The teacher pay raise is on its way to Gov. Reeves for his signature! A big THANK YOU to legislators in the House and Senate for this important move.
This morning, the House concurred with the Senate amendment to HB 852, the teacher pay raise bill, which provides a $1,000 salary increase for assistant teachers and certified teachers with three or more years’ experience and brings starting teacher pay to $37,000. The Education Committee chairmen in both chambers have said that they would like to see bigger increases in teacher salaries, and House Education Chairman Bennett indicated that he might be back before that chamber later in the session with an additional “incentive-type package” for teachers. Chairman DeBar has said that legislators will use the summer to study teacher compensation and devise a plan to move Mississippi’s teacher pay to the southeastern average.
The House also took action on other education bills we’ve been following, and those updates are on the Bill Tracker page of our website.
We are paying particular attention to SB 2664, the pre-k bill that is in conference. Our hope is that the final conference report will require an increase in the per-student state contribution for collaboratives.
PLEASE ASK CONFEREES ON SB 2664 TO INCREASE THE STATE PER-STUDENT RATE FOR EARLY LEARNING COLLABORATIVES TO $2,500 FOR FULL-TIME STUDENTS AND $1,250 FOR HALF-TIME.
Senate conferees are:
Sen. Dennis DeBar Capitol: 601.359.3221 Personal: 601.394.4400
Sen. Chris Johnson Capitol: 601.359.4088 Personal: 601.270.1314
Sen. Brice Wiggins Capitol: 601.359.3237 Personal: 228.324.3141
Capitol Switchboard: 601.359.3770
House conferees have not yet been named.
Thank you for your terrific work on the teacher pay raise – and thank you to our legislators for their support of our teachers! We are looking forward to getting more good news about teacher pay as the Legislature embarks on its study of teacher compensation. In the meantime, please let us know what you’re hearing as you talk to Senate conferees about the pre-k bill, and we’ll do likewise. Together, we’ve got this!
