A legislative watchdog panel this month gave a generally rosy report about how Mississippi is meeting its obligations in a decades-old college desegregation case, but a closer examination reveals flaws with a private endowment that has failed to reach its goals.
The settlement of the case in 2002 put an end to litigation that began in 1975 when Jake Ayers Jr. filed suit with a group of other students, accusing Mississippi of operating an unequal system of higher education— one for Black students, and another for White students.
Lawmakers put the settlement package together in 2002 but no money was allocated until the last appeal was exhausted in 2004.
In the settlement, there was a $70 million publicly funded endowment and a separate, privately funded $35 million endowment. The private endowment has only $1 million.
Seven years after a federal judge signed off on the settlement, state officials agree there is no organized campaign to raise private money.
New Higher Education Commissioner Dr. Hank Bounds, in his response to the report by the Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Committee, acknowledged PEER’s concern about the private endowment.
