COMMON CORE
Bryant vetoes bill he calls weak on ditching Common Core
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Gov. Phil Bryant has vetoed a bill that might have put some distance between Mississippi schools and the Common Core academic standards adopted by this state and many others.
Bryant says Thursday that he’s “firmly committed to ending Common Core in Mississippi,” but he believes Senate Bill 2161 wouldn’t accomplish that goal.
Common Core standards are designed to teach students to think more analytically. However, the standards have hit strong opposition from tea party groups and other conservatives who think it could lead to federal intrusion in state education decisions.
Senate Bill 2161, which passed during the final days of the legislative session in late March, would’ve created a 15-member commission that could recommend small or large changes in standards of what students should learn in public schools.
BRYANT-VETOES
Bryant vetoes include proposal on control of Coast Coliseum
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has vetoed bills he says would make bad or unnecessary changes to state law.
Senate Bill 2269 would have given local authorities more control over the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. Bryant says Thursday that it would have decreased transparency by deleting a requirement that information about coliseum contracts be published in a local newspaper.
He vetoed House Bill 1047, saying it would have made “problematic changes” to the Tort Claims Act. The bill specified that members of a charter school board and a contract review board would be protected from lawsuits that claim damages. Bryant says naming specific groups could cause people to question whether other state boards are protected from such lawsuits.
He says Senate Bill 2370 proposed unnecessary administrative changes to Medicaid.
MISSISSIPPI-PRISON CONDITIONS
Warden questioned on degree of Walnut Grove prison problems
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – The warden of a privately-run Leake County prison says recent incidents there are not major, arguing that his actions have continued to make the Walnut Grove Correctional Facility safer.
Those seeking further court scrutiny of the prison, though, question Lepher Jenkins’ claims. In cross-examination Thursday in federal court in Jackson, they asked why some instances of misconduct didn’t show up on reports submitted to the state.
U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves must decide whether to keep the prison under his supervision. Plaintiffs represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Poverty Law Center contend that prisoners still face an unconstitutionally high threat of violence at Walnut Grove. The state of Mississippi has asked Reeves to find that inmates’ constitutional rights are no longer being violated and end oversight.
ABORTION-MISSISSIPPI
Mississippi abortion clinic seeks to keep blocking 2012 law
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Attorneys for Mississippi’s only abortion clinic are asking the U.S. Supreme Court not to review a lower court’s ruling that is keeping the clinic open.
In papers filed Thursday with the Supreme Court, clinic attorneys say the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was correct to block a 2012 Mississippi law. That law says every physician working at the abortion clinic must obtain privileges to admit patients to a local hospital. No hospital would grant the privileges to the out-of-state doctors at Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
The appeals court last year ruled that the law could block access in Mississippi to a constitutionally protected medical procedure by closing the state’s only abortion clinic.
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood filed papers in February asking the Supreme Court to overturn that ruling.
VICKSBURG TOURISM
Vicksburg tourism responsible for $30.9 million in spending
VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) – A new National Park Service report has revealed the Vicksburg National Military Park created more than $30 million in economic benefits for local communities last year.
A peer-reviewed visitor spending analysis says more than 550,875 visitors to Vicksburg in 2014 spent about $30.9 million in the surrounding areas. Both numbers were a slight decrease from 2013, in which more than 573,000 visitors spent $31.6 million locally during a year highlighted by 150th anniversary of the Siege of Vicksburg.
Founded in 1899, the VNMP commemorates the 47-day Siege of Vicksburg in 1863, a decisive victory for Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.
Acting VNMP Superintendent Bill Justice said in a statement that national park tourism returns $10 for every $1 invested in the National Park Service.
CLARKSDALE CHEATING
State seeks to revoke teacher’s license in cheating probe
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – The Mississippi Department of Education is seeking to revoke the license of a teacher it accuses of cheating on state tests given to students two years ago.
State Superintendent of Education Carey Wright says the department filed an administrative complaint Thursday against Francis Smith-Kemp.
Smith-Kemp is teaching this year at Oakhurst Intermediate School in Clarksdale, but she was teaching at the city’s Heidelberg Elementary during the 2012-13 year, when the department says she coached students during tests or altered their answers.
A call to Smith-Kemp was not immediately answered Thursday. A license revocation hearing is set for May 11.
Clarksdale schools Superintendent Dennis Dupree says it’s “premature” to say whether Smith-Kemp will be allowed to keep teaching before the hearing. Dupree says she will have to hire her own attorney.
