2025 Legislative Priorities
An excellent early education experience for every child
- Expanded access to state-funded pre-k programs
- increase the early childhood education appropriation for FY2025 (ELCs and public pre-k)
An excellent teacher in every classroom
- Teacher shortage – codify a plan to address Mississippi’s critical teacher shortage, which may include, but is not limited to:
- teacher pay and benefits – codify a plan to keep Mississippi teacher pay and benefits competitive in the Southeast
- full funding of the Winter-Reed Teacher Loan repayment program
- adjustments to the statute allowing retired teachers to return to the classroom full time while drawing their retirement income to accommodate more retirees
- a career ladder that allows teachers to stay in the classroom and be compensated at higher levels for additional leadership responsibilities
- state support for the Mississippi Teacher Residency program
- Require the identification and publication of university/college teacher preparation programs that yield the highest growth outcomes in K-12 student achievement
An excellent public education for every Mississippi child
- Full funding of the Mississippi Student Funding Formula for FY2025
- Maintain the current level of funding for lower elementary literacy coaches and math coaches
- State funding for school facilities in communities with a weak local tax base
- Amend the state school accountability statute to remove details of the model from statute
Public funds restricted to public schools (defeat of school privatization measures)
- Defeat all new voucher or tax credit scholarship proposals or expansions
- Maintain and strengthen, as necessary, legislatively mandated accountability measures and restrictions on the existing ESA voucher program
- Require periodic PEER review of the Children’s Promise Act and any tax credit programs that use public funds or funds owed to the state to benefit private schools
- Require financial audits of private schools participating in the Children’s Promise Act tax credit program
- Defeat measures that would alter the way school boards are elected. Such legislation is promoted by privatization lobbyists and generally authored by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to:
- simplify the process by which privatizers take majority control of local school boards by having all seats elected simultaneously (not staggered)
- facilitate recruitment and funding of privatization candidates by out-of-state organizations and persons by aligning school board elections with presidential or gubernatorial elections, making it easy for out-of-state funders to identify when the elections are taking place
