Recent editorials from Mississippi newspapers:
April 26
Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss., on “free” tuition being costly mistake:
Mississippi spends more tax dollars on education than on any other single endeavor — nearly $3 billion annually. Some people want to spend a few million more and make the cost of attending one of the state’s community colleges virtually “free.”
Among those folks are 116 members of the state House of Representatives, who earlier this year voted in favor of House Bill 424, titled the Mississippi Promise Community College Tuition Gap Pilot Program. (Only three representatives voted no; three others were either absent or did not vote. None of those six was from the Coast.)
Despite that overwhelming support in the House, the legislation never made it out of committee in the state Senate.
Still, the appealingly named Mississippi Promise has the momentum to come back for reconsideration during next year’s legislative session.
However well intended, it is an idea with the potential to do great harm. And it serves no legitimate purpose.
Mississippi has long prided itself on having the first — and still among the best — statewide community college systems in the nation.
The rewards of this investment should not to be given away for free.
Not that the tuition of many students is not already heavily subsidized. Indeed, as the full title of the proposed legislation indicates, the Mississippi Promise would be to merely fill the gap between the cost of tuition and what is covered by other financial assistance, such as grants and scholarships.
With the abundance of aid already available, that gap is just not that wide.
By filling it with tax dollars taken away from some other public function, the state is all but eliminating the need for a student to show any incentive to earn at least a portion of his or her education.
By the time a student enrolls in college (the “promise” would be only for first-time, full-time students who have graduated from high school in the last 12 months), it is not unreasonable to expect him or her to put at least a little “skin in the game.”
Otherwise, human nature being what it is, a “free” education will to be perceived as just that — one more valueless handout to be unappreciated accordingly.
Online:
https://www.sunherald.com
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April 28
Greenwood (Miss.) Commonwealth on e-cigarettes:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has waded gently into the debate about e-cigarettes.
Rules proposed last week by the agency would prohibit sales to anyone under the age of 18, add warning labels about the addictive nature of nicotine, and require approval by the FDA of new products.
The FDA says that’s as far as it wants to go with regulations until more is known about the health effects of e-cigarettes.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has waded gently into the debate about e-cigarettes.
Rules proposed last week by the agency would prohibit sales to anyone under the age of 18, add warning labels about the addictive nature of nicotine, and require approval by the FDA of new products.
The FDA says that’s as far as it wants to go with regulations until more is known about the health effects of e-cigarettes.
The unknown is whether e-cigarettes, instead of helping people quit smoking, are actually a gateway to the real thing for previous non-smokers. Once hooked on nicotine, do users gravitate to paper and tobacco as their preferred method for satisfying their fix?
That’s why the ban on sales to minors is necessary, and long overdue.
Because there’s no ash and no odor with an e-cigarette, it makes it easier to get high and not be detected - both by teenagers at home and adults in the workplace.
Eventually, the science will catch up with e-cigarettes and more will be learned about their health risks. When it does, expect more government regulations to follow. The worry is how long the window will be open, and how far the e-cigarette makers will exploit it in the meantime.
Online:
https://www.gwcommonwealth.com
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April 28
The Columbus (Miss.) Dispatch on Confederate Memorial Day:
Confederate Memorial Day just took place in Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.
South Carolina and North Carolina celebrate Confederate Memorial Day on May 10. It is known as Confederate Heroes Day in Texas and held on Jan. 19 each year, which is also recognized as Martin Luther King Day, a federal holiday. You can form you own opinion as to why Texas would hold its Confederate Heroes Day on the same day that is set aside to honor King.
Although it has been 149 years since the end of the Civil War, many white residents of the South retain an abiding pride in the “Southern Cause,” a sentiment that might have been expected in the bitter years of Reconstruction in the years that followed the end of the war. Today, however, any attempt to honor the Cause requires some philosophical gymnastics in order reconcile the “Cause” with conscience.
The old quote, origins unknown but most often attributed to Winston Churchill, says, “history is written by the victors” and there is little doubt that the South was cast in the most unfavorable of lights in the immediate aftermath of the war by those in the North who sought to punish the South.
Lincoln famously did not hold this view. “With malice toward none, charity for all,” he said.
In the intervening years, a new narrative has evolved, perpetrated by Southerners who hope rehabilitate the Southern cause into something that can be celebrated in good conscience.
The theme that emerged is that the Civil War was not about the institution of slavery, but rather, the North’s efforts to cripple the Southern economy. Why the North would want to do that is something you never hear about, of course, mainly because the whole argument is a silly idea constructed on the flimsiest of “facts.”
To the degree you could make this argument, you would have to separate the Southern economy of the day from the institution of slavery, which is an impossibility.
Clearly, any efforts to sanitize the Southern Cause is an affront not only to decency — bear in mind that 37 percent of Mississippi’s population is black — but to history, as well.
That our state still recognizes Confederate Memorial Day as a state holiday is unfortunate and demeaning and benefits no one, living or dead.
Online:
https://www.cdispatch.com
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