“I run Bailey Farms and would like to see food freedom expanded in Mississippi.

“We have a small farm. Ten or so beef cows, three jersey dairy cows, a few pigs, and a yard full of chickens.

“We just recently sold out our commercial rabbitry. We had around 100 breeding doe rabbits. So with all the kits and fryers we usually had around 500 rabbits at one time. Now we are slowly growing a small calf cow operation with the intent of selling some grass-fed beef in the future. I am currently clearing more land for pasture. 

“If I were milking 10 cows, I could sell every drop of raw milk. There are studies that show the benefits of raw milk. I encourage everyone to do their research. 

“I know people question raw milk but do your own research and make an informed decision. If you think it’s dangerous, don’t buy it. We use belly style milkers that are cleaned and sanitized after every use. I literally see every ounce of milk we pour into glass jars.  

“I would encourage people considering raw milk to visit their local dairy farm and decide for themselves. We have healthy happy cows that live in pastures and eat grass. Mississippi State’s dairy cows spend 3/4 of the year living on concrete.

“If you buy a bad gallon of milk at the store, you pour it out and go back to the same store and buy another.  

“If I sell bad milk (which is hypothetical of course because selling raw milk is illegal), people won’t come back. So, I have an increased sense of awareness to making sure everything is clean and sanitized.”  

Heath Bailey
Bailey Farms
Eupora, Mississippi

Wendy Swart was a cosmetologist in Pennsylvania for more than 30 years. Dana Presley cut hair in Florida for more than a decade. Dawn Roy was a teacher in Arkansas. 

What do each of these women have in common? They were all professionals licensed in other states who moved to Mississippi ready to work, only to receive a red light from government upon entering what we call the Hospitality State. 

Wendy’s husband landed a job in South Mississippi, necessitating the move. Similar story with Dana, whose husband began working at Mississippi State. They thought transferring their cosmetology licenses, which had spotless records, would be easy. The same is true of Dawn. She moved back to Mississippi to be near family. Yet while we often hear of teacher shortages, she continued to run into trouble in getting a license. 

In a state that is losing thousands of residents each year and had the highest unemployment rate in the country pre-pandemic, we are making it hard for those actually moving to Mississippi and wanting to work here. It makes no sense to allow the government to obstruct an individual’s ability to work and earn a living. 

If our goals are to encourage people to move to Mississippi and to make it easier to work, that can – and should – change.

Last year, Arizona became the first state in the nation to provide universal recognition for occupational licenses, even if the state you are moving from won’t recognize a license you received in Arizona. The premise is simple: If you learned to cut hair in, say, Florida or Pennsylvania, you should be able to cut hair in Mississippi. Common sense would tell us you don’t forget how to practice a skill you’ve dedicated your life to just because you cross state lines. 

What has that meant for Arizona? In one of the fastest growing states in America, in the past year over 1,100 new Arizonans have applied for and been granted a license to work in the Grand Canyon State in fields ranging from cosmetology to engineering.

Multiple bills were introduced this year to bring such a law to the Magnolia State. It’s much needed, but all bills died in committee without consideration. While Mississippi punted, Montana, Pennsylvania, Utah, Idaho, Iowa, and Missouri all followed Arizona.

The reason such a law is necessary is because many boards in the state claim to offer reciprocity. Yet those boards are tasked with trying to compare education or training across the 50 states, either delaying your ability to work for an extended period of time or preventing you from working at all. Often, they will demand you take new classes to re-learn what you’ve already been taught, requiring an investment of both time and money. 

A similar measure exclusively for military families was signed into law this year. Now, applicants in military families are eligible to receive a license if they have held a license in good standing for at least one year and they completed testing or training requirements in the initiating state. If you come from a state that does not require a license in a field that Mississippi does, you have a clear pathway to licensure if you have worked for at least three years in that field. Moreover, boards are required to issue a temporary license if an application may take longer than two weeks to process.

Those are all great steps that could help steer the state’s economy in the right direction. It just needs to be expanded. After all, today, about one in five need a license to work, a strong contrast from the 1950s when just five percent of the population needed permission from the government to earn a living. 

It should not be this difficult to work in Mississippi. For a state that has been on the wrong side of domestic migration over the past half-decade and during a time of economic uncertainty, we should be welcoming new residents with open arms to the state. Instead, we are putting up roadblocks.

Let’s remove government barriers and make it easier to work. 

This column appeared in the Starkville Daily News on September 4, 2020.

"I moved back to Mississippi to be near my mom and stepdad. 

"My plan was to transfer my teaching license because the state reciprocates with Arkansas. I thought it would be easy. 

"When I was trying to transfer, the Board kept saying they never got my transcripts for any of my colleges. It turns out all were there, and I didn’t know at that time. I was upset because it had been over a month, and all my colleges had received my payment and verified my transcripts were sent. I had a job pending for a month which I lost.

"Because of this, I was unemployed for eight months. I finally got the issue resolved and went back to teaching.

"All states claim to have teacher shortages, but they make it impossible to move from state to state. It was never easy. I thought when states reciprocated it was a quick and easy process. It’s not! Every state requires all the same documentation – pay for transcripts from every college you attended, not just where you got your degree, all your Praxis test scores, etc. it cost a lot to be a teacher. Test are about $150 each. And states require different scores even on the same test. 

"When a state says it reciprocates, I was told in 48 to 72 hours I should have my license. That’s far from the truth." 

Dawn Roy
Long Beach, Mississippi

Mississippi law restricts your ability to purchase raw cow milk. And you can go to jail for selling raw milk.

Thirteen states allow the sale of raw milk in retail stores, 14 states allow the sale only on the farm it is produced, and eight allow raw milk to be obtained through a cow-share agreement. Mississippi is one of three states that allow the sale of raw goat milk directly from consumers, just not raw cow milk.

Should that change?

“In late March my husband was diagnosed with coronavirus. He was one of the first in Mississippi to be diagnosed with coronavirus.

“Therefore, I could not go back to work. I was able to work from home for a few weeks, but eventually between not being able to be present on site and the business struggling, the business made the decision to close down the plant.

“Since then I’ve been trying to put my skills in the food processing industry to use. I was trying to come up with ways to help supplement our family’s income. I started going through the cottage food laws and finding different products that I can legally make from my house and sell. 

“I’ve experimented with a few different breads. I make white bread, zucchini bread, and a couple herbs breads as well. That was where I really started. I then began experimenting and created ginger syrup. I didn’t know what to do with it at the time, but it smelled so good I put it in my sweet tea, and after I tasted it, I realized this should be a thing. 

“So far I’m doing pretty well. I’ve had great success with advertising online. People really like the message. They like the homemade, purest ingredients.

“There are some struggles. I’ve been trying to get into a few farmers markets, but because of the policies, I’m deemed not essential enough. I’ve been blessed to stumble upon the Legacy Co-Op in Brandon and they have given me an avenue to be able to sell my products. 

“This has helped supplement the family. But it’s also given me the wonderful opportunity to spend more time with my daughter. I have a three-year-old little girl and for the most part the grandparents were raising her. I’ve been having that one on one mommy and daughter time to teach and that was just not something I was able to do in the past working 50 to 60 hours per week. 

“So, it’s been a blessing to spend more time with that baby and to teach her that anything can happen, and anything is possible.”

Leslie Stingley
Homestead By The Brambles
Morton, Mississippi

Because of Mississippi’s habitual offender laws, a mother of four is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for possession of less than two ounces of marijuana. 

That is the story of Tameka Drummer, who was regularly cited during attempts at reigning in Mississippi's habitual offender laws during the past legislative session. Now, there is a new Change.org petition calling for her pardon. 

In 2008, Drummer was sentenced to life in prison. She was driving without a car tag in Alcorn county, she was pulled over, and the police then searched her car and they found less than two ounces of marijuana. She actually had the tag in her back seat.

But because of this, her youngest child who was just four years old at the time has grown up without a mother. She has now served 12 years of her life sentence.

Why did Drummer receive such an oppressive sentence?

Because of the state’s habitual offender laws that were written to enforce long, and even draconian, sentences on individuals who have prior convictions. The law works in different ways, but in Drummer’s case, she was previously convicted of a violent crime, a drug charge, and then, finally, the marijuana charge that landed her life without parole. 

In the case of Drummer, she paid her debt to society with her past convictions, which is generally what we ask of prisoners. And each time she was convicted, the punishment got more serious while the charges against her tended to get less serious, not more serious. She went from a violent crime at 15 years old to marijuana possession, something that is legal or decriminalized in nearly half the states.

What has this meant to the state’s criminal justice system? A November 2019 analysis found that over 2,600 people have been incarcerated under these statutes. This includes 906 people serving 20 years or more in prison, and 439 people serving life sentences. There are 78 people who are serving life sentences for drug charges alone. 

Taxpayers are spending about $20,000 per year to house Drummer. By the time Drummer is 70, taxpayers would have spent $700,000 on someone who is in prison for less than two ounces of marijuana. Is that a good use of taxpayer money?

Even after a series of criminal justice reforms, Mississippi continues to have the third highest incarceration rate in the world, more than all but two other states and every other industrialized country. At the same time, our state continues to fall behind economically, with a workforce participation rate that is growing at a slower pace than most other states. And more children grow up with just one parent in Mississippi than any other state in the country. This is all related.

Multiple bills that would have impacted habitual offender laws did not make it past the finish line this session and another bill that would have reformed parole for up to 2,000 prisoners was vetoed by Gov. Tate Reeves last month. 

That shouldn't be the last word. We know much needs to be done.

To help Drummer and others in a similar situation and to combat the state’s stubbornly high incarceration rate and the ever-growing cost to taxpayers, the state should continue to look for measures that reform parole and eliminate the state’s mandatory minimum habitual sentencing structure that imposes disproportionately long prison sentences on individuals, even for minor crimes.

At the end of the day, we are not safer because Drummer is in prison for the rest of her life, her children are not better off by being raised by someone other than their mother, and taxpayer money could certainly be better invested in something else.

If you move to Mississippi, the state doesn't automatically recognize your occupational license from another state- whether that's a teacher, a hairdresser, or one of dozens of other professions we license.

This is the story of Dana Presley. This is the story of Wendy Swart.

If you've learned the skill in another state and have practiced without any infractions, you should be able to work in Mississippi.

We need more people working. Not less.

This reform will be a top priority for MCPP in 2021.

Can we count on your support and engagement as we build the case for occupational licensing reform next year?

“I grew up in Vicksburg. I graduated from Mississippi State in 1995. After graduation, I moved to Pensacola, Florida and in 2002, I finished the cosmetology program at Pensacola Junior College. 

“I passed the state board exam in Florida in September 2002. I have never had any infractions or paid any fines. My license has been in good standing, and I’ve always paid my dues on time. In 2014, my husband took a job at Mississippi State and we moved to Starkville. Our sons were seven and four. By that time, I had been working behind the chair for 12 years.    

“Mississippi has no reciprocity with the state of Florida. I reached out to the State Board of Cosmetology office in Jackson during the first year that we lived here and was given inconsistent information. The basic information was this: the state wanted to see my transcripts, and then, I would probably have to go back to school to complete the difference in hours required by Mississippi. Florida requires 1,200 hours of instruction, and Mississippi requires 1,500 hours. I had to find a school that would allow me to complete 300 hours. 

“During the summer of 2014, I had my transcripts from both MSU and PJC transferred to the Board’s office. There was lots of concern over whether my 1,200 hours at PJC were in a classroom or on a salon floor. There was never an explanation as to why that mattered, but I was reminded that Mississippi does not have reciprocity with Florida and told that the state didn’t have to allow me to get a license at all. I eventually received a letter that read that the Board did not accept my license from Florida.

“I spent the next six months emailing and calling East Mississippi Community College and a beauty school in Aberdeen. After weeks of emails, EMCC finally told me that my part-time enrollment would take a spot from a full-time student. The other school just wouldn’t answer their phone. I left messages repeatedly, and when they were finally returned, there was never sound information, as if they had no idea what to do with me.  They did have class from 8-4 p.m. everyday.  So, it would have taken me around 9 weeks to complete. 

“In 2019, I considered living with my mother in Vicksburg over the summer and attending a cosmetology school in Clinton. The owner there told me that reciprocity-seeking students were not welcome there because if the student failed the state board exam, then their accreditations would be negatively affected.

“I think my biggest frustration was that the Board would tell me that my license was not valid here but that I could go back to school. Then, when I called the schools, they would give me reasons why I couldn’t or that they weren’t sure how to ‘instruct’ me. And there aren’t many cosmetology schools in the area.  

“The plan was for me to go back to work once we moved back here. I had only worked part-time at a salon chain after my second son was born in 2010. My husband worked for a professional baseball team before taking the job at MSU, and there was a bit of a pay cut. 

“But I was excited about building a clientele and hoped to have my own business. It all proved to be much more challenging than I thought. Not only would I have the 2-hour daily drive to Aberdeen, but also, the cost of school. And I would have to arrange care for my children after school, which would be another significant cost.  

“That is a huge burden to saddle someone with who has a license in another state with a spotless record and who has worked behind the chair for over 10 years.”  

Dana Presley
Starkville, Mississippi

Mississippi currently permits limited food freedom with a cottage food law that allows entrepreneurs to sell certain foods approved by the government. We want to expand that freedom.

We believe food producers should be able to sell what they harvest on there on their own property to an end user without government regulations. After all, you know where the food you are purchasing comes from. This is good for small businesses. It's good for consumers who want more options in their diet.

Give us your opinion on this issue.