October 8, 2008, Jackson, MS – Eight parents, students, school board members and activists in the MS Delta Catalyst Roundtable were among those who testified at a public input hearing of the Legislative Task Force on Underperforming Schools held to allow education activists a brief opportunity to share their views.

Ellen Reddy, Director of Nollie Citizens for Quality Education and Joyce Parker, Director of Citizens for a Better Greenville, emphasized the need to bring parents and students into the schools to create positive behavior intervention models to provide students the support they need to stay in school. (more…)

Itta Bena, MS, Oct. 15, 2008 – The 5th and last Conference of Education Stakeholders on Dismantling the Student Achievement Gap will be held at MS Valley State University on Thursday, November 13, 2008 to celebrate the past five years of partnership of Southern Echo and the MS Delta Catalyst Roundtable with the MS Department of Education and the Delta Research and Cultural Institute at MS Valley State University to build support for the creation of a quality public education accessible to all children.

The focus of the conference will be on assessing the successes and limitation during this period and the lessons learned that will inform how best to proceed to meet the education policy challenges still to be met.

It is anticipated that approximately 500 delegates, comprised of students, parents, educators and public officials, will be selected to attend through a series of community workshops in the approximately 21 counties and 43 school districts that have been involved since the first conference held in 2004.
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October 5, 2008, Mississippi Delta region – This summer and fall high school students, community activists and community elders – old hands and first time workers working together — scoured the rural counties of the Mississippi Delta to help generate the largest registration of new voters in the history of the state.  More than 130,000 new registrations have been recorded.  The number will continue to rise given the backlog in processing voter registration forms.

Students and activists worked with school administrations to set up voter registration booths in schools and at many school events to enable newly-eligible young citizens to register.  Community teams sought people out in their homes, at churches, at shopping malls and on the street.  Unquestionably, intense interest in the presidential race helped to fuel interest in registration.

Some uncertainty has arisen among voters because the Secretary of State has accepted the requirement by Circuit Clerks that voters use larger-than-usual envelopes to mail absentee ballots. This change in voting procedure has not been approved by the Justice Department. These larger-than-usual envelopes require two stamps rather than one. Some post offices have not been delivering absentee ballots with insufficient postage, or have been marking the ballot envelopes “postage due” when they are delivered. Several voter protection organizations have complained, but the Secretary of State has posted a notice on his website that the total postage required for oversize absentee ballot envelopes is 83 cents.

Mississippi law 23-15-681, which became effective in 2000, provides that postage cannot be required on absentee ballot envelopes. However, this statute is part of the Armed Services Absentee Voting Law and applies only to persons serving in the United States Armed Services. Therefore, the additional postage will be required for anyone not in the military.

September 24, 2008, Greenwood, MS – How do we get schools to keep students in schools where they can learn, rather than pushing them into the pipeline from schoolhouse to jailhouse?

That is what 48 parents, students and community members from under-performing school districts in the Mississippi Delta came together to learn in Greenwood, MS at a workshop on Positive Behavior Intervention Strategies prepared by the MS Delta Catalyst Roundtable.

The REACH MS program of the University of Southern Mississippi provided the training under a grant from the US Department of Education and the MS Department of Education Office of Special Education. (more…)

Fall, 2008, San Antonio, TX, Albuquerque, NM and Jackson, MS – Grassroots community organizations in Texas, New Mexico and Mississippi are putting the finishing touches on the 3rd Convening of the South X Southwest Experiment which will be held in San Antonio, TX December 6-8, 2008.

This third gathering of community organizers, community leaders and students will continue the sharing of personal stories, community histories, the organizational work in each state, and the formulation of joint programs across state and regional lines.  Projects in the planning stages include training workshops beginning in 2009 for a multi-year organizing approach to fight for an accurate census count in 2010 and the building of fair political districts in 2011.  (more…)