Mississippi House advances broad teacher-pay and education package with $5,000 raise for licensed K–12 teachers
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Summary
The House adopted a committee substitute that provides a $5,000 across‑the‑board raise for K–12 licensed teachers plus $3,000 for classroom special‑education teachers, PERS adjustments and an $18 million one‑time supplement targeted at low‑performing districts; sponsors said the state cost is roughly $225 million for the teacher raise.
The Mississippi House on the floor adopted a sweeping education committee substitute that would raise licensed K–12 teacher salaries statewide by $5,000 and add a $3,000 supplement for teachers actively working in special education.
Sponsor Representative Jimmy Hill (chair of the education committee) told colleagues the package also makes targeted changes to the Public Employees’ Retirement System and creates a new District Improvement and Teacher Stabilization Supplement. “This provides a $5,000 across‑the‑board pay increase for all of our teachers, K through 12,” the sponsor said, and added the special‑education supplement is “to hopefully pull these teachers into the classroom” where districts struggle to retain staff.
Why it matters: proponents said the raise would move Mississippi’s starting pay up from among the lowest nationally and help recruitment and retention. Representative Jeremy Faulkner pressed the sponsor for the budget impact; the chair said the state cost for the raise portion is about $225 million and the package includes formula changes to fund the increase through the state funding formula rather than by local property tax increases.
Key provisions: the bill lowers some PERS retirement thresholds (e.g., modifying years‑of‑service and averaging periods for certain classes of employees), caps superintendent pay at a percentage of local teacher pay to align administrative salaries with classroom investment, and sets aside $18 million as a one‑time fund for struggling (D/F) districts to be administered by the State Department of Education. The package also includes technical funding formula updates and a mechanism for the department to select eligible districts for supplemental support.
Opposition and questions: members asked whether the package includes teacher assistants and whether the D/F supplemental funding would be recurring. The sponsor said assistant teacher pay remains under active consideration and that the $18 million is one‑time funding, subject to future legislative action. Some members urged caution on long‑term funding commitments and sought assurances that the state would not force local tax increases.
What’s next: the House passed the committee substitute by recorded vote (machine roll), sending the education package to the next stage of the legislative process. Further negotiations are expected in conference to reconcile any Senate differences and to address assistant‑teacher pay requests.
