Today was the deadline for House bills to pass Senate committees and for Senate bills to pass House committees. Very few of the bills we are following made it out alive. This feels like a repeat of last year’s session, in which the House killed the Senate bills and the Senate killed the House bills.
BUT, there are still options to get important legislation like a teacher pay raise passed (both pay raise bills died today). Tell legislators to find a way to make it happen.
Please continue to reach out to legislators and urge them to pass a minimum $5,000 teacher pay raise! Our amazing public school teachers, who have brought Mississippi ‘miraculous’ national recognition, outpacing every other state in student achievement gains – the best teachers in the country – are the worst paid in the country. It is unconscionable. Legislators should not go home without passing a teacher pay raise. And an assistant teacher pay raise. And the other provisions you’ve pushed for this session to support and retain teachers.
Please also ask your senator to vote NO on HB 1944 – the Children’s Promise Act bill that increases state funding going to private schools through tax credits. This bill would send as much as $30-million to private schools annually, with no accountability or oversight – funding that private schools can use to upgrade facilities or grow new programs – or even stash in scholarship accounts to use just like a voucher. All ways that unaccountable private schools can and do use state funding to create an unfair advantage and recruit students away from public schools.
Ask your legislators to PASS:
* a $5,000 teacher pay raise
* an assistant teacher pay raise
* a middle grades literacy initiative
* a math initiative
* improvements to the retired teachers program
Ask your senator to VOTE NO:
HB 1944 – increases state funding to unaccountable private schools through the Children’s Promise Act
Capitol Switchboard: 601.359.3770
Find contact information for legislators
Also call:
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann: 601.359.3200
House Speaker Jason White: 601.359.3300
False information is circulating about HB 1944 (The Children’s Promise Act):
False claim: HB 1944 doesn’t hurt public schools.
Truth: Of course it does. HB 1944 sends millions of dollars to private schools that are held to none of the same rules that govern public schools, creating an unlevel playing field and an unfair advantage. Any school benefiting from state funding should be held to the very same rules – same admissions standards, same assessments, same accountability, same public audits.
False claim: HB 1944 helps other nonprofits.
Truth: HB 1944 harms the only other nonprofits eligible for Children’s Promise Act funding: foster care organizations. See a quick video explaining how HB 1944 seeks to divert funding away from foster care organizations and send it to private schools.
See the status of bills we have followed:
- DEAD: HB 2 – Education Freedom Act – Broad voucher/school choice bill that sends state funding to unaccountable private schools, and numerous other provisions. (VOTE NO)
- DEAD: HB 1234 – School accountability dashboard – Creates enormous, unnecessary, and costly administrative tasks for public schools, mandating new accountability “dashboards” on which public schools would be required to publish each month detailed financial and academic data (data that already is available to the public). (VOTE NO)
- DEAD: SB 2002 – Public school choice – Allows public schools to pick and choose out-of-district students to attend their schools; available only to students who can provide their own transportation. (VOTE NO)
- DEAD: HB 1126 – Teacher pay raise – Provides for a $5,000 across-the-board salary increase for certified teachers and an additional $3,000 for special education teachers. (Amend to remove provisions unrelated to teacher pay and add a salary increase for assistant teachers and VOTE YES)
- DEAD: HB 1367 – School nutrition – Prohibits schools from denying lunch to children who cannot pay. (VOTE YES)
- DEAD: HB 1606 – The Excellence for All Pilot Program – Directs MDE to provide a career ladder for teachers along with additional supports and incentives in pilot districts. (VOTE YES)
- DEAD: SB 2001 – Teacher pay raise – Provides for a $2,000 across-the-board salary increase for teachers and assistant teachers. (AMEND to increase to $5,000 minimum across-the-board raise for teachers and VOTE YES)
- DEAD: SB 2003 – Retirees return to classroom – Expands incentives for retirees to return to teaching while receiving PERS benefits. (VOTE YES)
- DEAD: SB 2242 – Mississippi Math Act – Provides a pilot program to identify and provide interventions for students struggling in math and supports for math teachers in grades K-5. (VOTE YES)
- DEAD: SB 2487 – Adolescent literacy initiative – Expands literacy support to schools and students in grades 4-8. This bill needs some clarifications and improvements but is a very good start toward ensuring children in middle grades get the reading interventions they need. (AMEND to reflect effective strategies for middle school literacy interventions, which differ from effective K-3 interventions and VOTE YES)
- ALIVE: SB 2294 – Adolescent literacy initiative and math pilot program – Amended to remove computer science mandates and replace with the House middle grades literacy initiative and math pilot program. (Increase the appropriation to avoid an unfunded mandate for school districts, which are required to hire an interventionist in every school that includes a grade from 4-8 and VOTE YES)
- ALIVE: HB 1935 – P-12 education funding – Funds pre-k through grade 12 education. (VOTE YES)
Thank you for your terrific work so far this session! I know the antics of our Legislature can be extremely frustrating at times. Believe me, many rank-and-file legislators share your deep frustration. But, our public school teachers and our children still need our help, and they deserve the very best we can give them. Please reach out to your legislators right away with this message: Not another penny to private schools, and by all means, pass a teacher pay raise! I promise to keep you posted. Together, we’ve got this!
Nancy Loome, Executive Director
