So far, no conference committee meeting has been called for the teacher pay raise bill, HB 530.
Ask conferees to hold a PUBLIC conference committee meeting promptly and get a final bill to Gov. Reeves.
Rep. Richard Bennett 601.359.3365
Rep. Kent McCarty 601.359.9465
Rep. Kevin Felsher 601.359.1839
Sen. Dennis DeBar 601.359.3221
Sen. Hob Bryan 601.359.2220
Sen. Briggs Hopson 601.359.3250
Find additional contact information for conferees: Representatives Senators
Today was the deadline for the House and Senate to act on bills from the other chamber. Here’s an overview of the bills we are tracking, including current status:
Teacher Pay Raise
HB 530 – VOTE YES Passed full House, passed full Senate, sent to conference – amended by Senate to include language of SB 2444: new salary schedule for licensed teachers with average pay raise of $4,785; $39,000 starting salary in 2022-2023 and $40,000 starting salary in 2023-2024 and thereafter; annual step increases beginning in year 1 with larger increases at years 5, 10, 15, 20, 25; $2,000 pay raise for assistant teachers; phased in over two years
SB 2444 – VOTE YES Passed full Senate, died on deadline in House Education Committee – new salary schedule for licensed teachers with average pay raise of $4,785; $39,000 starting salary in 2022-2023 and $40,000 starting salary in 2023-2024 and thereafter; annual step increases beginning in year 1 with larger increases at years 5, 10, 15, 20, 25; phased in over two years
SB 2443 – VOTE YES Passed full Senate, died on deadline in House Education Committee – amended to include language of SB 2444: new salary schedule for licensed teachers with average pay raise of $4,785; $39,000 starting salary in 2022-2023 and $40,000 starting salary in 2023-2024 and thereafter; annual step increases beginning in year 1 with larger increases at years 5, 10, 15, 20, 25; phased in over two years
Cuts to State Revenue
HB 531 – VOTE NO Passed full House, referred to Senate Finance Committee – decreases state revenue by $1.5-billion, putting school budgets and teacher pay in jeopardy
SB 3164 – VOTE NO Passed full Senate, referred to House Ways & Means Committee – decreases state revenue by $317-million, putting school budgets and teacher pay in jeopardy
School Funding
SB 2430 – VOTE YES Passed full Senate, passed full House, goes to Senate for concurrence or conference – amended to create a revolving loan fund for public school and community college facilities repair and construction
Pre-K
HB 1246 – VOTE YES Passed full House, passed Senate Education and Appropriations Committees, died on Senate calendar – increases per-student funding for Early Learning Collaboratives to minimum of $2,500 for full day and $1,250 for half day
HB 1340 – VOTE NO Passed full House, died on deadline in Senate Education Committee – diminishes Early Learning Collaborative program by adding a home-based virtual component for preschoolers, to be administered by an unnamed vendor
Third Grade Reading Gate
SB 2706 – VOTE YES Passed full Senate, died on deadline in House Education Committee – provides one hold-harmless year (2021-2022) for students scoring in level 2 on the state literacy assessment, with remediation to be provided as outlined
Charter School Funding
HB 31 – VOTE NO Died on House calendar – allows the Charter School Authorizer Board to develop its own formula for determining the amount of local funds sent to charter schools by public school districts
Vouchers
HB 795 – VOTE NO Died on House calendar – uses state funds for non-public school students to attend an online school with no accountability
You can see votes for the bills above on our website’s Bill Tracker.
If you haven’t yet registered for tomorrow’s virtual REAL TALK session, please sign up to get your link to join the meeting here. Submit your questions for guest speakers in advance by emailing them to info@msparentscampaign.org. This event, which begins at 5:45 p.m., is supported by the Community Foundation for Mississippi with a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
Please continue to urge the teacher pay raise conferees to meet quickly and send a strong teacher pay raise to Gov. Reeves for his signature. We will let you know the minute we learn of progress on that bill. Thank you for your repeated calls to legislators and the leadership on this critically important issue. Our teachers deserve the very best we can give them, and together, we’ve got this!
