"I work in a small salon. Two women, that is all.

"When the changes came about, we complied. Making sure there were no more than four people in the salon at any time. We are never face to face with anyone. It is called 'behind the chair' for a reason.

"We were closed days later. We closed our doors on March 27th with the lie that we could reopen on the 7th of April. But that was pushed back until the 20th of April. Now we are looking at May 1st, maybe.

"I had been out of work for over a year. This means I do not qualify for unemployment, any type of business loans, or anything at all. I am living off the money I saved to pay my taxes. Which is now gone.

"At least I have until June. Except I still need to pay booth rent and supplies."

Laura Severs
Kay Lynn Salon
Gautier, Mississippi

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba has extended the city's stay-at-home order.

Initially implemented at the end of March, the order has been extended until April 30. Hinds county has also extended their closure until May 1. Hinds county has the most coronavirus cases in the state at 301, as of April 16.

Generally speaking, these orders close nonessential businesses and only allow residents to leave their home for specific, approved needs.

Under an order, you can still shop for groceries, pick up medications, pick up food from a restaurant, help family members in need, and exercise outdoors. 

Essential businesses include hospitals, healthcare facilities, grocery stores, pharmacies, child-care centers, as well as a variety of sectors such as utilities, transportation, and finance and banking. 

"My business is my livelihood. I own a hair salon and when I don’t work, I don’t get paid.

"I have two children to provide for as well as monthly bills accumulating even though I have no money coming in.

"Before I closed the salon, we were using every possible measure to protect the customers as well as ourselves. I think that we can provide a safe environment for our clients now as well. We will wear masks, stagger clients so there will be only one at a time as well as sanitizing our equipment and the salon.

"Please consider my plea to reopen my salon."

Julie Dyre
Headquarters Salon
Winona, Mississippi

"We took a leap of faith and began our custom shirt printing business in 2006 in our dining room.

"We purchased a digital garment printer, and my husband Anthony quit his job. A digital garment printer works on the same principle as a deskjet printer. A design can be sent directly from the computer program to the printer, thus just one shirt can be printed without doing lengthy set up as required in screen printing. Also, photos and designs with multiple colors can easily be printed with a digital garment printer. However, with digital print, there is no white ink, so when that was our only printer, we would not print on dark colored shirts at all, and the print colors are affected by the shirt color. However, our photo shirts were very popular, and people loved the fact that, with this process, while the shirt colors are limited, the print colors are not. Photo shirts seemed to really catch on in the community around here, with people buying them for everything from children's birthday parties to birthday parties for the elderly (We did shirts for a 102-year-old lady last year!) to in memory shirts to be worn at the repast after a funeral. Also, the photo shirts are extremely popular for family reunions.

"Since 2006, we've had our ups and downs financially, which I think any small business could say. We sold shirts both locally (customers came to our dining room!) and online. In 2012 we moved to a rental location in Waynesboro, Mississippi, just five minutes from our home. We thought this move would gain us more customers, and also, we needed our dining room back to convert into a bedroom for our ever growing family.

"Business prospered, and we were able to purchase that location which was actually an old house beside a busy street with a huge warehouse behind it.

"In 2015 we took yet another leap of faith and made some renovations to the huge warehouse behind our store and bought screen printing to go there. It was the ideal place for it! Now we could offer a wider variety of shirts to include all shirt colors.

"That same year we also purchased a second location in nearby Laurel. We were extremely busy in those days, so much so that we eventually (in 2018) had to close the Laurel location due to the fact that it was pretty much too much for just Anthony and I to handle. He did most of the printing, and I did all of the design work, bookkeeping, and all the other behind-the-scenes work.

"Our goals in the business were to 'make a living,' of course, flexibility, and also to provide job opportunities for our children (of which we have seven). We have been able do that, with our older daughters, Rosalie and Rebekah, doing a good bit of the printing before they moved on. Our son, Ben, managed our Laurel store for a year or two before he moved on. Our younger children enjoyed “going to work with us” to earn a treat – our business has definitely been a family effort!! We had planned for our 16-year-old Elon to move up to working as sales clerk this spring.

"And then the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and officials began shutting down all 'non-essential' businesses and canceling events. Could our business be considered essential? It is definitely essential to our well-being. How could some bureaucrat or politician demand that we close our business?

"During what is usually our extremely busy time of the year with events, promotions, etc., our business was busted. While we have not been open to the public, we have been able to provide shirts for a couple of essential businesses (a small order for our local hospital and a small order for a logging crew), those are the only two orders we have had (other than a handful of online orders) in the past month. We were working on an order for Relay for Life, but that event got postponed indefinitely. Our income for March of this year was half of what it was in 2019, and our income for April has dwindled to around only 10 percent of what it was this time last year.

"If something is not done, we will have to permanently close our doors. Although the doors are closed, many of our expenses continue (property note, equipment leases, utilities, insurance, property taxes....). And if this 'shut down' continues, it will eventually have a very negative affect on everyone's income."

Pam Powell
Powell Shirts
Waynesboro, Mississippi

Churches in Greenville will be allowed to continue drive-in church services without fear of fines after the city announced they were changing their ordinance banning such services.

Yesterday, the Mississippi Justice Institute (“MJI”), a non-profit constitutional litigation center and the legal arm of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, and First Liberty Institute, the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious liberty for all Americans, announced a challenge to the city’s ban on drive-in church services. They are defending King James Bible Baptist Church. Last Thursday, members of the church were greeted by virtually every member of the Greenville police department and threatened with fines as they arrived for drive-in church services that evening.

“The Mississippi Justice Institute is proud to have stood with this church and Pastor Hamilton, and that so many other groups, individuals, and elected officials stood with them as well,” said MJI Director Aaron Rice. “We are happy that the City of Greenville has recognized the right of all Mississippians to worship in a way that is safe and consistent with their religious beliefs or practical needs.” 

As the coronavirus pandemic spread across the country, the church began hosting drive-in services in a manner consistent with Center for Disease Control and Mississippi Department of Health guidance. Members would stay in their cars with their windows closed. Traditional shouts of “Amen” or “Hallelujah” turned into flashing lights or honking horns. 

While many churches have opted for live-stream services, this was the best option for many at the church, as several do not have social media accounts or the ability to connect online.  

“We have to care about our constitutional rights,” said Rice. “Even during challenging times.”  

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.

As a virus sweeps across the nation, the American people have been forced to undergo a radical shift in daily routines. Our lives have been upended and so too has the conduction of critical practices such as work and education.

Many worried over the potential gaps in existing resources vital for continued societal operation, both in terms of physical resources such as masks and intellectual resources such as the effective educational instruction of our state’s children.

Thankfully, private enterprise has stepped up to the plate in a historic way. Businesses are transitioning to fill the existing gaps and provide the supplies and information that the country needs. In Mississippi, we have seen local business leaders bravely take risks in order to fill critical needs. 

A few days ago, I had the chance to talk with leaders of the Bailey Education Group, including founder, Gary Bailey, and Vice President, Pat Ross. The organization is committed to offering high level coaching and instruction to teachers and leaders as they seek to better the education of their students. Today, they have played a leading role in supporting schools as they transition to alternative education initiatives in this unique situation by offering digital coaching resources, online content, and webinars that allow teachers and administrative leaders to discuss existing problems and potential solutions.

Bailey recognized that “education is a vital part of every child’s life.” In so doing, he wanted to develop a company that was committed to helping kids learn more effectively. This passion drove him to found the Bailey Education Group in 2007. Since then, he has brought together a team of effective educational leaders with a great depth of experience to further this mission.

The Bailey Education Group is a results-oriented company, and Bailey even noted to me that their ultimate goal is to work themselves out of a job. Indeed they focus their work on schools that have room for improvement as they attempt to imitate pathways to success that have been found in other districts around the state.

Today, the coronavirus pandemic has necessitated a foundational reevaluation of our societal approach to education as new methods of instruction have been needed amidst mandated social distancing and shelter-in-place orders. 

With about 85 percent of the Bailey Education Group’s work being focused on teacher and school leader instruction and training, they needed to quickly adapt. While this transition was not easy, Ross noted that the organization “knew [they] needed to turn the company into a virtual operation.” They have now transitioned all their coaching sessions to online video calls. This has allowed teachers to both continue their training initiatives while also being provided a digital recording that they can look back on and use as a resource to review and continue seeking improvement moving forward.

The integration of technology into the classroom has become a critical component of many education models. Bailey noted that, “[t]echnology changed education to a great degree, but many school districts have not caught up.” While some schools already readily use digital tools to supplement the students’ education, others have not made these strides yet. This reality has made the current crisis all the more difficult for many previously struggling schools and has highlighted the need for support during this time of transition. 

The Bailey Education Group has created electronic and live content to help schools teach certain subjects when they may be lacking in an area. With the wealth of education experience collected through the Group, this initiative now empowers almost every district across Mississippi to have a student learn algebra or other courses from one of the best teachers in the state.

This model can be used to supplement existing classrooms and also support long-term substitutes in classrooms which lack a highly qualified teacher, due to the critical teacher shortage.

Ross noted how BEG has taken on the responsibility of networking education leaders across the state in order to solve problems together. They are hosting video conference sessions that give teachers and administrative leaders the opportunity to discuss ongoing issues and challenges. Ross offered hope that these sessions could become more regular and even break down into smaller regional groups so that individuals could hold more personal discuss with colleagues facing similar issues in their fields.

Bailey and Ross noted that these sessions have offered a place for school leaders to talk about a variety of ongoing challenges, including the continued provision of food to students, access to technology, and budgeting.

For many students, school is the one place where they are sure to get a reliable meal each day. Every school in the state is working to continue providing this critical resource and this has been one of the widely discussed challenges that the Bailey Education Group’s virtual sessions have brought administrative leaders together to discuss.

Not every kid has a computer, internet service, or cellphone access. Thus, while some schools have students tuning into class digitally, others have no option but to print off workbooks and send them to students. Students then complete the work and send them back in to teachers so they can be reviewed and graded. The coronavirus has put these additional challenges on full display and highlighted the need to facilitate technology access across the state.

As we transition out of this crisis, many facets of society are likely to change, including our approach to education. The Bailey Education Group leaders expressed hope that we can continue to use technology as a positive educational supplement. No matter what new approaches are taken, Bailey noted to me that, “[m]ath is still math and algebra is still algebra, but how one teaches it will change”

When it comes to technology, Ross noted his fundamental optimism that kids are flexible and would readily be able to make further transitions. Having grown up in a digital age, they are in a position where they can quickly adapt to new changes in the classroom. Thankfully the Bailey Education Group is there to ease that transition for teachers and district leaders as well.

Bailey pointed to the critical importance of personal interaction in the teaching process stating that, “human interaction is the best way to learn, be it over computer or face-to-face. This interaction is central to a child’s livelihood and improvement.” By helping to guide a more effective conversion to digital instruction, Bailey’s organization has assisted in the continuing of Mississippi children’s education.

With hope, we will be able to transition out of our current situation sooner rather than later. However, whatever the timeline ends up being, we will never fully return to the world we knew in January. As a state and as a nation, we will be tasked with making fundamental changes to many critical parts of our society, including education.

This situation has hastened the integration of technology and digital learning platforms into the classroom. Students and teachers have been forced to adjust to this, but in so doing have opened up a world of opportunity for future innovative changes to our existing education structures. As we move forward, undoubtedly the leaders who supported our students and teachers in this trying time, such as the Bailey Education Group, will be remembered.

These businesses that are stepping up deserve to be highlighted, and so the Mississippi Center for Public Policy is publishing a series dedicated to doing just that. Over the coming weeks, we aim to continue showcasing the stories of these local businesses, including Blue Delta Jeans in Tupelo, Rich Grain Distilling Company, and now the Bailey Education Group who have willingly given up their normal operating procedures to help people.

If you know of a local Mississippi business that is helping those in need during this critical time, we’d love to highlight the work that they’re doing. Please email Hunter Estes via [email protected] to discuss further.

Now is the time to put the economic pieces back together, but it won’t be easy.

We are called “These United States” because a one-size-fits-all solution rarely works. There are massive differences between our states. Some are largely metropolitan, some are mostly rural. Some have mostly warm climates, some are Alaska. Ultimately, the states are best equipped, and constitutionally empowered, to make decisions about public policy in their own sovereign spheres.

We didn’t abide by these fundamentals over the past couple of months and our demolished economy is the result. Now that we know much more about the coronavirus, we’ll need to move quickly back to federalism and capitalism if we hope to rebuild an economy that was enjoying unprecedented growth and job participation before the pandemic.

Unsurprisingly, the data is showing us that the most vulnerable are those 65 and over with comorbidities like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity. And old age determined hospitalization and death to a greater degree than any of these underlying conditions. This information comes from a New York City Langone Health Center study of coronavirus patients, the largest one to date. Despite how desperately some journalists want us to see COVID-19 as an example of implicit racism, the study found “less influence” with regard to race. In other words, we know who really needs the attention of our resources and quarantine measures and it’s not healthy Americans and their school-age children.

The data is also overwhelming in terms of the vulnerability of elderly care facility residents. It’s only common sense that elderly people living in facilities without lots of sunlight and fresh air and in close proximity, are going to be even more vulnerable. It seems this group of Americans needed our care, our technology, and our quarantine.

Helping the sick should not mean controlling the healthy. We can help the sick without violating civil liberties and without disintegrating our economy. We can choose to use a scalpel or a knife instead of a sledgehammer. We can honor the personal responsibility and common sense of citizens rather than impose a virtual martial law in the name of preventing every person, including healthy citizens, from getting sick. But this is what happens when we demand our government solve all our problems and cure all our diseases. Why would we ask this of the same government that manages the USPS, the IRS, and the DMV?

On the day most Americans are normally mailing off their tax payments to the IRS, most Americans are receiving a payment from the IRS, or will later this week. What an upside-down world it is!

Millions of small business owners and nonprofits are anxiously awaiting Payroll Protection loans from the Small Business Administration, through their local banks, in an effort to keep employees employed. The $350 billion allocated from Congress is supposedly flowing through the system and will be exhausted by week’s end and Congress is debating another $250 billion for small businesses. Expect a lot of pork to be added to the plan. It’s clear that certain ideological partisans are not about to let a pandemic go by without attempting to leverage it to the max. They see this as a rare gift to justify massive and permanent government spending and control of the economy. This puts us at something near $6 trillion in costs to “compensate” for the sledgehammer approach. And the various “stimulants” are only getting started. 

Industries are being bailed out, states are receiving billions to compensate for lost revenue, and the Federal Reserve is now a crisis lender. These types of actions lead us toward a dangerous precipice. The American economic system is based largely on the energy and interplay of private businesses, private banks, capital providers, and consumers. If our federal government continues to add massive spending and its related borrowing, it could crowd out free enterprise and capitalism as the preferred recovery mechanism. That’s not a future we should want.

According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, all of this spending will produce a deficit of $3.8 trillion this fiscal year. That is three times the largest deficit in U.S. history. Interest on our national debt is now the fourth largest item in the federal budget. Just wait until we calculate the intertest costs on the ballooning debt after all of these measures to counter the effect of the sledgehammer!

The best way to counter our cratering economy is to get people back to work.

Americans love to work hard and play hard. We can’t do either right now. We can’t even watch others play hard. The governors should take the lead here, with some general guidance from the White House and the President’s healthcare and economic advisors. Governors know what things look like on the ground in their states. It makes no sense for Mississippi and New York to be using the same strategy. And we need action now.

Small business owners are running out of savings and cash to keep employees. White collar workers, like lawyers, doctors, marketers, and accountants, are feeling the same pain that many service level workers felt six weeks ago. Formerly healthy companies are rapidly filing bankruptcies. Banks are setting aside billions to deal with defaults and bad loans. Consumers are maxing out credit cards and missing mortgage payments. This cannot continue.

Mississippi has just under three million residents. As of today, 122 Mississippians have died. While there will be more, and every life is precious, we should recognize our numbers of confirmed cases and confirmed deaths are quite small. Our testing numbers and our capacity for hospital beds and emergency equipment compare well to most of our neighbors and other states.

We need to stay vigilant and listen carefully to healthcare experts, but we can do this while we start opening up our economy. These are not mutually exclusive actions. Keeping nearly three million people in quarantine for much longer is not the correct public policy.

Gov. Tate Reeves should be given credit for his approach to date. He has resisted the urge to act like an authoritarian and given local leaders the flexibility to govern, until such time as a statewide approach was required. And his instinct on not trying to force churches to close was correct. Now let’s see how his instincts are on how to reopen the economy. We know Reeves will have loud detractors on social media, but it’s time to put the pieces of our economy back together. It just won’t be easy.

Gov. Tate Reeves has named a team of business leaders to help guide the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic that has devastated the state’s economy. 

The state has seen a 9000 percent increase in unemployment claims over the past month while businesses that have been forced to close fight for their survival during the statewide shelter-in-place. 

Reeves issued the order on April 1. It is set to expire on Monday, though Reeves could extend it. Prior to Reeves, numerous local governments issued similar orders closing restaurants and numerous businesses, while only allowing people to leave their house for essential travel. 

“We need Mississippians helping Mississippians. I have asked a trusted group of our state’s top business minds to do just that. Under the ‘Restart Mississippi’ umbrella, they are going to develop a series of recommendations and goals for our new economy. They will study the impact of COVID-19 on our workforce and small businesses. And they will help us recover—day by day,” Reeves said in a press release.

The committee is chaired by Joe Sanderson of Sanderson Farms. Also serving on the executive team are Tom Gresham, president of Delta Council, John Hairston of Hancock Whitney, Jonathan Jones of Jones Capital, Colby Lane of Veriforce, and Tim Smith of Avectus Healthcare Solutions. 

Last Thursday, members of the King James Bible Baptist Church in Greenville were greeted by virtually every member of the Greenville police department and threatened with fines as they arrived for drive-in church services that evening, even though they followed CDC guidelines by remaining in their vehicles, parking six feet apart, and keeping their windows rolled up while listening to their pastor preach from the parking lot. 

The Mississippi Justice Institute (“MJI”), a non-profit constitutional litigation center and the legal arm of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, and First Liberty Institute, the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious liberty for all Americans, have teamed up to represent the church.

Today, attorneys with the Mississippi Justice Institute and First Liberty Institute filed a federal lawsuit challenging Greenville Mayor Errick Simmons’s unconstitutional executive order, which categorically bans all drive-in church services.

“We understand that many safety precautions are necessary during this unprecedented time,” said MJI Director Aaron Rice. “But absurd government orders that single out churches for punishment while doing nothing to protect the public health are simply unconstitutional. Mississippians cannot and will not stand for these kinds of outrageous violations of our religious liberties by our government officials.”

As the coronavirus pandemic spread across the country, the church began hosting “drive-in” services in a manner consistent with Center for Disease Control and Mississippi Department of Health guidance. Members would stay in their cars with their windows closed. Traditional shouts of “Amen” or “Hallelujah” turned into flashing lights or honking horns. 

While many churches have opted for live-stream services, this was the best option for many at the church, as several do not have social media accounts or the ability to connect online.  

“The Mississippi Justice Institute is proud to stand with King James Bible Baptist Church, and we look forward to vindicating the right of all Mississippians to worship in a way that is safe and consistent with their religious beliefs or practical needs,” said Rice.  

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.

Video from Pastor Charles Hamilton

A copy of the complaint can be found here.