Editorials

EDITORIAL: Not Addressing Statewide Health Is Short-Sighted

Workforce development, continuing education and job training are all important but really quite futile without a long-term plan for the Mississippians to take those jobs. People must be healthy in order to go to school, find work and stay in jobs.

EDITORIAL: Legislature Needs to Address Teacher Shortages

Technically, if districts on probation due to a lack of licensed staff can't come up with certified staff by next July, they could be in danger of losing their accreditation, and they means a state takeover. It is time to look at solutions beyond takeovers to address teacher shortages, however.

EDITORIAL: Trump Should Not Speak at Museums’ Opening

Trump, who waffled and botched a "many sides" response to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., earlier this year, could speak at the opening of a museum he arguably knows nothing about.

EDITORIAL: We Need Policies for People, Not for Profit

It is time to start talking about how policies affect people on a literal, physical, visceral level.

EDITORIAL: No More Secrecy in Mental Health Care

All good research shows that locking people away in hospitals is not how to treat mental illness, and while hospitals are needed in some cases for stabilizing people, by and large, people need treatment in their own communities.

EDITORIAL: Dangerous Sinkholes Demand Immediate Responses

A dog fell into a sinkhole this weekend, and that could have just as easily been a child.

EDITORIAL: State, City Must Not Hinder Access to Public Info

Mississippi legislators are arguing with a straight face that they should not have to turn over documents about a 2016 vote to shift control of Jackson's airports to an outside board because of "legislative privilege."

EDITORIAL: 120 Days In, Let’s Focus on Good Communications

While the new administration's leadership on JPS has been noteworthy, communication on other changes in the city has been slow to take root.

EDITORIAL: State Lawmakers Must Support Abuse Victims

Domestic and interpersonal abuse, especially violence against women, are systemic and national in scope, but some clear policy and program solutions would make Mississippi safer and better for women.

Mississippi: Listen to the ‘Me, Too’ Chorus

Women should not have to post on social media to bring awareness to the harassment, assault and abuse that half of the world's population endures daily.

Mississippi Lawmakers, Lead on Health Care

Congress let the Children's Health Insurance Program, which insures kids who come from low-income families but are not eligible for Medicaid, expire last week. Now lawmakers are scrambling to renew the program, established in 1997 with bi-partisan support.

Jackson Developers: Involve Locals in Decisions Early

As long as developers are following zoning and city codes, it's within their right to build. Just because you can do something, however, does not mean you should.

Editorial: A State Takeover is Not the Solution for JPS

The looming state takeover of Jackson Public Schools is full of myriad problems, from the State' of Mississippi's less-than-stellar track record of previous takeovers to a lack of transparency and collaboration on the part of Mississippi Department of Education officials.

The People of Jackson Deserve Strong Transparency

We understand the need to increase revenue, but everyone must have a chance to be heard in the process.

The Dollars and Sense Needed to Fund Infrastructure

You can't have your cake and eat it, too, as the old proverb goes. Similarly, you can't cut taxes and increase them, too.

Prison Beds Not Based on Reading Scores, But ...

Educational deficiencies, especially when coupled with poverty or trauma, do increase the risk of crime later. It's important, though, to break down the various pieces of the puzzle to find solutions and not put all effort, and blame, into the reading basket.

Address Poverty With Understanding, Compassion

For low-income families, Internet access and a stable living environment—let alone an address—to keep things like birth certificates safe aren't a given; they're a privilege that many families in poverty cannot afford.

We Must Treat All Addiction, Addicts the Same

If addiction truly is an illness, like so many lawmakers are now saying, it is time to take a look at how we're treating potential addicts serving decades-long sentences behind bars right here within our state lines.

Cheers to Bipartisan Common Sense

Both in Congress and on a state level, bipartisanship is critical to ensure that all Americans and Mississippians have access to affordable health care regardless of their ZIP code, income, race or family status.

Learning from Henley-Young’s Progress

Years after litigation and cutting way down on the number of kids behind bars, Jackson faces an interesting crossroads: Our juvenile-justice center might be the leader for rehabilitative treatment for youth in the city.

Patching Potholes: A Metaphor for Jackson

Running a city for a four-year (or sometimes shorter) term is an admittedly daunting task, with the transfer of political strategies, staff and power.

Address Racial Inequity in Education Now

Education was supposed to be the great "equalizer" back when police officers had to escort a few brave black children past screaming white children and adults to integrate white public schools operating on a "separate but equal" theory.

Mississippi Congressmen Must Fight for Medicaid

It's no secret that Republicans in Washington, D.C., want to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and the proposed changes will hurt Mississippians on Medicaid.

Jackson, It’s Time to Go to Work

We're excited to see the work, progress, ideas, energy and journey of the Lumumba administration unfold, and we plan to hold them accountable and suggest solutions every step of the way.

Democracy Only Works in Public View

The Mississippi attorney general's office releasing the TAC report, which details how the state should work to fix its children's mental- and behavioral-health care system, this week is just one in a line of recent examples where transparency could have enabled the democratic process to work in a more efficient way.

Long-game Economics Requires Investing in Kids

The typical economic-development strategy for Mississippi Republicans in recent years has been a game of tax cuts, supposedly so that corporations and companies will relocate and set up shop here in the state.

Legislature Can’t Dress Up Damage Doing to State

The special session on Monday presented lawmakers the chance to potentially clean up some unfinished business from the 2017 legislative session as well as messes by particular members (looking at you, Rep. Karl Oliver). Lawmakers failed on both fronts.

Ellington