At Mississippi Today’s first Coffee & Conversation event at Millsaps College’s Else School of Management, state Treasurer Lynn Fitch said she’s working to change the financial culture of the state.
According to Fitch, Mississippi’s comeback from the Great Recession has been slower than hoped for.
She also thinks that the state would benefit from a constitutional amendment that requires the Legislature to pass a balanced budget.
There won’t be any more new charter schools in Mississippi, at least for now.
The charter school authorizer board decided Ohio-based I Can Schools didn’t make the grade, and the group’s application was denied with a 4-to-2 vote.
That group was the last of four this year that applied to open a new charter school in Mississippi.
Board members said the reason I Can Schools was turned away because of a report that highlighted inconsistency of academic outcomes in the group’s eight schools.
According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the rate of uninsured Mississippians dropped for the second year in a row because of the Affordable Care Act.
The rate fell from 14-point-5 percent in 2014 to 12-point-7 percent last year.
Even with the decline, Mississippi still ranks sixth for uninsured residents.
Mississippi decided not to expand Medicaid, which the federal Affordable Care Act allows.