains

Several major policy items were still being negotiated or had died by Sunday evening. Efforts to address the Public Employees’ Retirement System’s $26.5 billion unfunded liability stalled after the House and Senate failed to agree on a funding mechanism. The Senate had proposed a $500 million cash infusion followed by $50 million annually for a decade. The House pushed for a dedicated recurring revenue stream, including a proposal to legalize online sports betting and earmark the proceeds for PERS. The legislature did create a new fifth tier in the retirement system for state employees hired on or after March 1, 2026, with reduced defined benefits and no cost-of-living adjustment.

House Speaker White’s signature priority—expanding school choice to allow public dollars to flow to private schools—was killed by the Senate Education Committee on the first day that it was eligible for a vote. Reeves, who had championed the effort, saw school choice stall amid uncertainty about whether it might resurface in a potential special session.

The Mississippi Legislature still faces deadlines this week on general bills and constitutional amendments before the session’s scheduled close on April 5.

Image: Mississippi State Capitol (R.L. Nave)

Mississippi’s capital city could soon face interrupted commercial air travel as a protracted federal funding impasse in Washington, D.C., continues to strain airport security operations across the country.

Congressional Republicans and Democrats are into the sixth week of tense negotiations over how to fund the Department of Homeland Security, and travelers at many large airports are waiting as long as four hours to pass through airport security. Some small hub airports, meanwhile, could be forced to close down air travel altogether due to a lack of Transportation Security Administration agents, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said last week.

“You’re going to see small airports, I believe, shut down,” Duffy said during an interview with CNBC.

Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport, Mississippi’s busiest airport, is among the Federal Aviation Administration’s list of 74 small hub airports, a classification based on annual passenger boardings. Staff at Jackson-Medgar screened about 630,000 passengers in 2025, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. By comparison, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport boarded more than 50 million passengers that year.

Although relatively small, Jackson is a central hub for business and government travel in Mississippi, with more than $2 billion in annual economic impact in 2025, according to the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority. Officials from JMAA did not respond to questions from The Mississippi Independent about contingency plans should the airport be forced to temporarily close.

The pressure stems from a partial shutdown of DHS, which oversees the TSA. Airport screeners are classified as essential workers and required to report for duty during shutdowns, but they, along with other DHS employees, are expected to work without pay during funding lapses. Historically, that has led to increased absences as employees seek temporary work elsewhere to cover expenses.

Approximately 3,400 TSA agents, representing 12 percent of the entire workforce, did not show up to work on Sunday, according to CBS News.

At the large airport nearest to Jackson, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, 42.3 percent of TSA staff were absent on Sunday, and at Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, 41.5 percent of staff called out, according to BBC reports.

In recent days, federal officials have begun implementing contingency plans, including temporarily suspending some services at smaller airports and deploying hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to augment security operations at 14 airports across the United States.

The standoff in the nation’s capital reflects a broader political deadlock. Congressional Republicans have pushed to fully fund DHS, while Democrats have sought to use their narrow margins in the Senate to impose limits on immigration enforcement activities carried out by ICE, stemming from the controversial killings of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota and the agency’s perceived reckless and lawless behavior during the past year.

The dispute has been complicated further by the president, who has urged Republican lawmakers to reject interim deals unless they include additional policy priorities, specifically the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require people to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections.

The Save America Act is framed as a way to prevent noncitizen voting, though that is already illegal. Critics argue the bill is a ploy to disenfranchise eligible voters ahead of November’s midterm elections, in which Republicans are projected by most polls to lose seats. Injecting brazen politics into the effort, President Donald Trump has said he sees the act as a way to ensure Republicans retain congressional control in the midterm elections.

One of Mississippi’s two U.S. senators, Cindy Hyde-Smith, released a Facebook video on Monday blaming Democrats for the continued shutdown. “They won’t budge,” Hyde-Smith said. “They are not serious. They are not engaged. They just continue to play political games as usual.” She added: “Meanwhile, real Americans are paying the price. TSA agents, border patrol agents, Coast Guard men and women, hardworking public servants who show up every day to keep this country safe are doing it without their paychecks.”

U.S. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana told Fox News on Monday that a bipartisan proposal to restore funding for airport security operations had been negotiated but was ultimately abandoned after Trump refused to support it.

“It would have worked,” Kennedy said. “We could have had TSA paid by the end of the week. But the president said no deal.”

Both Kennedy and Hyde-Smith sit on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees homeland security funding. Hyde-Smith did not respond to questions from The Mississippi Independent about the potential closure of the Jackson airport or her views on the president’s rejection of a deal to pay TSA employees.

Despite Trump’s refusal to support the act unless it advances broader Republican policy priorities, there could be a resolution this week. A bipartisan proposal presented on March 24, 2026, would restore funding to most of DHS but exclude funding for the arrest and deportation of undocumented immigrants, according to multiple media reports. Republicans are expected to pursue ICE funding through the budget reconciliation process, which does not require Democratic votes.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota said discussions between Republican leadership and Trump have been “very positive and productive,” according to AP. However, Trump is reportedly still not content with the deal.

Some smaller airports avoid funding vulnerabilities by participating in the federal Screening Partnership Program, which allows private contractors to handle passenger screening under TSA oversight. Tupelo Regional Airport is among those that have opted into the federal screening program. Jackson relies entirely on federal screeners, making it more directly exposed to the current funding lapse.

Image: Unidentified TSA screener and a traveler at Jackson airport (via Jackson Municipal Airport Authority)

The local sponsor of a long-discussed Pearl River flood control project announced last week that the project would finally be able to move forward with a plan to widen and develop along the river’s banks in Mississippi’s capital city.

While federal officials may still go forward with the project, they clarified shortly after that no final decision has been made. A final environmental impact study is still required before they reach that stage.

The Rankin Hinds Pearl River Flood and Drainage Control District held a press conference Feb. 26 to announce that the assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, Adam Telle, had selected a plan based on the locally supported project, “Alternative D1.”

In its last draft study in 2025, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers narrowed the project selection to alternatives “D1” and “E1.” D1 is a scaled-back version of the controversial “One Lake” plan the flood control district has backed for over a decade, and which both environmentalists and downstream communities have passionately fought. E1 has the same design as D1 except for a dam.

In a Jan. 31 memo, Telle wrote that he had selected a combination of D1 and E1. Officials with the flood control district said that’s what prompted their Feb. 26 announcement.

“I find that both Alternative D1 and E1 are environmentally acceptable, subject to further investigations required for compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), as well as the development of mitigation plans to compensate for losses of habitat,” wrote Telle, a Mississippi State University graduate who was nominated for the post last year by President Donald Trump.

That act was signed into law in 1970 to require federal agencies to evaluate the environmental impacts of projects on the front end.

Telle attended a Corps press event Feb. 27 in Vicksburg to boost the agency’s new “Building Infrastructure, Not Paperwork” initiative, focused on speeding up projects and reducing “bureaucratic regulations.”

When asked about the status of the Pearl River efforts, he told Mississippi Today the point of the memo was to “untie” the Corps’ hands to begin the final environmental study. The National Environmental Policy process requires the agency to complete the final study before making any final determination.

“It still requires more design, more decisions, more public engagement and more environmental work,” Telle said. “And once we get there, then we’ll see construction begin.”

At the local flood control district’s event, Pearl Mayor Jake Windham said he hoped to have a final decision about the project by the summer. The next day at the Vicksburg event, Col. Jeremiah Gipson, commander of the Corps’ Vicksburg District, called that timeline “aggressive” but possible.

“The first step is to complete a design agreement with the (local flood control district), and when we do that we will very quickly see this process move forward towards that decision,” Gipson said.

When asked why the local sponsor made its announcement when it did, Telle said of his Jan. 31 memo, “We do work every day, we don’t necessarily announce it.” Mississippi Today also asked Keith Turner, attorney for the flood control district board, why they made the announcement without coordinating with the Corps.

“I don’t know why (the Corps) chose to not be as public as we were,” Turner said. “To us, it’s really important because it’s a big threshold.”

Jill Mastrototaro, state policy director for Audubon Delta, said the Corps’ last study, released in 2025, is missing significant environmental considerations.

“I think that the claims of victory by the (project’s) proponents are very premature and very ambitious,” said Mastrototaro, a longtime stakeholder in the project’s studies and opponent of damming the Pearl River.

“There is going to be a lot of additional study,” she said, pointing to needed hydrologic and sedimentation research, as well as habitat mitigation plans that were lacking in the last publication. “There are still many shortcomings, many questions, many inaccuracies in that flood plan.”

Damming the Pearl River, the difference between alternatives D1 and E1, is an essential piece of the local flood control district’s preference. The inundation would allow for more development and recreational opportunities along the section of the river neighboring downtown Jackson. The dam, though, would not only make the project more expensive but also, opponents argue, impair valuable wetlands and habitats and disrupt the flow for the communities downstream on the river.

The Corps’ own draft study estimated D1 would remove 740 acres of forested wetlands as well as 230 acres of riverine habitat.

When asked about potential mitigation to compensate for those losses, Turner said the plan is to protect habitats along the Pearl upstream of Jackson. Those details, though, still need to be worked out in the final study, he said.

Rep. Becky Currie, a Republican from Brookhaven, argued the project’s goal is only to enrich people in the Jackson metro area. She said the Corps isn’t considering the other communities who share the Pearl River.

“I don’t believe they have a clue what it’s gonna do (downstream), and I don’t think they care,” Currie said.

A project with the dam would cost roughly $900 million, the Corps estimated last year. With the federal government responsible for 65% of the cost share, Mississippians would be on the hook for over $300 million. When asked if the Legislature would help fund the project, Currie just said, “I hope not.”

So far the federal government has allocated $221 million for the project, which would be far less than the 65% share needed, or close to $600 million.

Even farther downstream in Slidell, Louisiana, residents are largely against the proposal, and officials from the state, including Gov. Jeff Landry and U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, have asked for more research on the plan’s impacts on their section of the Pearl River, NOLA.com recently reported.

At the Feb. 27 event in Vicksburg, Telle said it was important to him to avoid any downstream disruptions to the river, and that he instructed Gipson’s team to “take care of those folks.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Image: Jackson Mayor John Horhn with other local officials at an announcement about a flood-control project on the Pearl River (via City of Jackon Facebook)

The iconic cooling tower of the Grand Gulf Nuclear Station looms incongruously above a forested landscape along a remote bend of the Mississippi River, about 10 miles west of the Claiborne County seat, Port Gibson.

The plant’s isolation is not incidental: Roadside signs identify evacuation routes in the event of a nuclear meltdown or other environmental or public health event.

Grand Gulf is the largest single nuclear reactor in the United States and the only nuclear power plant in Mississippi. It stands out in other ways, including for its sometimes troubled operational history and controversy over its assessment for taxation.

Now Entergy, the utility company that operates Grand Gulf, is considering adding a second nuclear reactor in part due to increased projected demand from AI facilities, according to an article in the trade journal Power Engineering which reported that the company had “secured an early site permit for such a project and is ‘in discussions with customers, potential partners and other stakeholders regarding that opportunity.’” The revelation came in a 2025 investors call that received scant attention outside the energy industry.

Power Engineering cited comments by Entergy CEO Drew Marsh during the April 2025 quarterly earnings call, and noted, “Nuclear power has regained popularity in recent years as end-use customers like data centers seek clean, reliable megawatts at a time when electricity demand is exploding due to EVs, manufacturing and the compute needed for artificial intelligence (AI). Several of the tech giants, like Microsoft, Google and Amazon, have struck deals in the interest of procuring nuclear power for their AI data centers.”

The article quotes Marsh saying the company has government support for its potential nuclear expansion, but that “offtaker’s financial support” would also be needed to bring another reactor online. (“Offtaker” refers to end-users or marketers of a project’s output.)

“The key issue for us is our ability to manage the construction risk,” Marsh said during the earnings call. “And of course, we need a customer to want to pay for that.”

In a transcript of the call, Marsh notes that Entergy held a Nuclear Regulatory Commission “early site permit” for a potential new nuclear facility at Grand Gulf that expires in April 2027, and that the company planned to seek renewal of the permit for another 20 years “to maintain a viable option for new nuclear.” Marsh adds, “We are in discussions with customers [and] potential partners and other stakeholders regarding that opportunity.” Entergy applied for the required NRC permit extension in September 2025 and the regulatory agency published a notice in the Federal Register accepting it for review on Jan. 27, 2026.

Entergy, which operates generation and distribution networks in Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, announced plans on Feb. 16, 2026, to add 1,300 temporary workers for what the company described as a routine refueling and maintenance project at Grand Gulf. The announcement made no mention of a second reactor. Entergy holds 90 percent ownership of Grand Gulf through a subsidiary, System Energy Resources Inc. The other 10 percent is owned by Cooperative Energy.

The scheduled refueling and maintenance—the 25^th since the plant began operation in 1985—requires a temporary outage as “station and contract workers will perform maintenance and testing activities to prepare the station for its next operating cycle,” according to the Entergy announcement. The 1,300 additional temporary workers were in addition to more than 700 full-time employees needed for fueling, maintenance and testing, with additional support from Entergy employees from other nuclear plants.

Entergy spokesperson Tosha Hester told The Mississippi Independent that the refueling and maintenance outage began on Feb. 14, 2026, and that the 1,300 contract workers are for that project—not for construction of a second reactor, an option that she said would be considered pending approval of the extended permit.

“Right now, we don’t plan on building any new nuclear plants, at this moment,” Hester said. Once the permit extension is in place, Entergy will evaluate the possibilities, she said, adding, “If Entergy proceeds, that [Grand Gulf] would probably be the first site.” The added workforce is already onsite, but for now, she said, “There is no groundbreaking.”

Entergy Mississippi president and CEO Haley Fisackerly discussed some of those possibilities in this interview with Energy, Oil & Gas Magazine. He said Entergy Mississippi is moving more toward renewable energy sources, including nuclear, and that, regarding the Grand Gulf expansion permit, the company is “working with the new Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Trump Administration on seeking an extension for another 20 years. That’s very important to us because it would help us to accelerate and reduce costs on another plant if we were to look at building one; it’s something we’re studying very carefully.”

Fisackerly said that among the options are small modular reactors, which he described as “greater passive safety systems than what we currently use today.” He said the company is meanwhile investing in upgrades to its transmission systems through what he called “more resilient, robust structures, as well as into various other grid enhancement technologies, to ensure that the grid is stable and operating at its highest capability.”

The Mississippi Public Service Commission’s Brent Bailey referenced small modular reactors, or SMRs, in a commission bulletin and specifically mentioned the company NuScale, a major industry player that has been the subject of numerous controversies, including, most recently, a class-action lawsuit alleging securities fraud.

There are currently no SMRs operating in the U.S., but the Tennessee Valley Authority filed the first permit to construct one last year and other companies are undertaking feasibility studies, including NuScale, whose design the NRC has approved, and AES Indiana, a subsidiary of Massachusetts-based AES Corp. In 2024, AES Corp. began operating a 184-megawatt wind farm in Tunica County; its primary customer is Amazon and the tech giant’s data centers.

Entergy Nuclear, headquartered in Jackson, is responsible for the operation of Entergy’s nuclear fleet, which consists of five reactors in four locations. Entergy produces, transmits and distributes electricity to three million customers in its four-state service area.

A second Grand Gulf reactor has been proposed before. One was originally planned alongside the first, and adjacent to the current station is an unfinished concrete structure that was to be the containment building for a planned Unit 2, a twin to the existing Unit 1 nuclear reactor. In December 1979, Entergy precursor Middle South Utilities stopped work on Unit 2 due to construction costs and lack of demand. In 2005, Entergy announced that the plant had again been selected as the site for another reactor, to be known as Unit 3, but that project stalled in 2009 and the related NRC permit application was cancelled at the company’s request in 2015.

Entergy completed a Grand Gulf power upgrade in 2012 that made it the largest single-unit nuclear power plant in the U.S. and the fifth largest in the world. According to the company, the upgrade increased Grand Gulf’s production capacity by more than 13 percent, bringing its total output to 1,443 megawatts.

The energy education site Fairewinds, in reporting on an “unusual event” at Grand Gulf that required a report to the NRC in 2021, noted that the plant has had its share of problems over the years, including a “truly abysmal reliability record” and a long history of operating issues. For most of 2020, the plant was either shut down or operating at reduced power, according to Fairewinds, which reported that as far back as 1997 the NRC had identified radioactive tritium discharges that were among the highest concentrations at any plant in the U.S.

In 2011, Grand Gulf Unit 1 had another significant tritium leak into the basement of the unfinished Grand Gulf Unit 2 reactor, which was discharged directly into the Mississippi River. News outlets at the time reported that after heavy spring rains, workers were pumping standing water collected in the abandoned Unit 2 turbine building into the river when detectors sounded alarms signaling the presence of tritium and the pumping was stopped. The release was reported to the Mississippi Department of Health and the NRC.

The plant’s problematic history dates back to its original construction, though the first episode was beyond the company’s control: The cooling tower was severely damaged by a 1978 tornado that caused a massive fissure in its 520-foot-tall concrete superstructure, the result of the collapse of a crane. The ruptured cooling tower, spotlighted at night, gave the installation an ominous appearance at a time when the movie “The China Syndrome”—which focuses on the dangers of nuclear power plants—was coincidentally showing at a now-defunct local drive-in theater.

In 2024, New Orleans reached a deal with Entergy to settle longstanding allegations that the utility mismanaged the Grand Gulf plant, which delivers power to the city, garnering a $250 million payout. Nola.com reported that regulators in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas had “accused Entergy of bilking ratepayers by using an array of arcane tax and accounting measures—such as billing them for lobbying and private plane rides for executives and generally mismanaging the plant—which for years was among the least reliable nuclear plants in the nation.”

Many residents of Port Gibson and Claiborne County are hoping a second reactor will revive the local economy, though the much-anticipated boom from Grand Gulf’s original construction proved short lived. After construction was complete, most of the workers moved on, and many whose operations and maintenance jobs remained chose to live elsewhere, including in Vicksburg, about 30 miles to the north.

The main benefit to Port Gibson and Claiborne County was the substantial tax revenue assessed for the plant, which was built at a cost of $6.325 billion. Yet even that turned out to be a mixed blessing. In the 1980s, the infusion of unprecedented tax dollars into the poor county ushered in a period of alleged political corruption, and in 1986 the Mississippi Legislature passed a law spreading Grand Gulf tax revenues across the Entergy Mississippi service area.

The law, which exempts the plant from local ad valorem taxes and instead requires it to pay a state tax, has been the subject of legal disputes, and during the current legislative session, House Bill 1277, the “Nuclear In Lieu Tax Distribution Equity Act” was filed to adjust the statutory formula governing the distribution of the taxes to ensure the equitable allocation of revenues” to the county bearing the associated “risks and burdens.” Several similar bills during previous sessions failed to pass.

Should Entergy build a second reactor at Grand Gulf, the tax revenues would increase, perhaps significantly.

The Port Gibson and Claiborne County economy could use a boost, as it is basically running on fumes. The region’s original fortunes were based on slave-based cotton production and its main draw remains its well-preserved antebellum architecture. For a time the town relied upon small industrial enterprises including a sawmill and a cottonseed (later soybean) oil mill, both of which have since closed. The town was also served by a railroad that is likewise abandoned. Signs on approaches to the town claim Civil War Gen. U.S. Grant deemed Port Gibson “too beautiful to burn,” though that is generally considered a myth, given that the war’s most brilliant strategist would not likely have based his military decisions on architectural aesthetics.

The town of Grand Gulf, named for a wide, turbulent bay created by the confluence of the Mississippi and the Big Black rivers, is now extinct, owing to fires, yellow fever epidemics, changes in the course of the Mississippi and out-migration. The former river port and Civil War battle site is commemorated in a state park with a museum, preserved buildings and the remains of artillery emplacements, with a scattering of residences nearby. A new river port dredged downstream from the Grand Gulf nuclear plant is currently unused.

Image: Grand Gulf Nuclear Station (via Entergy website)

After the University of Mississippi Medical Center was hit by a Feb. 19, 2026, ransomware attack, LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the school of medicine, said in a news conference that officials had been in communication with the perpetrators, but offered no further information about that.

“The attackers have communicated to us and we are working with the authorities and specialists on next steps,” Woodward said, adding that hospital officials did not know how long the interruption would last.

The obvious question is what sort of communication with the hackers Woodward was describing. In a ransomware attack, hackers utilize malicious software to encrypt their victim’s files, then demand payment for the decryption key while threatening to delete or publish the data. In recent cases involving hospitals in neighboring Alabama, officials ended up paying undisclosed amounts to get their operations back online.

On its Facebook page, UMMC posted on the day of the attack that, “Due to a cybersecurity attack, many UMMC IT systems are down, including access to our electronic medical records, EPIC. Today, all UMMC clinic locations statewide are closed. Outpatient and ambulatory surgeries/procedures and imaging appointments are cancelled and will be rescheduled. Hospital services are continuing for our patients using downtime procedures. We apologize for this unexpected disruption, and we will provide further updates as information is available.”

In the days since, the FBI and the federal Department of Homeland Security have gotten involved, but hospital officials have provided few details to the public. A spokesperson for UMMC declined to provide further information to The Mississippi Independent about its communications with the attackers or about any changes to the system’s cybersecurity budget that could have made the system more vulnerable. The spokesperson suggested following UMMC’s Facebook page for updates.

State Rep. Fabian Nelson (D-Byram) told The Mississippi Independent that the House Technology Committee is working “to keep the state of Mississippi and all of its institutions safe” by constantly reviewing regulations and procedures to combat new and emerging threats.

Asked what could be learned from the UMMC attack, Nelson had no ready answer. “Not only is Mississippi learning, but the entire country is learning what we need to do to close these additional back doors,” he said. “And unfortunately, it’s probably going to be another instance in the future where they’ll find a way to get around it. So, that’s the thing about technology, it’s always evolving. There are always people finding another way in and out, but we will be learning from this, and we will be able to make sure that no one is ever able to attack us again this way.”

UMMC currently has a budget of around $2 billion, but it is unclear how much of that is allocated to cybersecurity or whether there have been any modifications to the cybersecurity allocation amid the rising occurrence of these events.

State Institutions of Higher Learning spokesperson John Sewell told The Mississippi Independent that, “Cybersecurity is obviously an important component of any public or private entity these days. IHL and the public universities all work to manage their systems through best practices, such as multi-factor authentication, as recommended by ITS and industry standards. Given the critical need for protection of healthcare data, the University of Mississippi Medical Center has fully invested in its cybersecurity and will continue to do so as it recovers from this current cyberattack.”

As such attacks have become more prevalent, especially in the case of healthcare systems, many institutions have not taken appropriate steps to keep their systems safe and patient data secure, according to a 2024 report by Kroll. The report found that more than 26 percent of healthcare organizations lack a full complement of recommended threat and detection capabilities. Only 3 percent of healthcare industries have cybersecurity features that go beyond basic monitoring, the report found.

Other reports have noted that hospitals devote less of their IT budget to cybersecurity today than in 2023. In the last three years, 8 percent of hospitals said they invest 10 percent or more of their IT budget on cybersecurity. In 2023, 10 percent of hospitals did so. In the case of for-profit hospitals, the percentage that spend at least 10 percent of their IT budgets on cybersecurity went from 22 percent in 2023 to around 18 percent in 2024.

The Searchlight Ransomware H2 2025 report found that the number of active ransomware groups has reached an all-time high with the growth rate of victims doubling since 2024. With ransomware software becoming more accessible, the barriers for entry into the world of hacking have been significantly reduced. Last year, 124 different ransomware groups were reportedly in operation, with 73 of those new to the landscape. Groups including Qilin provide affiliate hackers with what’s known as “ransomware-as-a-service” in return for a portion of the ransom payment paid back to the operators.

The increased availability and capability of AI have contributed to the rise in ransomware attacks. On the black market, a single patient record can be worth up to $1,000, making large data breaches potentially extremely profitable for the hackers.

UMMC is one of that state’s largest healthcare providers and operates seven hospitals and 35 clinics serving more than 70,000 patients annually, and has more than 10,000 employees. The cyberattack has brought significant disruption to countless lives.

The hospital system reported that within an hour of the attack it had activated an emergency operations plan, which is required by the Mississippi State Department of Health, and had alerted authorities with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security. As an extra precaution, UMMC has taken down all of its network systems, including phone and email, and will conduct risk assessments before bringing anything back online.

Included in the system shutdown are records used to book appointments and manage patient medical histories, test results and billing information. Whether any records regarding patient information or payment information were compromised, Robert Eikhoff, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Jackson Field Office, stated during Thursday’s press conference, “It is too early to communicate what we do and don’t know. We are in the process of surging resources both locally and nationally into this incident to make sure we are standing alongside UMMC and their vendors as we look to understand the extent of this attack and then the actions we need to take to help them on the path to recovery, with the number one priority being helping them get their systems up and providing services to their patients.”

After a similar ransomware attack on Alabama’s DCH Health Systems in October 2019, the hospital group was forced to pay the hackers an undisclosed sum in return for the key to unlock the targeted files. DCH spokesperson Brad Fisher was quoted saying, “This included purchasing a decryption key from the attackers to expedite system recovery and help ensure patient safety. For ongoing security reasons, we will be keeping confidential specific details about the investigation and our coordination with the attacker.”

UMMC hospitals and emergency departments in Jackson, Grenada and Madison and Holmes counties have remained open, but the closure of all other UMMC clinics continues, as does the cancellation of elective, non-emergency procedures.

To keep hospitals and emergency rooms operating, UMMC has turned to what’s known as downtime procedures, which are typically used for maintenance or software updates. At UMMC’s initial news conference, Dr. Alan Jones, associate vice chancellor for health affairs, sought to reassure patients, saying, “We have downtime procedures, so we know how to take care of patients without electronic medical records and I can assure you that at the point of care, all of our processes are intact. All of our equipment works. All of our patients are being taken care of safely. There will be no patient impact as a result of this downtime.”

Rep. Nelson, who said he utilizes UMMC as a patient himself, praised the response to the attack, which he said was swift and transparent with patients and enabled continuing critical operations. He added, “By UMMC being a teaching institute, they know how to do it the old-school way without computers and stuff. So, I want people to rest assured that UMMC is handling this the best way they possibly can, and I want to make sure they’re getting credit for that as well as credit for being transparent instead of hiding this from people.”

As technology continues to reshape the healthcare field and increase its reliance on computer systems to operate smoothly, a lack of standardized cybersecurity protocols can expose all connected networks to risk. Between 2015 and 2025, the number of reported hospital cyberattacks has tripled in the United States. The number of records impacted from these attacks has likewise significantly increased. In April 2023, 5.3 million records were reportedly compromised, compared with 15.3 records compromised in April of the following year.

In May 2024, Ascension Health, a St. Louis-based health system that operates hospitals in Birmingham and Mobile, faced a ransomware attack, but it took until December of that year to realize the full effects. In total, 5.6 million records were breached, making it the third largest healthcare data breach of the year behind the Change healthcare ransomware attack (100 millions records) and the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan tracking technology data breach (13.4 million records).

Just two months ago, the Singing River Health System in Ocean Springs identified their own potential cyberthreat which forced administrators to shut down systems in an attempt to mitigate the threat. This came on the heels of a 2023 ransomware attack on Singing River that exposed nearly a million individuals’ health information to hackers. The same year, North Mississippi Health Services and OCH Regional Medical Center in Starkville fell victim to cyberattacks.

According to Rep. Nelson, cyberattacks like these are “inevitable.” Computer viruses have the capability to replicate, evolve and mutate into other forms to get around fixes, and, he said, “The way these hackers work, they’ll probably send these attacks out to thousands of entities, if not hundreds of thousands of them. And when they find a loophole, then that’s who they target their attack towards.”

Image: Stock hacking image (via bgnes.com)

When Kevin Blackwell (R-Southaven), chair of the state Senate’s Medicaid Committee, told the Mississippi Free Press this week that the state would not expand Medicaid this year, it marked the end of a period of rising hopes that such a measure would finally pass.

Blackwell’s stated reason was financial: President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4, 2025, restructured federal Medicaid funding in ways that made expansion impractical.

“There is no expansion,” Blackwell reportedly said. “The Big Beautiful Bill changed funding.”

The announcement marked the end of a legislative effort that, two years earlier, came closer to passage than at any point in the program’s history in Mississippi. It also reflected a shift in the federal landscape that has reshaped the Medicaid debate not only in Mississippi but across the United States.

Mississippi is one of 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, which since 2014 has allowed states to extend coverage to adults earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level—roughly $20,000 for an individual.

An estimated 200,000 Mississippians fall into the resulting coverage gap, earning too much for traditional Medicaid but too little for affordable private insurance. The state ranks last among states in overall health system performance, according to the Commonwealth Fund’s 2025 scorecard, and more than 15 percent of its adults lack health insurance. Nearly 700,000 residents—including half the state’s children—rely on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Work requirement impasse in 2024

The 2024 legislative session produced the most significant movement on Medicaid expansion to date. House Speaker Jason White (R-West) made it a legislative priority. The House Medicaid Committee, chaired by Rep. Missy McGee (R-Hattiesburg), advanced a bill that, in a parallel to the ACA, would have extended coverage to adults earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level and draw down approximately $1 billion per year in federal funds. The House bill included a work requirement but contained a provision allowing expansion to proceed even if the federal government denied a waiver for that requirement. It passed 99-20.

The Senate’s approach differed in two key respects. The Senate bill, championed by Blackwell and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, covered only those earning up to 100 percent of the poverty level and made the entire program contingent upon federal approval of a 120-hour monthly work requirement. Without the waiver, expansion would not take effect. Hosemann described work requirements as essential to the program’s purpose, linking healthcare access to workforce participation.

“When people are healthy, they are working, raising their families, and contributing to their communities,” Blackwell said. He called his plan “a hand up, not a handout.” The Senate version passed 36-16 in late March 2024.

A late-session conference raised the income threshold to 138 percent of the poverty level while retaining the Senate’s work requirement trigger. But the compromise could not secure enough support. Gov. Tate Reeves, who has long opposed expansion, privately signaled he would veto the measure. The bills died at the end of the session.

Hosemann told reporters on May 2, 2024, that Medicaid expansion would have to wait for Trump’s return to office.

“We missed, in my mind, a golden opportunity to expand Medicaid at that time,” Rep. Omeria Scott (D-Laurel), told The Mississippi Independent. “I don’t think that is something that is going to occur.”

Federal landscape changes in 2025

Lawmakers entered the 2025 session with vehicle legislation in place that could have carried expansion language. But Blackwell and McGee both said they were waiting for the U.S. Senate to confirm Dr. Mehmet Oz, Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, before acting. They wanted clarity on the new administration’s Medicaid policies.

The session ended without a vote on expansion. Oz was subsequently confirmed. Then, on July 4, 2025, Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law.

The law made several changes relevant to Medicaid expansion. It eliminated a 5 percent increase in federal matching funds that the American Rescue Plan Act had offered as an incentive for non-expansion states to adopt the program. It required states to conduct eligibility redeterminations for expansion populations every six months rather than annually. Beginning in 2028, it mandated cost-sharing for expansion enrollees just above the poverty line. It also placed new limits on state-directed payment arrangements—the financing mechanism Mississippi had used since 2023 to nearly triple its Medicaid hospital reimbursements, from $500 million to $1.5 billion per year.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated the law could remove between 9.9 million and 14.9 million Americans from Medicaid and CHIP by 2034, with projected cuts of $1.02 trillion from the programs’ federal budget. The Congressional Budget Office estimated 10.9 million Americans would lose health insurance coverage as a result of the law.

In Mississippi, even without expansion, the state is projected to lose an estimated $5.4 billion in federal Medicaid funding during the next decade. Roughly 46,000 current enrollees could lose coverage through the law’s new administrative and eligibility verification requirements. Beginning in 2029, the phasedown of state-directed payments will reduce hospital funding by approximately $160 million per year, according to the state Medicaid director.

Republicans in Congress included a $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program in the law, which awarded Mississippi approximately $206 million for fiscal year 2026. Analyses have found the program would offset roughly one-third of the law’s projected cuts to rural healthcare funding.

In assessing the new fiscal landscape this week, Blackwell said the state faces difficult choices. “We have a limited pot of money, and we have a lot of services and a lot of people to provide care for, and so we’re just trying to balance that,” he said. He predicted that states that already expanded Medicaid would face pressure to scale back. “Those states that have expanded will probably be going back to their regular programs before expansion.”

Rep. Scott also filed two Medicaid expansion bills this session, House Bill 224 and House Bill 226, but both died on the Feb. 3, 2026, committee deadline without receiving a vote.

Conflicting views on what comes next

Mississippi’s Medicaid debate now unfolds in a different fiscal environment than the one that existed during the 2024 session. Federal matching incentives for expansion have been eliminated. New administrative requirements are expected to reduce enrollment in existing Medicaid programs. Rural hospitals face the prospect of significant funding reductions within the next several years.

Gov. Reeves has maintained that as a non-expansion state, Mississippi is partly insulated from the law’s most direct effects. “Many of the work requirements and other things that the federal government is talking about doing will have very little or no impact on those states that actually have chosen not to expand under Obamacare,” he said in a 2025 PBS interview. The provisions targeting expansion populations do not apply in Mississippi, where no expansion population exists.

But other provisions of the law apply regardless of expansion status, and healthcare advocates have warned that Mississippi’s system faces new pressures. Richard Roberson, president of the Mississippi Hospital Association, has described the state-directed payment program as “a lifeline” for rural hospitals. Its scheduled phasedown could affect facilities in a state where half the population lives in rural areas.

Scott, who has introduced Medicaid expansion bills in multiple sessions, described the situation in stark terms during a 2025 press conference. “Healthcare is a human right; it’s not a privilege,” she said. “And in Mississippi, where we are the poorest and the sickest of Americans, healthcare ought to be really at the height of our concern.”

Whether the legislature revisits Medicaid expansion in future sessions will depend in part on the federal funding environment and on whether state leaders develop alternative approaches to closing the coverage gap. For now, the estimated 200,000 Mississippians who would have been eligible for expanded Medicaid remain without coverage.

Image: State capitol rotunda (credit R.L. Nave)

Newly released federal college data show that Hispanic freshman enrollment at Mississippi’s two largest public universities rose sharply in fall 2024, the fastest-growing among flagship colleges in the Southeast since the Supreme Court banned race-based college admissions in a landmark ruling in June 2023.

The University of Mississippi saw a 44 percent increase of its Hispanic freshman headcount between 2023 and 2024, while Mississippi State University’s increased by just over 40 percent, according to a new analysis of federal data by Class Action, a grassroots higher-education advocacy organization. The University of Southern Mississippi, the state’s third-largest college, saw its new Hispanic student numbers fall by nearly 13 percent.

“While this particular study is early and there is much more research to be done on this issue, one thing remains true: Mississippi’s public universities offer a quality education and welcome quality students,” said John Sewell, director of communications for the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, the governing body of the state’s eight public universities. “We are aware of the nationwide enrollment trends following the Supreme Court decision, including the trend of declining enrollment of highly qualified students of color at more selective institutions.”

The trend aligns with broader national findings in the Class Action analysis, which examined Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System data for more than 3,000 colleges and universities, covering roughly three million freshmen. The report found that Black and Hispanic enrollment declined sharply at the nation’s 50 most selective colleges following the Supreme Court decision, while enrollment increased at many public flagship universities. Overall, freshman enrollment of underrepresented minority groups rose 8 percent at public flagships nationwide, according to the data.

Researchers say the shifts reflect what is known as a cascade effect, in which students who once would have enrolled at elite institutions instead attend less selective universities after being rejected under race-neutral admissions rules.

“These really talented Black and Hispanic students who were, in the past, treating the University of Mississippi as their safety school or the University of Michigan as their safety school, because they probably have a better-than-average chance of getting into Wesleyan or Williams or Amherst—suddenly those students aren’t getting into those places,” James Murphy, a senior fellow at Class Action, told inside Higher Ed, a Washington, D.C.-based online news publication. “So, they’re not going to say, ‘well, geez, no college for me.’ They’re going to the schools that they were almost certainly getting into in the past, [but] they just weren’t enrolling in because they were getting into ‘better’ schools.”

Those shifts occurred alongside substantial movement in Black enrollment. At the University of Mississippi, a campus with a long and complicated racial history, Black freshman enrollment increased by 49.7 percent, one of the largest jumps nationally. Mississippi State University saw a 4.8 percent increase, while Black enrollment at the University of Southern Mississippi declined 10.3 percent.

“When Edward Blum brought his case against Harvard and UNC, did he ever think that Black enrollment would grow by almost 50 percent at the University of Mississippi?” Murphy noted in the report. “College admissions is a complicated game, and it is certainly not a single-player one.”

The University of Mississippi did not respond to questions from The Mississippi Independent about its vast enrollment increase of students of color.

While Mississippi’s public flagship universities appear to have gained substantial numbers of new students of color, the report also found that Black enrollment declined nationally at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), a trend that doesn’t include Mississippi, where HBCUs saw a miniscule increase in Black freshman. The report cautioned that the overall data reflect only one admissions cycle and that longer-term patterns remain uncertain.

The report’s authors also warned of potential long-term consequences. As Black and Hispanic students enroll in smaller numbers at institutions with the highest graduation rates and post-graduation earnings, the reshuffling of enrollment may reinforce existing socioeconomic inequalities rather than eliminate them.

For Mississippi, a state facing persistent challenges around educational attainment and workforce participation, the surge in Hispanic enrollment, alongside sharp increases in Black enrollment at certain campuses, raises an open question: whether the changes represent a lasting realignment in who attends the state’s public universities, or a temporary aftershock of a Supreme Court decision whose full effects are still unfolding.

“Post-SFFA enrollment outcomes are a reminder that college admissions operate in an ecosystem where what happens at one institution shapes and is shaped by what happens at many others,” noted the report. “This fact is an important one to remember and explain to laypeople and policymakers in the coming years, assuming that bad actors will continue to push simplistic narratives about college admissions based on limited data points.”

Image: MSU students and friends dance at YMCA Plaza during “Salsa in the Streets,” an annual Hispanic Heritage Month celebration sponsored by the MSU Ballroom Dance Club, Holmes Cultural Diversity Center, Latino Student Association, and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (credit Cameron Mazingo/Mississippi State University)

A proposed $5,000 across-the-board teacher pay raise is headed for the Senate, marking a significant step in ongoing efforts to boost educator compensation in Mississippi. The bill, HB 1126, passed by the House last week, also includes an additional $3,000 increase for special-education teachers working in public schools.

The legislation does not currently include a pay raise for assistant teachers and contains several provisions unrelated to teacher salaries, which some observers have said could complicate its path through the legislative process.

The Mississippi Professional Educators noted that HB 1126 is not “a stand-alone pay raise bill” but includes “numerous other issues, including PERS eligibility retirement provisions, the sections of state law governing the Mississippi Student Funding Formula, school attendance officers, superintendents’ salaries” as well as funding for teacher recruitment incentives in low-performing districts. Education advocates have raised concerns that bundling unrelated provisions with the pay raise could complicate the bill’s path through the legislative process.

A long, contentious history

The fight over teacher pay in Mississippi stretches back decades, woven into the state’s broader struggles over education funding, racial equity and political will.

When state Rep. Robert Clark became chair of the House Education Committee in 1978—the first Black committee chairman in the Mississippi Legislature in modern times—teacher compensation was already a defining issue.

Mississippi’s teacher pay lagged behind every neighboring state. Clark, working with the Mississippi Association of Educators, shepherded a teacher salary bill through the House that year, winning a 119-0 vote on a measure that added $500 to base pay and tied raises to degree level and experience. It was a modest gain in a state that had chronically underfunded its public schools, but it established a pattern: Teacher pay would advance only through sustained political pressure, often against fierce resistance to the tax increases needed to fund it.

The passage of the Education Reform Act of 1982 under Gov. William Winter represented the most sweeping education overhaul in the state’s history. The act established public kindergartens, created a compulsory attendance law, and set new standards for teacher certification. It also included a provision suggesting that teacher salaries should “to the extent possible” reach the average of the southeastern states. That aspirational clause would have consequences its authors may not have fully anticipated.

By 1985, with teacher pay still the lowest in the nation and lawmakers having failed to close the gap with the southeastern average, frustration boiled over. In February of that year, teachers in south Mississippi launched a wildcat strike—the first in the state’s history. What began with several hundred teachers in Jones, Covington, Lamar and Forrest counties spread across the state. At its peak, more than 9,000 of Mississippi’s 27,000 teachers had walked off the job, affecting more than 175,000 students in 58 school districts. Teachers were averaging $15,971 a year and demanding a $3,500 raise in each of the next two years to reach the southeastern average of roughly $19,684.

The strike unfolded in defiance of a court restraining order. Teachers picketed knowing they risked their careers. Gov. Bill Allain vetoed the resulting pay package, but the legislature overrode his veto by votes of 46-3 in the Senate and 104-16 in the House, approving a three-year, $4,400 raise funded through a mix of tax increases on alcohol, cigarettes, soft drinks and other goods. The victory came at a cost: The 1985 pay package included an anti-strike clause that automatically terminated any teacher who participated in a future walkout — a provision that remains in state law.

The decades that followed brought periodic raises, each one hard-fought. Gov. Ray Mabus in 1988 signed a pay raise that boosted average teacher pay by roughly $3,700—more than $8,000 adjusted for inflation. Gov. Kirk Fordice approved a three-year raise starting in 1997. Under Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, the legislature passed a multi-year, $338 million pay package in 2000 that increased average teacher pay from about $31,892 to $41,445 when fully implemented in 2005—a 30 percent increase.

After Republicans took control of both legislative chambers, the pace slowed. A $2,500 raise was spread over two years starting in 2014. A $1,500 raise followed in 2019, and a roughly $1,000 raise in 2021. Each time, educators and advocates argued the amounts were insufficient to address the state’s persistent ranking near the bottom nationally.

In 2022, the legislature passed what was billed as the largest teacher pay raise in state history—the START Act, providing an average increase of $5,140 at a cost of $246 million annually. Starting teacher pay rose from $37,123 to $41,638, putting Mississippi above the southeastern and national averages for entry-level salaries. The bill also included a $2,000 raise for assistant teachers. Within two years, however, inflation and rising health insurance premiums had eroded much of the raise’s impact, according to a Mississippi First teacher survey.

In 2026, the cycle continues. The House-passed $5,000 raise in HB 1126 would represent another significant investment, though the bill’s exclusion of assistant teachers marks a departure from the 2022 package. The competing Senate measure, SB 2001, proposes a smaller $2,000 raise but includes assistant teachers in its scope—a trade-off that will likely be negotiated as the bills move through the legislative process.

Additional education bills pending in both chambers

Several other education-related bills remain under consideration.

The Senate passed SB 2242, the Mississippi Math Act, which would establish a pilot program aimed at identifying students in grades K-5 who are struggling in math and providing them with targeted interventions. The bill also includes supports for math teachers in those grade levels. SB 2242 now moves to the House.

In the House, pending bills include HB 1234, which would create new accountability “dashboards” requiring public schools to publish detailed financial and academic data on a monthly basis. The bill has drawn attention for the contrast between its requirements for public schools and its explicit protections from similar scrutiny for publicly funded private schools.

HB 1606, the Excellence for All Pilot Program, seeks to address the state’s teacher shortage by improving retention through a career ladder system and additional supports and incentives in pilot districts.

SB 2001, a Senate-originated teacher pay measure now awaiting House action, proposes a $2,000 across-the-board salary increase for both teachers and assistant teachers—a smaller raise than the House-passed bill but one that includes assistant teachers.

SB 2002, a public school choice bill, would allow public schools to accept out-of-district students, though participation would be limited to students who can provide their own transportation.

SB 2003 would expand incentives for retired teachers to return to the classroom while continuing to receive Public Employees’ Retirement System benefits.

In the Senate, SB 2487 would expand literacy support to students in grades 4-8, building on the state’s existing early literacy initiatives. The adolescent literacy bill is designed to extend reading interventions to middle school students. The measure is still awaiting a Senate vote.

The various education bills reflect a legislative session in which teacher compensation, school accountability and student academic support have emerged as central priorities for Mississippi lawmakers—priorities that, as the historical record shows, the state has grappled with for generations.

Image: Mississippi State Capitol (R.L. Nave)

State lawmakers have introduced a slate of immigration-enforcement bills this session, including House Bill 1037, which would create state felonies for harboring or transporting undocumented immigrants.

Sponsored by Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, the measure is part of a broader effort by state Republicans to align Mississippi law with the Trump administration’s immigration-enforcement agenda—and part of a wave of similar legislation in Republican-led states across the South.

The bill would establish two new crimes: “unlawful human harboring” and “unlawful human smuggling.” Anyone who knowingly conceals, harbors or shields an undocumented person from detection—or transports them knowing they lack authorization—could face up to 15 years in prison and fines up to $30,000. The legislation does not include exceptions for family members, clergy, employers or medical transport.

The proposal is modeled on Florida’s SB 1718, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2023, which makes it a third-degree felony to knowingly transport an undocumented person into Florida. That law’s original draft included broader harboring provisions, but pushback from faith groups and business interests narrowed its scope before passage. Mississippi’s version goes further, criminalizing harboring within the state—not just transportation across state lines.

Similar bills have emerged in Missouri and Alabama, part of what advocates describe as a coordinated push for state-level immigration enforcement. Alabama’s SB 53 would criminalize harboring and allow civil asset forfeiture for those caught aiding undocumented individuals.

The case for state enforcement

Currie, who chairs the House Corrections Committee, argues that the federal government has failed to adequately enforce existing immigration laws. “My job is to make economic opportunities for Mississippians,” she said at a 2010 immigration forum. “If you are here on a work visa and you are here legally, welcome. But the day your visa runs out is the day you leave the country and come back legally.” She has cited concerns about unauthorized employment, document fraud, and what she has described as gang activity and human trafficking in her district.

Currie previously claimed a need for “more teeth” in Mississippi’s E-Verify law and cited what she characterized as problems with harboring undocumented immigrants in her home district.

Supporters of state-level enforcement argue that measures like HB 1037 complement federal law rather than conflict with it. Federal law under 8 U.S.C. § 1324 already criminalizes harboring and transporting undocumented immigrants. Proponents contend that state penalties add an additional enforcement mechanism where federal resources are limited. DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton, who backed a separate bounty hunter bill this session, has framed such measures as advancing President Trump’s stated objective of deporting “as many people who are here illegally as possible.”

The legal landscape

The bill faces significant legal hurdles. Courts have repeatedly held that immigration enforcement is primarily a federal domain, and state laws that create parallel criminal penalties have faced constitutional challenges on preemption grounds.

In May 2024, U.S. District Judge Roy Altman—a Trump appointee—blocked Florida’s transportation provision, ruling that federal courts have “uniformly ruled that prohibitions on transportation, harboring, and inducement of unlawfully present aliens fall into a preempted field.” The American Immigration Council, which helped bring the challenge alongside the Americans for Immigrant Justice, the ACLU of Florida, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, argued the law was so vague it could sweep in families visiting across state lines, coworkers carpooling, and churches transporting congregation members.

The Supreme Court’s 2012 decision in Arizona v. United States struck down several provisions of Arizona’s SB 1070 on preemption grounds, holding that states cannot create their own immigration crimes that parallel federal offenses. The court did uphold a provision allowing police to check immigration status during stops but emphasized that “the Federal Government has occupied the field of alien registration.” The Yale Law Journal has noted that the court’s recent approach may open more space for state enforcement, though scholars remain divided on whether the current court—or lower courts under the Trump administration’s influence—might take a different view.

Rep. Jansen Owen, R-Poplarville, vice chairman of the House Judiciary B Committee, has expressed skepticism about some of this session’s immigration proposals, citing constitutional concerns about state government overreach—an unusual position for a Republican lawmaker in a session dominated by enforcement-minded legislation.

The anti-commandeering doctrine, rooted in the Tenth Amendment, holds that the federal government cannot compel states to enforce federal law. But the inverse question—whether states can create their own parallel enforcement regimes—remains contested territory in the courts.

Fear in immigrant communities

For immigrant families in Mississippi, the legislative proposals have compounded fears already heightened by the return of Trump administration enforcement policies. Within a week of taking office, federal agents arrested at least 20 undocumented immigrants in multiple Mississippi locations, detaining them in Madison County.

“It’s been very hard for me. Truthfully, in 20-plus years I never thought I would see some of this,” L. Patricia Ice, director of the legal project at the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, told Mississippi Public Broadcasting. “People who are currently undocumented here have expressed concern, and some of the other people who are in the middle of their process of becoming permanent residents and or citizens are very, very afraid.”

Ice noted that MIRA’s annual civic engagement day at the Capitol drew smaller crowds this year. “People expressed fear about coming here,” she said. Ice helped co-establish MIRA in 2000 and has spent more than two decades advocating for immigrant rights in the state.

Mississippi has recent and vivid experience with large-scale federal immigration enforcement. On Aug. 7, 2019—the first day of school for many Mississippi children—Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted raids at seven poultry processing plants across central Mississippi, detaining approximately 680 workers. It remains the largest single-day workplace immigration enforcement action in U.S. history.

More than half of those detained—342 people—worked at the Koch Foods plant in Morton alone. Children returned from school to find their parents gone. School superintendent Tony McGee scrambled with Child Protective Services to ensure students had somewhere to go. A tearful plea from an 11-year-old girl named Magdalena went viral, becoming a symbol of family separation.

Five years later, families in Morton and Forest are still rebuilding their lives. Community organizations like El Pueblo continue to assist affected families with food drives, clothing, and interpretation services.

The companies themselves faced minimal consequences. While four executives at two smaller plants were indicted in 2020, no charges were brought against Koch Foods or PECO Foods—companies whose executives had donated thousands of dollars to top Mississippi officials. Three plant managers eventually received probation for “harboring illegal aliens.” A Mississippi Today investigation found that deteriorated working conditions persist in the industry, and that it remains possible to find employment without work authorization.

The poultry industry accounts for the largest percentage of Mississippi’s agricultural economy, employing more than 25,000 people across the state.

A contested historical parallel

Some critics of the legislation have drawn parallels to an earlier period in American history when federal law criminalized assistance to people deemed to have no legal right to be where they were.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 imposed criminal penalties on anyone who harbored escaped slaves or refused to assist in their capture: fines of $1,000 (equivalent to nearly $38,000 today) and up to six months’ imprisonment. The law required citizens to assist federal marshals in apprehending freedom seekers and stripped accused fugitives of the right to testify in their own defense or receive a jury trial. Federal commissioners who ruled in favor of slaveholders received $10; those who released the accused received only $5.

Supporters of immigration enforcement reject the analogy as inflammatory and historically inappropriate, arguing that enforcing democratically enacted immigration laws bears no resemblance to enforcing the institution of slavery. They note that federal immigration law reflects the sovereign right of nations to control their borders—a principle recognized across the political spectrum.

But scholars who study the intersection of immigration law and civil rights history have noted structural parallels worth examining. Both legal regimes criminalize acts of human assistance—shelter, transportation, concealment. Both conscript ordinary citizens into enforcement. Both involve federal-state tensions over who controls the movement of people. And both raise the question of what happens when compliance with law conflicts with conscience.

The Fugitive Slave Act provoked Northern resistance. Vermont, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and other states passed “personal liberty laws” designed to nullify or obstruct federal enforcement. Jury nullification became common. The Underground Railroad became more organized and efficient, not less. Abolitionists argued that a “higher law“ superseded unjust statutes. The severity of the 1850 act, historians have noted, “defeated its purpose” by galvanizing opposition.

Today, some states have moved in the opposite direction from Mississippi—passing “sanctuary“ policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, though recent court rulings have constrained their scope. The tensions between federal enforcement priorities and local values continue to play out across the country. State lawmakers in California, Colorado, New York and elsewhere have introduced measures allowing residents to sue federal immigration agents for civil rights violations.

A session of immigration proposals

HB 1037 is not the only immigration measure before the legislature this session, though several companion bills have already died.

House Bill 1484, the “Mississippi Illegal Alien Certified Bounty Hunter Program,” would have created a $1,000 reward system for tips leading to the apprehension of undocumented immigrants, along with a state-certified bounty hunter program to track and detain them. The bill classified unauthorized presence as “trespassing”—a felony punishable by life imprisonment unless deportation occurred within 24 hours. It died in committee on February 4, 2025, after legal experts and even some Republican lawmakers questioned its constitutionality and workability.

“It just doesn’t pass muster,” Patricia Ice told the Mississippi Free Press. “There are so many things wrong with it.”

Immigration attorney Larissa Davis, based in Flowood, called the bounty hunter bill “a complete waste of resources and money,” describing it as more of a political stunt than a good-faith attempt at legislating.

Other measures that failed to advance include bills creating an “illegal immigration enforcement unit” within state government and penalizing Mississippians for transporting undocumented migrants into the state. MIRA called the death of these bills “a huge win for immigrants here in Mississippi,” attributing the outcome to sustained advocacy. Organizer Nataly Camacho praised the coalition’s efforts.

The status of HB 1037 as committee deadlines approach remains uncertain. Similar legislation sponsored by Currie has failed in past sessions.

Questions remain, including whether compassion can be criminalized

The debate over Mississippi’s immigration legislation touches on both new questions and others that have recurred throughout American history: What is the proper relationship between state and federal authority? When does enforcement become persecution? And what obligations do citizens have when law and conscience diverge?

For families in Morton and Forest still recovering from 2019, for workers in poultry plants across the Delta, for churches and employers and neighbors trying to navigate an uncertain legal landscape, these are not abstract questions. They are the conditions of daily life.

The historical record suggests that laws compelling citizens to participate in the apprehension of vulnerable people tend to generate resistance—and that the long arc of American law has generally bent away from such compulsions. But the short arc is less predictable, and Mississippi’s 2026 session will test which direction the state chooses to bend.

Mississippi’s two U.S. senators, long regarded as reliable supporters of free trade, have received failing marks for their positions on tariffs during President Trump’s second term, according to a recent report released by a Washington D.C.-based liberal think tank.

The Center for New Liberalism graded both Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Sen. Roger Wicker an F on free trade, a sharp reversal from the A grades each received just a year earlier based on their pre-Trump records, underscoring a broader political realignment within the Republican Party.

The report arrives amid heightened legal and political uncertainty over U.S. trade policy. The Supreme Court is weighing whether Trump has exceeded his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping tariffs, even as the administration continues to deploy import tariffs as leverage in foreign policy disputes.

“Donald Trump’s reckless protectionism continues to raise costs for American families,” Colin Mortimer, the Center for New Liberalism’s director, said in a statement accompanying the report. “But there are still leaders in the Senate who are working across the aisle to tell the truth: tariffs are nothing more than a tax on everyday Americans.”

The group’s Senate Tariff & Trade Response Index evaluates lawmakers on votes, public statements, and legislative efforts related to tariffs and congressional authority over trade.

The report found that 33 Republican senators who had earned A or B grades for their pre-Trump trade records now received Fs for their current positions, reflecting what the report authors describe as a dramatic abandonment of long-standing party principles.

“The Republican Party has fallen far from its past support for free trade,” the report notes.

Sen. Hyde-Smith voted to preserve the president’s emergency tariff powers and supported key White House-led trade measures despite mounting evidence of harm to Mississippi’s agriculture sector. “Ignoring the trade war’s impact on Mississippi’s agriculture industry, she has instead argued for government bailouts to assist producers in economic crises,” the report states.

Sen. Wicker’s F grade is related to “his failure to speak out against Trump’s 2025 tariff agenda.” The report notes that he was once an “avid opponent of tariffs that would hurt Mississippi jobs.”

Neither Hyde-Smith nor Wicker responded to questions from The Mississippi Independent regarding the grades or their approach to trade policy.

Since oral arguments in the IEEPA case last fall, Trump has repeatedly used tariffs not only as economic instruments but as leverage in unrelated geopolitical negotiations. Over the weekend, the White House threatened a 10 percent tariff on eight European countries unless they agreed to talks over the sale of Greenland to the United States, with the possibility of duties rising to 25 percent. On Monday, the president warned he would impose 200 percent tariffs on French wine, including champagne, if President Emmanuel Macron declined to participate in a proposed “Board of Peace” for Gaza. He also threatened Canada with 100 percent tariffs over its possible free trade deal with China.

In 2025, the administration’s tariff agenda resulted in an average annual cost increase of roughly $1,100 per household, according to estimates cited in the Center for New Liberalism report, which calls it the largest single-year “tax increase” since the 1990s. In general, companies forced to absorb higher input costs have primarily passed them on to consumers, who are already grappling with inflation.

Mississippi’s economy is especially exposed. Trade supports roughly one in five jobs in the state and generates billions of dollars in annual revenue. For farmers, particularly those dependent on export markets, the damage has been acute. Agriculture, led by poultry, forestry and soybeans, is among the most export-dependent sectors. Soybeans alone account for an estimated $1.6 billion of the state’s economy.

Yet those global markets have eroded steadily under successive rounds of tariffs and retaliatory measures, with China making the most significant dent in trade revenues. In the Mississippi Delta, farmers like Ray Crawford say the consequences are existential. A fourth-generation soybean grower, Crawford has watched China, once the dominant buyer of U.S. soybeans, pivot toward Brazil and Argentina, investing heavily in reliable long-term supply chains.

Speaking to The Mississippi Independent in September 2025, Crawford said that he and other farmers were “sitting on a mountain of soybeans we don’t know what the hell to do with.”

China did agree to buy 12 million tons of soybeans in the last two months of 2025 as part of a trade truce with the U.S., adding to the six million tons Beijing bought in early 2025. It also agreed to purchase 25 million tons per year through to 2028. However, the 2025 purchase represents a 33 percent reduction from 2024’s exports, according to industry reports, while the 25-million-ton agreement is also slightly less than previous years.

The Center for New Liberalism’s index attempts to capture how lawmakers have responded to these realities. Senators were graded on their trade records before Trump’s return to office in 2025; their votes on key tariff-related resolutions this year, including measures addressing tariffs on Brazil, Canada, and global imports; and their public messaging and leadership in opposing or supporting the administration’s trade agenda.

Under the scoring system, lawmakers received failing grades if they actively supported broad tariffs, opposed trade liberalization, or embraced protectionism as sound economic policy. Higher grades were reserved for senators who publicly labeled tariffs as taxes, highlighted state-specific harms, and supported legislation to restore Congress’s constitutional authority over trade.

Only eight senators, including Democrats Maria Cantwell of Washington and Ron Wyden of Oregon, and Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky, earned top marks and were designated “Free Trade Titans.” Just four states had both senators receive A-level grades, and only Washington produced two “titans.”

In contrast, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina was among those cited as emblematic of the shift. Once praised as a free-trade advocate, Tillis received an F for what the report called a contradictory record. While he cosponsored legislation to review tariffs and voted to lift duties on Brazil, he supported tariffs on Canada and global imports, arguing that the president’s “strategic” use of tariffs could yield short-term gains despite long-term risks.

Across the South, the pattern is similar. Republican Sens. John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Sen. John Boozman and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas all received failing grades after enthusiastically backing free trade in the past. Alabama’s two newest senators also earned Fs, though they lacked prior scores for comparison.

Both Hyde-Smith and Wicker either voted against or abstained on resolutions aimed at curbing tariffs on Brazil, Canada and other global trade partners, while neither publicly supported legislation to reclaim congressional authority over trade policy. Neither publicly criticized the administration’s use of Section 232 and Section 301 tariffs, which allowed the White House to impose tariffs on national security grounds and for unfair trade practices.

Hyde-Smith has acknowledged the pain caused by tariffs while expressing optimism about their long-term benefits. “I think that it’s a really good tool,” she said of tariffs at the Ridgeland Chamber of Commerce in April 2025. “I think the president knows how to use that tool. I’m pretty excited about the benefits that will come from the tariffs.”

Critics, however, contend that the strategy has already inflicted lasting damage. During the first trade war, farmers lost an estimated $27 billion between mid-2018 and late 2019, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report. The losses are thought to be far greater in 2025, with some estimates hitting $44 billion.

Homebuilders and insurers have also warned that tariffs on steel, aluminum and lumber are driving up construction costs, contributing to higher home insurance premiums, particularly in storm-prone states like Mississippi, highlighting the real-world significance of the pending Supreme Court case and the Senate’s ability to influence trade policy.

“The U.S. Senate must not abdicate its role as the executive branch violates the separation of powers,” the Center for New Liberalism report concludes, calling on lawmakers to reassert their authority over tariffs.

The Mississippi House of Representatives on Thursday passed House Bill 2 by a vote of 60–58, advancing House Speaker Jason White’s sweeping school choice legislation to the Senate.

The two-vote margin reflects continued divisions within the Republican-controlled chamber over the bill, which cleared the House Education Committee by a similarly narrow 13–11 vote on Wednesday.

The bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has repeatedly said the chamber will not consider voucher legislation. The Senate recently passed its own, more limited school choice measure focused on public-to-public transfers, along with a $2,000 across-the-board teacher pay raise—a provision absent from the House bill.

Whether the two chambers can reconcile their divergent approaches will likely define the remainder of the 2026 legislative session.

In a similarly close vote, the House Education Committee on Wednesday advanced the sweeping education bill, which combines private school vouchers, expanded charter school authority, public school choice provisions and a range of other policy changes into a single legislative package. The bill, House Bill 2, Committee Substitute, passed out of committee on Jan. 14, 2026, by a vote of 13–11, with two members absent and no members present but not voting.

The legislation proposes one of the more significant restructurings of Mississippi’s K–12 education landscape in recent years.

Private school vouchers and homeschool provisions

HB 2 establishes a school choice program that would provide state-funded vouchers for private school tuition as well as direct funding for homeschool families. Under the bill, participating private schools would receive approximately $7,000 per student—the same base cost amount that public schools receive under the Mississippi Student Funding Formula. At 12,500 initial voucher slots, the program would cost an estimated $87.5 million.

However, the bill explicitly prohibits the state from requiring private voucher schools to alter their admissions practices, administer state assessments or participate in the Mississippi Statewide Accountability System.

Homeschool students would also be eligible for public funds without being subject to the academic standards or accountability requirements imposed on public school students.

Public school choice and the Tim Tebow Act

The legislation also expands public school choice, requiring public school districts to report capacity and accept transfer students where space is available.

The bill includes the Tim Tebow Act, which allows homeschooled students to participate in public school extracurricular activities—such as athletics—without being subject to the same academic, attendance or testing requirements as enrolled public school students. Every neighboring state already permits some form of this policy.

Charter school expansion and amendments

As originally drafted, HB 2 would have allowed charter schools to locate in any school district statewide without approval from local school boards. The Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board currently oversees the state’s existing charter schools.

During the committee meeting, chair Rob Roberson introduced a committee substitute amendment narrowing that provision. The revised language allows charter schools to locate—without local school board approval—only in districts containing at least one D- or F-rated school, rather than in all districts statewide.

The amendment also removed a provision altering the definition of net enrollment in the state funding formula that would have excluded pre-kindergarten students—a change critics argued would have permanently reduced public school funding.

According to the Mississippi Parents Campaign, legislators were informed that all other provisions of the bill remained unchanged. The revised version of the bill was not made publicly available online until approximately one hour after the committee vote.

Additional provisions

Beyond school choice and charter expansion, the bill includes an adolescent literacy initiative building on the state’s nationally recognized Literacy-Based Promotion Act, a new statewide math program; loosening of operational restrictions on charter schools; National Board Certified Teacher salary supplements for charter school teachers; an assistant teacher pay raise from $17,000 to $20,000 annually; the consolidation of the Copiah County and Hazlehurst City school districts effective July 2028; and various additional technical and policy changes.

Notably absent from the House bill is a broad teacher pay raise. The Senate recently passed a $2,000 across-the-board raise for certified teachers, estimated at $132 million annually—a measure that could emerge as a bargaining chip between the chambers.

Committee vote breakdown

Yeas (13): Manly Barton, Charles Blackwell, Randy Boyd, Sam Creekmore, Kevin Felsher, Jimmy Fondren, Zachary Grady, Celeste Hurst, Vince Mangold, Brad Mattox, Jansen Owen, Kimberly Remak, Beth Luther Waldo.

Nays (11): Stephanie Foster, Justis Gibbs, Jeffery Harness, Greg Holloway, Kenji Holloway, Kent McCarty, Dana McLean, Carl Mickens, Robert Sanders, Cheikh Taylor, Percy Watson.

Absent (2): Richard Bennett, Becky Currie.

What this means for public education

HB 2 would mark a fundamental shift in how Mississippi funds and governs public education.

The bill moves public education dollars beyond traditional public schools and into private schools and homeschools with minimal state oversight, creating parallel systems operating under different rules. Public schools would continue to face testing mandates, accountability ratings and enrollment reporting requirements, while private and homeschool recipients of public funds would not.

The accountability double standard is stark. According to the Mississippi Department of Education’s 2024-25 accountability data, 80 percent of public schools and 87 percent of districts earned grades of C or higher under the state’s A-F grading system—a decline from the previous year but still reflecting sustained improvement since the Literacy-Based Promotion Act began transforming reading instruction in 2013. Mississippi climbed from 49^th in fourth-grade reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2013 to 21st by 2022, a transformation widely studied as a model for evidence-based education reform.

Meanwhile, six of seven existing Mississippi charter schools that received accountability grades in 2024-25 were rated D or F. The list of authorized charter schools is maintained by the Charter School Authorizer Board. The bill’s charter expansion provision would allow new charters to open in districts with at least one D- or F-rated school—the same performance category that defines most current charter outcomes. Nine traditional districts earned D or F grades in 2024-25, opening them to charter expansion without local school board approval.

The charter school provisions would significantly limit local school board authority, particularly in districts already struggling academically, by allowing new charters to open without local approval. This could reshape school governance in D- and F-rated districts while intensifying competition for students and funding.

For rural Mississippi, where public schools often serve as community anchors and major employers, the stakes are high. School district funding follows students under the Mississippi Student Funding Formula. If students leave for private schools using public voucher dollars, the per-pupil funding follows them—but the fixed costs of operating buses, maintaining buildings and staffing classrooms remain. Districts operating on thin margins could face difficult choices about school closures and staff reductions.

At the same time, the bill bundles together unrelated initiatives such as literacy programs, teacher pay adjustments, and district consolidation, making it difficult for lawmakers to support or oppose individual provisions without accepting the entire package.

The close committee vote and the late public release of the amended bill suggest the proposal is likely to remain contentious as it moves forward. Senate leaders have indicated they will not consider voucher legislation, setting up a likely confrontation between the chambers. If passed, House Bill 2 would accelerate Mississippi’s shift toward a market-based education model, raising long-term questions about equity, accountability and the future role of public schools in the state.

When Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said school choice will be a priority for the Mississippi Senate during the 2026 legislative session, he was tapping into nomenclature originally associated with whites who were resistant to school desegregation.

Hosemann signaled his support on the first day of the session, after which the Senate Education Committee passed an enabling measure, SB 2002.

Mississippi House Speaker Jason White also said that state representatives will introduce a single, comprehensive bill that bundles several previously failed education proposals including school choice and vouchers that would enable students to use tax funds to pay for private schools.

Though the Senate Education Committee voted to loosen public school district transfer regulations, Committee Chair Dennis DeBar said vouchers are not included in SB 2002.

The House passed sweeping education legislation during the 2025 session that included many controversial features but died in the Senate, where lawmakers voiced concern about oversight and funding. Hosemann’s endorsement of legislation enabling students to transfer from underperforming public school districts to higher-rated ones alarmed many public school advocates.

SB 2002 would create a framework for open enrollment across district lines, allowing families in struggling school systems to seek placement in neighboring districts with stronger academic performance. Mississippi currently operates under a system in which students are generally assigned to schools based on their residential address, with limited options for inter-district transfers. The state continues to grapple with persistent disparities in educational outcomes across its 144 school districts, which are rated on an A-F scale based on student achievement, growth and other metrics, with significant variation between high-performing and struggling systems.

Historical backdrop

Any discussion of school transfers in Mississippi carries historical weight. Following the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, Mississippi was among the Southern states that employed “freedom of choice” transfer plans as a mechanism to resist integration. These plans nominally allowed students to choose their schools but in practice maintained segregation through social pressure, economic intimidation and bureaucratic obstacles that prevented most Black students from transferring to white schools.

The state’s resistance to desegregation also fueled the rise of private segregation academies throughout the 1960s and 1970s, many of which were established explicitly to provide white families an escape from integrated public schools. Some of these institutions continue to operate today, though their stated missions have evolved.

Mississippi was the last state to formally comply with Brown, and dozens of districts remained under federal desegregation orders for decades. As recently as 2017, the Cleveland School District was ordered to consolidate its historically divided schools.

This history means that any proposal involving student transfers between districts is viewed skeptically by public school advocates. The concern is whether such policies could exacerbate racial and socioeconomic stratification in a state where many district boundaries still reflect patterns established during the segregation era.

Critics raise questions about educational equity

Public education advocates have urged senators to reject the transfer bill, arguing it would undermine the principle that public schools must serve all students equally.

“The beauty of public schools is that there are rules in place designed to ensure that every student is treated the same,” Nancy Loome, executive director of The Parents’ Campaign, told The Mississippi Independent. “SB 2002 would allow public schools to pick and choose out-of-district students just like private schools pick and choose their students, using the very same tools to keep out students they see as less desirable: denying admission, charging tuition and declining to provide transportation.”

Loome said the legislation “risks creating a system of haves and have-nots, exactly what our public education system is intended to avoid.”

There are also concerns about transportation logistics and whether families without means to drive children across district lines would have equitable access to transfer opportunities.

The Senate Education Committee passed SB 2002 on Tuesday with amendments allowing districts to charge tuition to out-of-district students in lieu of ad valorem taxes, requiring students to notify their home district of intent to transfer by March 15 of the preceding school year, and preserving the authority of MHSAA to determine athletic eligibility for transferring students.

Municipal school boards in Clinton, Florence, Jackson and Pearl have adopted resolutions opposing school choice expansion in recent months. A survey by Mississippi Professional Educators last fall found that 81 percent of members opposed legislation allowing public funds to flow to private schools.

The contemporary landscape

Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, has positioned the transfer proposal as part of a broader education reform effort. The lieutenant governor has previously emphasized expanding educational options while maintaining support for traditional public schools.

The proposal follows the legislature’s 2024 passage of the Mississippi Student Opportunity Scholarship Program, which created education savings accounts to enable families to use public funds for private school tuition and other educational expenses. That law marked a significant expansion of school choice policy in the state.

SB 2002 now heads to the full Senate for debate.

The House Education Committee will hold a hearing at 2:30pm on Wed., Jan. 7, 2026, in Room 113 of the Mississippi State Capitol.

Mississippi House Speaker Jason White has said that school choice and education reform are the top priority for the 2026 legislative session, and that lawmakers will introduce a single, comprehensive bill that bundles several previously failed education proposals.

The new education package, which is expected to include vouchers and an expanded Education Savings Account program, faces hurdles in the Mississippi Senate, where similar legislation was defeated in 2025.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides of the Senate, has said that school choice—specifically, enabling students to transfer from lower- to higher-performing schools—is a priority during the current session. On Jan. 6, the first day of the session, the Senate Education Committee voted to loosen public school district transfer regulations, but committee chair Dennis DeBar said vouchers, which give parents public dollars to fund education outside of public schools, are not under consideration.

As the Mississippi Legislature convenes today, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann hopes to do something lawmakers have tried and failed to accomplish for nearly a century: reorganize state government.

An effort to do so last year failed. Proponents argue that reorganization could save taxpayers millions while critics warn of potential service disruptions. The state has roughly 200 boards and commissions overseeing everything from acupuncture to veterinary medicine. That number has remained largely unchanged for decades. Hosemann believes many of them serve no clear purpose.

“We’re committed to good, conservative government that works by investing in education, growing our workforce, supporting families and streamlining state government to better serve you and reduce your taxes,” Hosemann said in outlining his plans at the Neshoba County Fair last summer, according to a news release from his office.

The Senate’s Government Structure Committee, Hosemann said, “is reviewing the state’s organizational chart for opportunities to merge, streamline, reduce duplication, and cut costs and ‘red tape.’”

A long pattern of failure

Mississippi’s attempts at government reorganization date back nearly a century. They have almost always failed.

“One of the most difficult, if not least productive exercises undertaken in Mississippi in the last half-century has been the recurring effort to reorganize the executive branch of state government,” wrote Thomas E. Kynerd in his book Administrative Reorganization of Mississippi Government.

In 1932, the Institute for Government Research at Brookings studied Mississippi’s government and described its organization as “chaotic.” The recommended improvements were “shouted down.”

“Nearly twenty years later, the governor decided it was time to reorganize state government and asked the legislature to develop a plan,” Kynerd wrote. “The plan was prepared with much enthusiasm by a legislative committee, with the full support of every state agency. Everyone in state government seemed to feel that reorganization was long overdue. The plan, however, was not implemented.”

Republican gubernatorial candidate Gil Carmichael made government reorganization a cornerstone of his 1975 campaign, believing it would take a constitutional convention to accomplish anything meaningful. Gov. Kirk Fordice pushed consolidation during his two terms in the 1990s with little success. Gov. Haley Barbour proposed 18 reorganization measures in 2009. The legislature rejected them.

The 1984 reorganization

The most significant structural change came not from a governor’s initiative but from a lawsuit.

While serving as attorney general in the early 1980s, Bill Allain filed suit asking the Mississippi Supreme Court to separate the functions of the executive and legislative branches, especially in the budgetary process. Legislators commonly served on boards and commissions in the executive branch—an arrangement that blurred accountability. Allain argued Mississippi’s 1890 Constitution required separation of powers and that legislative officials could not serve in the executive branch.

The Supreme Court ruled in his favor. Historian David Sansing wrote that “the ruling strengthened the executive branch of state government, especially the office of governor which is considered one of the weakest chief executives in the nation. The court’s mandate was carried out in the Administrative Reorganization Act of 1984.”

That reorganization gave the governor exclusive power to propose the state’s annual executive budget and removed legislators from agency boards. It did not reduce the number of agencies themselves.

Competing efficiency efforts

The current push for reorganization comes amid dueling efficiency efforts from Republican state officials.

State Auditor Shad White released “Project Momentum” in late 2024, calling it “the largest audit of waste in Mississippi government in decades.” White hired Boston Consulting Group to examine 13 state agencies and identify potential savings.

“I believe that Project Momentum is the most important project we will do in my time as State Auditor, because, if we take a chainsaw to all this fat, it will make government leaner and smarter for decades to come,” White proclaimed in a news release.

The report identified more than $335 million in potential savings—from selling the state airplane and consolidating IT contracts to reducing spending on office space. Recommendations included addressing “IT contracts that Mississippi pays more for than similarly-sized states,” “agencies owning too many vehicles that are underutilized,” and “Mississippi government spending more on insurance on state properties than even Florida.”

The $2 million study drew scrutiny. Attorney General Lynn Fitch, responding to a legislative request, opined that White lacked authority to commission the study without written approval from the governor or legislature.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who led a successful reorganization effort in his state, addressed the Senate Government Structure Committee in late 2024.

The cosmetology-barber merger

The legislature achieved one consolidation in 2024: combining the separate cosmetology and barber licensure boards into one.

The merger followed reports on both agencies. The barbering board had inspected fewer than 10 percent of shops and schools and had a 39 percent pass rate on exams. The cosmetology board was criticized for disorganized records and board overreach.

But the transition has been troubled. The new Board of Cosmetology and Barbering has had no confirmed members since April 2025, after the state Senate adjourned without approving Gov. Tate Reeves’ appointees. More than 50,000 licensed beauty professionals are now in regulatory limbo.

The merger caused confusion among some cosmetologists and barbers, who say the transition hasn’t been clearly explained. Schools cannot determine their licensing tier. New schools cannot open.

The Senate passed a reorganization bill unanimously last year, but it died in the House amid a session that ended without a budget agreement—the first time in 16 years that the legislature failed to fund state government. Senate Bill 2857 would have merged several smaller state boards and commissions into larger umbrella agencies. The bill’s sponsors contended that Mississippi’s sprawling bureaucracy creates redundancies that drain the state budget.

Hosemann has not said which specific agencies or boards he would target for consolidation. The Senate Government Structure Committee, now chaired by Sen. Tyler McCaughn (R-Newton), is expected to hold hearings during the upcoming session.

When lawmakers return to the Mississippi Capitol this month, they will once again confront a question that has divided the legislature since 2021: whether to restore Mississippians’ ability to place constitutional amendments directly before voters.

The ballot initiative—a mechanism of direct democracy that allows citizens to bypass the legislature—has been inoperative since the state Supreme Court struck it down nearly five years ago. Despite bipartisan acknowledgment that voters should have some avenue for direct action, the House and Senate have been unable to agree on what a restored process should look like.

The disagreement is substantive. Senate leaders want a more restrictive system with higher signature thresholds and argue that social media and online organizing have made it too easy for well-funded outside groups to qualify measures for the ballot. House leaders have generally favored restoring something closer to the previous system, which was already among the more difficult in the nation.

A House Select Committee on Voting Rights examined the issue during the fall and heard testimony from policy experts and advocates. But testimony and hearings have not translated into legislative consensus during previous sessions, and there is little indication that 2026 will be different.

A century of contested direct democracy

Mississippi first adopted initiative and referendum rights in 1914, during the Progressive Era, when populist movements nationwide sought to wrest political power from entrenched financial interests. Voters approved the measure by nearly 70 percent.

The state Supreme Court initially upheld the process in 1917. But five years later, when citizens attempted to use the initiative to slash the $40,000 annual salary of State Revenue Agent Stokes V. Robertson—roughly $635,000 in today’s dollars—Robertson asked the court to invalidate the entire system. In Power v. Robertson, the justices reversed their earlier ruling, holding that because the constitutional initiative power had not been approved as a separate amendment in 1914, the entire provision was unconstitutional.

The right lay dormant for seven decades. In 1991, the Supreme Court acknowledged that its 1922 ruling had been “wrongly decided” but allowed it to stand, citing a biblical passage about not removing “ancient landmarks.”

The following year, the legislature and voters restored the initiative process through a constitutional amendment. From 1992 until 2021, only seven citizen-initiated proposals reached statewide ballots. Of those, voters approved just three: eminent domain protections, voter identification requirements, and a medical marijuana program.

The 2021 collapse

The initiative process collapsed again in Butler v. Watson, decided on May 14, 2021. The court ruled 6-3 that the process was “unworkable and inoperable” because the state constitution required petition signatures to be gathered evenly from five congressional districts, and Mississippi now had only four districts since the 2000 Census resulted in reapportionment.

The ruling nullified Initiative 65, the medical marijuana program that 74 percent of voters had approved just months earlier. Justice Josiah Coleman wrote in the majority opinion that the drafters “wrote a ballot-initiative process that cannot work in a world where Mississippi has fewer than five representatives in Congress.”

Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler, who filed the original lawsuit, said in a statement following the ruling that the city was “pleased that the Supreme Court followed the plain language of the Mississippi Constitution and recognized that, unfortunately, the current voter initiative process is broken.”

The legislature subsequently passed a medical marijuana law, but efforts to restore the broader initiative process have repeatedly stalled.

House and Senate at odds

The impasse centers on how restrictive the restored process should be. Senate leaders have proposed requiring petitioners to collect a larger number of signatures than the previous system demanded, while House leaders have pushed for something closer to the original framework.

Some lawmakers have questioned whether Mississippi needs an initiative at all, expressing concern that wealthy out-of-state interests could manipulate the process. Others argue that the changing landscape of digital organizing—where online petitions can gather signatures rapidly—necessitates higher thresholds to ensure grassroots legitimacy.

Samantha Buckley, policy director at the nonpartisan Secure Democracy Foundation, told the House committee in September that the simplest fix would be changing the constitutional language from five districts to four, or adopting language that automatically adapts to whatever number of districts exists at the time of a petition drive.

Twenty-three other states, plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands, have some form of functioning ballot initiative process.

Uncertain prospects

Whether lawmakers can bridge their differences in 2026 is uncertain. House Speaker Jason White established the Select Committee on Voting Rights last summer and has signaled support for addressing the issue. In a statement announcing the committee’s formation, White wrote that “the House’s legislative priorities will be clear and informed from the start as we maintain our focus and energy on preparing for the 2026 legislative session.”

Any legislation must also pass the Senate and receive Gov. Tate Reeves’s signature. During previous sessions, the two chambers were unable to agree on signature thresholds, eligible topics or whether successful initiatives should amend the constitution or merely create statutory law.

For now, Mississippi is the only state to have adopted, then lost a statewide initiative process—not once, but twice.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​