This morning, the full Senate advanced all three bills passed yesterday by the Senate Education Committee. See how your legislators voted below:
- SB 2001 – Teacher pay raise. Provides for a $2,000 across-the-board pay raise for K-12 teachers and assistant teachers, and expresses legislative intent for a $2,000 raise for faculty at community colleges and IHL. While the bill currently provides for only a $2,000 raise for K-12 certified teachers, Chairman DeBar expressed his hope that, by the end of the session, the final bill will deliver a raise closer to $5,000 for this group, noting that the 2022 pay raise began at a much lower level than where it ended. The cost of the current proposal is $132-million. The bill includes a provision prohibiting a school district from decreasing local supplements for assistant teachers due to the pay raise. See the vote.
- SB 2002 – Public school choice. Removes the provision in current law requiring that both the home school district and the transferee school district approve a student’s transfer to a school district in which he or she does not reside, allows districts to charge tuition to out-of-district students in lieu of ad valorem taxes, requires the transferee district to notify the home district of any transfer approval for the next school year no later than March 15, and provides that nothing shall preclude MHSAA (or any successor regulatory body) from determining athletic or extracurricular eligibility of transferring students. See the vote.
- SB 2003 – Retired educator law amendments. Amends the section of current law allowing retired teachers to return to the classroom full-time and draw a salary while continuing to receive PERS benefits, expands the statute to include any Mississippi PERS retiree who obtains a standard teaching license (via alternate route or otherwise), increases the pay to a maximum of 65% (from the current 50%) of 125% of the salary schedule, reduces the required break in days of service from 90 to 45, eliminates the break in service for those who are 59.5 years of age or older, and removes the critical shortage requirement, making any district and any subject area eligible. See the vote.
These bills now will go to the House where they will be assigned to committees for consideration.
The Speaker has introduced House Bill 2, a monstrous 567-page school choice bill that provides vouchers for private school tuition and for homeschoolers without the standards and accountability required of public schools. The legislation states specifically that, while private schools would receive the same base cost amount that public schools receive, private voucher schools cannot be required to alter their admissions practices, take state assessments, or participate in the state accountability model. Any school that receives state funding should be required to operate under the very same set of rules – same admissions requirements, same tests, same accountability, same public fiscal audits – the very same rules. The bill also includes public school choice with capacity reporting obligations for public schools; the Tim Tebow Act, which allows homeschoolers to participate in public school activities without being subject to the same requirements as public school students; an adolescent literacy initiative; the Mississippi math act; charter school expansion to all school districts; NBCT salary supplements for charter school teachers; a reduction in public school funding formula allocations by removing pre-k students from enrollment counts; an assistant teacher pay raise; and countless other provisions.
Ask your representative to:
VOTE NO on HB 2
VOTE NO on SB 2002
VOTE YES on SB 2001 (teacher pay raise) and 2003 (retired teachers bill)
Capitol Switchboard: 601.359.3770
Find contact information for representatives of your school district
House Speaker White: 601.359.3300
The beauty of public schools is that there are rules in place designed to ensure that every student is treated the same. School choice allows schools to take state funds while using admission denial, tuition, and lack of transportation to keep out students they see as less desirable.
Multiple municipal and school boards have passed resolutions opposing public and private school choice and urging their own legislative delegations, the Mississippi Legislature, and Governor Reeves to oppose any school choice – including public to public, and to instead invest in strengthening ALL public schools.
There are many things our Legislature can do to continue Mississippi’s remarkable progress in student achievement and to strengthen public schools for ALL children. See that list here.
At The Parents’ Campaign, our positions are based on the answer to one simple question: Will this help or harm more children? With “school choice,” it isn’t even close: far, far more children would be harmed by allowing publicly funded schools to pick and choose the students they want to serve.
Please call your representative today and urge a NO vote on HB 2 and SB 2002. Ask others you know to call, as well. Together, we’ve got this!
