In Search of a Solution to Teen Pregnancy
By Melissa M. Scallan
The Sun Herald--November 27, 2010
Gulfport, Miss.--Charleena Rogers got pregnant in May 2009 but didn't tell anyone until she visited her mother in California at Christmas that year, and her mother figured it out.
She had no prenatal care for the first seven months of her pregnancy. Now 16, Rogers has a 9-month-old daughter. She is trying to take care of her baby, keep up with her classes at Gautier High School and spend some time with her friends when she can.
"It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life," she said.
Thousands of teenagers in this state are grappling with the same issues as Rogers.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, Mississippi's teen birth rate is 66 per thousand teenagers, the highest in the nation. The national average is 42.
Experts here say many factors contribute to the state's high birth rate, including poverty, culture and a one-dimensional sex-education program in schools.
It likely would take years for any solutions to bring that number down, but experts said teenagers need more information about birth control and more involvement by parents, schools and communities.
Connie Jo Williams is the director of the Early Beginnings program in the Pascagoula School District. Twice a month she meets with teens at Gautier and Pascagoula high schools who either are pregnant or have children. Williams tells the students about resources for diapers and formula and helps them deal with the issues associated with being a teen mother.
She said children need more information, at a younger age, to prevent the pregnancies.
Mississippi governor outlines budget recommendations
By Elizabeth Crisp
The Clarion Ledger--November 15, 2010
Gov. Haley Barbour has proposed an average 8-percent reduction in state spending for the coming fiscal year.
Outlining his fiscal 2012 executive budget recommendation in a news conference this afternoon, Barbour suggested level funding for the Mississippi Adequate Education Program — the system’s primary funding mechanism for the K-12 school districts, and an average 2 percent cut to higher education.
Meanwhile, mental health and Medicaid programs would take bigger hits.
Barbour also recommended cutting all state funding for athletic programs at community colleges and gradually weaning Mississippi Public Broadcasting off of state funding.
Mississippi to Receive $47 Million to Turn Around Its Persistently Lowest Achieving Schools
Press Release from the U.S. Department of Education, August 16, 2010
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced that Mississippi will receive $47 million to turn around its persistently lowest achieving schools through the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program. These funds are part of the $3.5 billion that will be made available to states this spring from money set aside in the 2009 budget and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
"When a school continues to perform in the bottom five percent of the state and isn't showing signs of growth or has graduation rates below 60 percent, something dramatic needs to be done," said Duncan. "Turning around our worst performing schools is difficult for everyone but it is critical that we show the courage to do the right thing by kids."
The $47,161,417 made available to Mississippi is being distributed by formula to the state and will then be competed out by the state to school districts. In order for a school district to apply for these funds, it must have a state-identified "persistently lowest achieving" or a Tier III school -- a school that has failed to meet adequate yearly progress for two years and is not identified as a persistently lowest achieving school.
However, Tier III schools can only receive funds once all of the state's persistently lowest achieving schools have received funds. Mississippi's application, which includes its list of persistently lowest achieving schools, as defined by the state, can be found here: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/sif/summary/index.html.
School districts will apply to the state for the funds this spring. When school districts apply, they must indicate that they will implement one of the following four models in their persistently lowest achieving schools:
- TURNAROUND MODEL: Replace the principal, screen existing school staff, and rehire no more than half the teachers; adopt a new governance structure; and improve the school through curriculum reform, professional development, extending learning time, and other strategies.
- RESTART MODEL: Convert a school or close it and re-open it as a charter school or under an education management organization.
- SCHOOL CLOSURE: Close the school and send the students to higher-achieving schools in the district.
- TRANSFORMATION MODEL: Replace the principal and improve the school through comprehensive curriculum reform, professional development, extending learning time, and other strategies.
Pre-K: An Ounce of Prevention
By Ward Schaefer
The Jackson Free Press--April 14, 2010
Little Samaritan Montessori is an unusual sight in Jackson's Midtown neighborhood. In an area with high rates of vacancy and a declining population, Little Samaritan represents the future. The child-care center serves 62 children, from 6 weeks to 5 years old, with a Montessori curriculum, an experiential approach to education that emphasizes students' self-direction.
Good Samaritan Midtown, which operates the Montessori program, is also pursuing an initiative to make sure that every child under 5 in Midtown receives some form of quality early childhood care.
"In a neighborhood like this, where we're already dealing with all these issues, it's all about prevention," Executive Director Kristi Hendrix says. "We've got too much to do here to not be comprehensive in our work."
Programs like Little Samaritan Montessori--along with publicly operated programs like Head Start and Jackson's Early Childhood Development Centers--represent Mississippi's best opportunity to beat cyclical poverty and ensure long-term economic development, according to a new report issued by the Southern Education Foundation. Children in quality pre-K are more than twice as likely to go to college than those who don't receive early childhood education and far less likely to repeat a grade or drop out.
The reported economic benefits of quality pre-K are staggering. For every dollar of state investment, a quality early childhood program targeted at poor kids would generate $12.30 in private and public returns, the Southern Education Fund report estimates. Those returns would come in many forms, chiefly a lower incarceration rate and a better-educated and more productive work force.
In fact, while spending on economic subsidies creates more jobs than investing in pre-K in the short term--within 30 years--spending the same amount on pre-K creates almost twice as many jobs in the long term, over 75 years.
As the only southern state currently without a state-funded pre-K program, though, Mississippi risks being left behind by its peers, the report argues.
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