The Stennis-Capitol Press Forum had a couple of significant speakers recently: the head of Mississippi’s broadband initiative and the head of state education.
The Stennis Press Forum is a long-running cooperative effort of the John C. Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State and the Capitol press corps. Its mission is to promote greater transparency of state government. This open meeting is at Hal & Mal's on Mondays, usually monthly.
Mississippi is getting billions from the federal government to provide broadband Internet speeds to the last 10 percent of the state which doesn't have high-speed Internet, according to former Brookhaven state senator Sally Burchfield Doty.
Doty heads BEAM, a 2022 creation of the legislature, the Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi. BEAM is charged with managing 1.2 billion dollars that the federal government is providing Mississippi to bring broadband to the last 10 percent of the state that is lacking this.
Doty demonstrated the new BEAM website map at https://broadbandms.com/ where you can zoom in on your town or county and check whether your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is served, underserved or unserved.
BEAM is charged with vetting proposals from ISPs to provide affordable access to broadband in unserved and underserved areas. An ISP can be a cell company, phone company, cable company and independents. BEAM uses the federal money to subsidize the installation of the fiber to the home, which is the main cost, allowing the ISPs to then charge an affordable monthly rate. There are about 60 ISPs in state.
The federal government defines unserved as less than 25 megabits per second. Underserved is between 25 and 100 MBS.
The federal money is 1.2 billion dollars. Mississippi has 1.3 million homes and businesses that are connected. Only eight percent lack high speed. That leaves about 100,000 homes and businesses lacking high speed. That's a federal subsidy of $12,000 per home to provide high speed. Doty told the audience she didn't think Mississippi would be spending all the money within the four-year deadline. In addition, non-subsidized private build out is still ongoing.
Doty said one of the challenges was tracking down all the potential locations for the BEAM map. She said BEAM is also working to include satellite provider subsidies for extremely remote areas for which fiber would be impractical. The fiber is run both overground and underground.
BEAM is also working to get an Internet Exchange Point for Mississippi. Currently, Mississippi uses a Dallas or Atlanta based exchange point. Mississippi is one of 14 states that does not have its own exchange point, which slows Internet speeds.
Dr. Lance Evans’ Stennis talk was full of enthusiasm. Evans is the new state superintendent of the Mississippi Department of Education.
The state board of education selected Evans after conducting a national search. He assumed the position on July 1, 2024.
A 24-year veteran educator, Evans led the New Albany School District since 2017, during which the district achieved its first A-rating in 2019 and maintained its A grade since then. Evans previously served as principal and assistant principal of New Albany High School and principal of New Albany Elementary School. Prior to joining the New Albany School District in 2006, he served as a teacher, coach and administrator in the Oxford and Itawamba County school districts.
Evans holds an associate degree from Itawamba Community College, a bachelor’s degree from Mississippi State University, a master’s degree from the University of Mississippi and a specialist degree and doctorate from Delta State University.
Evans is one of those types of people who you describe as “filling up a room” when he walks in, and I mean that in a positive way. He's big, personable, athletic looking, charismatic, engaging and energetic. The fact that he is home grown with an impressive real-world track record gives Evans the chance to have a big impact on state education. He’s been in the trenches, not the ivory tower, and he knows about which he speaks.
Evans' message was one of great progress in Mississippi education over the last 10 years based on the federal “Quality Counts” report card from 2013 to 2023.
— Overall average grade for Mississippi school districts went from F to C-.
— The national ranking went from 50th to 21st.
— Graduation rates went from 75.5 to 89.4 percent.
“I tell our educators, that’s a testament to them,” Evans said. “When the door of that classroom shuts, the rubber meets the road, it’s on that classroom teacher.”
Publicly funded pre-K enrollment has also increased dramatically from 38 percent in 2015 to 58 percent by 2023. “That’s a great increase but that’s not a large enough increase over that period of time. We’ve got to get to the point in Mississippi where all our students are in a pre-K program. It makes such a difference when those children enter kindergarten. You see those inequities nationwide, but I’m worried about Mississippi. I want to always compete globally, but I’m the single proudest Mississippian you’ll ever find, I can assure you.”
There was construction going on outside Hal & Mal's while Evans was giving his talk. At one point, he stopped and said, “They’re doing some work out there and I don’t know if it’s bothering y’all as much as it’s bothering me but my ADHD is kicking in and it’s all I can do to stay focused.” So I guess Evans' rise to the head of state education is one more example of how ADHD kids can succeed if given the right support.
Evans said the new legislative funding mechanism has been implemented with surprising smoothness. He swore his allegiance to public education but acknowledged school choice is coming and would do his best to implement it properly.
A full video of these two talks is on northsidesun.com. Just search for “Stennis Press.”
