• A Mississippi education bill proposes creating 12,500 educational savings accounts for school choice.
• The accounts would provide up to $7,000 per child for private or charter school expenses.
• The legislation also includes a $3,000 pay raise for assistant teachers.
• Democrats raised concerns that the bill would divert necessary funds from public education.

The education bill championed by Mississippi House Speaker Jason White narrowly passed its first test in the legislature Wednesday. The legislation focuses on aligning Mississippi with its conservative neighbors by expanding and funding school choice options.

One of the most controversial provisions of the massive bill involves creating 12,500 educational savings accounts. The state would allocate more than $87 million to create these accounts, which would give the families of eligible students up to $7,000 per child to cover costs such as uniforms and tuition at private and charter schools.

Half of the initial savings accounts would be designated for students currently enrolled in public schools, and education committee chairman Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, said the selection process would prioritize low-income students.

“This is designed to make certain that if you’re 100% below the median income, you are the first in line to get this money,” he said in the Wednesday committee meeting. “We want to make certain that our kids out there that really haven’t had an opportunity to go anywhere else would have that opportunity.”

How MS can lower veteran suicide: MS lawmakers propose solutions to lower veteran suicide rate

The accounts would provide funds for fewer than 3% of Mississippi’s school-age children in the 2027-2028 school year, if the bill passes, with scheduled increases in the number of savings accounts for the following three school years. After that, the number of savings accounts would only increase if there aren’t enough savings accounts for all interested students.

The bill is estimated to cost more than $160 million in its first year, the bulk of which would go to the student savings accounts. Included in the total is around $29 million allocated for assistant teacher pay raises. Roberson said the raise, a $3,000 bump that would bring minimum assistant teacher salaries up to $20,000 a year, was one of the provisions he thought was most important.

“It’s absolutely insane that anybody could even do it for $20,000 a year, and I hope we can work on increasing that going forward,” Roberson said.

The bill does not include teacher or professor salary increases, which differs from the legislation coming out of the Senate. A bill from Sen. Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, proposing a $2,000 raise for teachers passed the Senate and was sent to the House last week, but the House has not voted on it yet.

Can you hear me now? If your Verizon phone stopped working in Mississippi, you’re definitely not alone.

Customers all over the U.S. are reporting technical difficulties making and getting phone calls. Multiple cellphone service providers were hit on Wednesday, but Verizon is reporting the most widespread issues. (It’s the largest wireless provider in the country, with 146.1 million connections.)

Here’s what we know so far about the outage, what Verizon says is happening and when it could be fixed.

Is Verizon down in Mississippi?

According to Downdetector, more than 150,000 people across the nation have reported outages. The map shows swaths of reports from Mississippi are mostly in the northern part of the state and along the Gulf Coast at this time.

Customers in several other major cities have reported outages including New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

Downdetector showed other providers had outages on Wednesday, too, with at least 1,600 on T-Mobile and more than 1,700 on AT&T.

What does the Verizon outage look like?

Those affected are saying their phones can’t get a signal, showing no bars of service or “SOS.”

What caused Verizon outage?

Verizon released a statement midday Wednesday saying they are aware of the issue and their engineers are working to solve the issue. They gave no details on the cause of the outage.

How long will Verizon outage last?

A time/day for when the outages will be resolved has not been released yet. Stay tuned for further updates as they are provided.

Contributing: Jonathan Limehouse, Mike Snider

Miguel Legoas is a Deep South Connect Team Reporter for USA Today. Find him on Instagram @miguelegoas and email at mlegoas@gannett.com.

Bonnie Bolden is the Deep South Connect reporter for Mississippi with USA TODAY Network. Email her at bbolden@gannett.com.

The Mississippi Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big. Here’s a look at Jan. 13, 2026, results for each game:

Winning Mississippi Match 5 numbers from Jan. 13 drawing

01-06-11-25-30

Check Mississippi Match 5 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Cash 3 numbers from Jan. 13 drawing

Midday: 7-4-3, FB: 2

Evening: 1-6-7, FB: 3

Check Cash 3 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Cash 4 numbers from Jan. 13 drawing

Midday: 2-1-0-2, FB: 2

Evening: 2-5-3-8, FB: 3

Check Cash 4 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Cash Pop numbers from Jan. 13 drawing

Midday: 03

Evening: 14

Check Cash Pop payouts and previous drawings here.

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

Story continues below gallery.

Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your lottery prize

Winnings of $599 or less can be claimed at any authorized Mississippi Lottery retailer.

Prizes between $600 and $99,999, may be claimed at the Mississippi Lottery Headquarters or by mail. Mississippi Lottery Winner Claim form, proper identification (ID) and the original ticket must be provided for all claims of $600 or more. If mailing, send required documentation to:

Mississippi Lottery Corporation

P.O. Box 321462

Flowood, MS

39232

If your prize is $100,000 or more, the claim must be made in person at the Mississippi Lottery headquarters. Please bring identification, such as a government-issued photo ID and a Social Security card to verify your identity. Winners of large prizes may also have the option of setting up electronic funds transfer (EFT) for direct deposits into a bank account.

Mississippi Lottery Headquarters

1080 River Oaks Drive, Bldg. B-100

Flowood, MS

39232

Mississippi Lottery prizes must be claimed within 180 days of the drawing date. For detailed instructions and necessary forms, please visit the Mississippi Lottery claim page.