Mississippi education officials present 10 spending priorities for 2026, including SAO transfer and MSFF increase

The Mississippi Department of Education on Wednesday outlined 10 fiscal priorities for fiscal 2026 — including a plan to transfer school attendance officers to local districts, an expansion of early childhood coaching, and funding tied to the Mississippi Student Funding Formula — during a presentation to the Appropriations Committee, department officials said.

Department officials said the package is intended to address chronic absenteeism, teacher shortages, school safety and rising operating costs across the state’s districts. Dr. Evans, speaking for the department, said the priorities are ranked and that the department would answer questions throughout the presentation.

The top priority would transfer school attendance officers (SAOs) from the state department to local school districts and increase SAO pay. "I think that's very important that we maintain that," Dr. Evans said of keeping a regulatory oversight arm in the department even if SAOs move under local supervision. He said the transfer would allow superintendents to directly supervise SAOs and would fund a roughly 25% pay increase (the speaker described a move from about $24,000 to about $34,000 but said the figure should not be treated as exact). The department said the move is partly driven by districts’ requests and the difficulty of recruiting SAOs at current pay levels.

On teacher pipeline issues, the department requested $6,800,000 for the Mississippi…