By Anna Wolfe
Apr 8, 2021 12:36 PM
The New Summit School in Jackson, formerly run by Nancy New and her son Zach New. Both were arrested in 2020 on charges they allegedly stole $4 million in Mississippi welfare dollars and in 2021 on charges they defrauded the state’s education department. They have pleaded not guilty and await trial. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Nancy New, owner of New Learning Resources and New Summit School, exits the federal courthouse in Jackson on Mar. 18, 2021. New was released on bond after pleading not guilty to sixteen counts. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Nancy New and her son Zach, owners of several for-profit and nonprofit organizations, were well on their way to building an education empire in Mississippi.
Four Mississippi congressional delegates say they know better than judges, state officials
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U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., waves to drivers as she holds a campaign sign at the intersection of Ridgewood Road and Lakeland Drive Tuesday, November 6, 2018. Credit: Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/ Report for America
Four of the six members of Mississippi’s congressional delegation, by their votes this past week, were trying to usurp the authority of state and local officials and the courts to conduct and oversee elections.
The four U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Reps. Trent Kelly, Michael Guest and Steven Palazzo said they know better than the state and local officials and better than the judiciary, including better than the U.S. Supreme Court, how elections for president should be conducted.
A rule under the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, the law used to determine public school funding, provides a complicated formula to determine whether a district has experienced an “inordinately large number of absences.” If it has, the district can receive funds based on the prior year’s average daily attendance figure.
Specific figures are unclear, but many districts would stand to lose a substantial amount of money if numbers from this year are used one reason why Wright is asking the Legislature to consider an alternative approach to calculating average daily attendance.
“There is a lot of concern, and rightfully so, from state superintendents about the children they’ve lost, but we fully expect those children to return once we get past the vaccination and the issues around the pandemic,” she told members of the Senate Education Committee at a hearing on Wednesday.