LEGISLATURE: Week 1
Good to Be Back by R.L. Nave
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R.L. NAVE
orking on a shorter 90-day Charters Set to Fly schedule compared to last A highly anticipated charter-school bill year, Mississippi lawmak- made its way out of the Jan. 15 Senate Eduers got right to work filing cation Committee. The bill allows for the bills in the opening week of the 2013 legislative session. House members filed more than 350 bills and senators filed close to 200 in the first week, including many of the old standbys that have become staples of Mississippi’s legislative proceedings. For example, Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, and chairman of the House Judiciary B Committee, submitted two anti-abortion bills. The first, Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, and fellow Democrats HB 6, prohibits doctors from denounced anticipated changes to the Public performing an abortion when Employee Retirement System. a fetal heartbeat is present—except in medical emergencies—and re- establishment charter schools, privately run vokes the medical licenses of physicians schools that receive public funding for the who don’t try to detect a heartbeat before children who attend, across the state. Howperforming an abortion. Then, HC 14, ever, school boards in school districts rated A would amend the state Constitution de- or B must approve a charter school’s applicafine a person as all humans “from concep- tion. Proposed charter schools in C, D and tion to natural death.” F district can be approved without the say so Even though the state is embroiled in a of local public school boards. lawsuit over abortion restrictions the LegislaSenators agreed by voice vote to send ture passed last year, Gipson, a Baptist min- the measure to the floor with one key ister, said he filed the bills again because “it’s modification. the right thing to do.” Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, ofAlso from the here-we-go-again file is fered an amendment to strip virtual Brookhaven Republican Rep. Becky Currie’s schools in the bill. As proposed, the legisbill that puts more regulations on employers lation did allow up to three online charter to prove they’re not hiring people who aren’t schools to operate in Mississippi. authorized to work in the U.S. and imposes Blount told the Jackson Free Press he stiffer penalties on employers who do. wanted to amend the bill because he does Last year’s attempt to implement im- not believe that virtual charter schools, which migration crackdowns similar to those in allow kids to log on to a computer and comArizona and Alabama failed, and over the plete coursework without the supervision of summer at a hearing Gipson convened, Re- a teacher is effective. publicans tipped their hand, signaling that Legislative Republicans have said they immigration efforts this year would focus on want charter school legislation to pass quickbusiness regulation, over which the state has ly. The Senate could vote on the charter bill more leeway to enforce immigration law. as early as today, Wednesday.
Workers’ Rights Redux A push is under way to beef up workers’ protections. Several groups, including the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights, are lobbying lawmakers to extend workers’ compensation protections “We want to increase workers’ compensation coverage to 520 weeks (10 years),” said Jaribu Hill, executive director of the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights. Currently, workers can receive up to 8.5 years of workers’ comp. The Mississippi Workers Compensation Commission, reports there were 11,761 workers injured and 84 workers killed on the job in 2011. It’ll be an uphill climb to get lawmakers in Mississippi to give workers any more rights. Last year, Republicans succeeded in rolling back rights by ending the so-called “found dead” presumption that held if workers are found dead at work, the law presume the employee while working and mandating drug and alcohol testing for people hurt at work. Democrats this week also decried proposed chances to the Public Employee Retirement System, PERS. According to the analysis Moak provided reporters, the bill changes the number of PERS board members from 10 to 17 and adds more appointees from the governor and lieutenant governor’s offices. In addition, the so-called 13th check— a cost of living adjustment—would be frozen for three years and tied to the Consumer Price Index. Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, said he is worried about the effects of making what he considers unnecessary changes to PERS because in his Delta district, government agencies are among the largest employers. “You can’t change the rules in the middle of the game,” Simmons said. Comment at www.jfp.ms. Email R.L. Nave at rlnave@jacksonfreepress.com.