Mississippi News State officials have been battling “brain drain” for years. This term refers to a mass exodus of young educated people from one place. However, lawmakers have failed to make any significant efforts to stop the phenomenon over the years. The U.S. Census in 2020 showed that Mississippi was among three states that had lost population over the past decade. Shad White is the only state elected official that is a millennial. He wants to draw more attention to Mississippi’s brain drain. White announced Monday a new initiative that he hopes will help to combat the problem. The Stay in the Sip Scholarship will pay up to three years’ college tuition, books, and fees for an accounting major. If they are willing to work for the auditor’s office at least two years following college graduation, the scholarship will be available. White explained that the scholarship is also a prelude for a series reports that the auditor’s will produce in the coming months. These reports will examine the economic impact of Mississippi’s brain drain. READ MORE: NextGen Mississippi is a project that aims to uncover the truth behind why Mississippians leave or stay. White explained to Mississippi Today that the program’s origins are twofold. White himself has suffered brain drain. After graduating college, he left Mississippi. Although he has since returned to Mississippi, many of his friends are not. White also observed a shortage of young accountants at the auditor’s office as well as in private certified public accounting firms. These young accountants have chosen to leave Mississippi for CPAs and state agencies in the growing Southern cities of Dallas and Atlanta, rather than staying in Mississippi. White stated that this isn’t a problem only for Mississippi. White stated that this is not a problem for the state of Mississippi. He stated that while there is money to hire more auditors and the work in the auditor’s offices, particularly in light of the COVID stimuli, he believes they have enough. “Our challenge is to find talented people with the skills needed to come and fill these jobs.” Although the scholarship has been in development for months, it is not based upon data or research on the effectiveness of incentive programs to combat brain drain. The scholarship was loosely inspired by one White received while studying undergrad at the University of Mississippi, the Truman Scholarship. This federally funded program incentivizes students working in the public sector. Logan Reeves spoke on behalf of the auditor’s office. He stated that the goal was to create an incentive program for accounting students to remain in Mississippi. “At the end, we could have created a program that offered everyone a $5 partial scholarship. Who cares? Reeves stated that it is $5. “For our part it was important to… generate excitement among college students so that they really believe it is worth their time to participate.” While only one student will be awarded the scholarship this year (White hopes to expand the program to three or five accounting students at a time), The auditor’s general fund funds the scholarship. It will be adjusted each year to reflect the tuition costs of the student who is participating. Reeves stated that the scholarship is allowed by the office’s statute authority and is comparable to internships in other state agencies. Legislators and non-profit groups have published reports over the years that examine the state’s brain loss. Although the Mississippi trend is concerning, it’s not unusual for young people to leave. According to a congressional report, Americans are shifting from rural and postindustrial states to cities with vibrant metropolitan areas. This can cause economic stagnation. For example, there are not enough people to fill critical jobs such as teaching or nursing. It also means that businesses that generate and create the kind of cities that draw more people to the state are not being created. White’s office hopes that the scholarship and the reports will continue this conversation in the public eye, as well as push Mississippi legislators to take action to stop the state’s brain-drain. White wants lawmakers to consider programs similar to the one his department is creating, but targeted at other fields like computer science. White wants lawmakers to act now rather than waiting to collect data to create a program. He said, “We are bleeding our millennial populations.” “We can’t create a government study commission to gaze at this for five, ten years. We’ve gotta act right now.”