This afternoon, the House Education and Appropriations Committees passed HB 1126, calling for a $5,000 across-the-board teacher pay raise and an additional $3,000 increase for special education teachers who are teaching in the special education field in a public school. HB 1126 now will go to the full House for a vote.
In other big news, the Senate Education Committee late this afternoon defeated HB 2 on a unanimous voice vote! Not a single committee member voted in favor of the bill. Thank you for your many calls to the Capitol, sharing our posts, creating your own social media posts, alerting your neighbors – all of which helped bring about the demise of this massive voucher bill. Be sure to thank the members of the Senate Education Committee and the House members who voted no on this dangerous and widely condemned legislation.
While it is exceedingly good news that both chambers have passed teacher pay raise bills – and that the House version meets the minimum $5,000 increase many education advocates have urged – the House committee substitute version of the bill also includes a number of provisions unrelated to teacher salaries, provisions we believe should be dealt with in separate legislation. See the description of the bill provided to committee members (the very large committee substitute was not able to be printed in time for the committee meeting).
Other bills that survived today’s deadline and await House votes:
• HB 1234 – School accountability dashboard – Creates new accountability “dashboards” on which public schools would be required to publish monthly detailed financial and academic data, adding new layers of accountability for public schools while publicly-funded private schools are explicitly protected from any public scrutiny or accountability. VOTE NO
• HB 1606 – Excellence for All Pilot Program – Attempts to mitigate the teacher shortage by improving teacher retention; directs MDE to provide a career ladder for teachers and provide additional supports and incentives in pilot districts. VOTE YES
• SB 2001 – Teacher pay raise – Provides for a $2,000 across-the-board increase. AMEND (to increase to $5,000 minimum across-the-board raise) AND VOTE YES
• 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 to and from school. VOTE NO
• SB 2003 – Retirees return to classroom – Expands incentives for retirees to return to teaching while receiving PERS benefits. VOTE YES
Bills awaiting Senate votes:
• SB 2242 – Mississippi Math Act – Provides pilot program to identify and provide interventions for students struggling in math and supports for math teachers in grades K-5. VOTE YES
• 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 allow further work) AND VOTE YES
Ask your senator to
VOTE YES:
SB 2242 (Math Act)
SB 2487 (expand literacy support to middle grades – amend to allow further work)
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann: 601.359.3200
Ask your representative to
VOTE NO:
HB 1234 (increases accountability reporting for public schools)
SB 2002 (public school choice)
VOTE YES:
HB 1126 ($5,000 teacher pay raise, $3,000 additional supplement for SPED teachers – amend to add an increase in assistant teacher pay and remove unrelated provisions)
HB 1606 (teacher career ladder, addresses teacher shortage)
SB 2001 (teacher & assistant teacher pay – amend to minimum $5,000 teacher pay raise)
SB 2003 (improves retired teacher incentives to return to classroom)
House Speaker Jason White: 601.359.3300
Capitol Switchboard: 601.359.3770
Find contact information for legislators who represent your school district
You can follow the status updates for each of these bills on the Bill Tracker page of our website. If you would like to call all legislators who represent a portion of your school district, you can find their names and contact information here. Please urge others in your community to call, as well.
Pay close attention to your representative’s vote on HB 1234, the bill requiring additional accountability reporting for public schools. Remember that 61 House members voted to send private schools the same base cost funding that public schools get while explicitly protecting private schools from any public financial or academic accountability or public scrutiny at all. We promise to keep you posted on that vote.
We also continue to watch these bills of concern on which have not yet taken a position:
- HB 1292 – The committee substitute requires that all school boards be elected, removing the ability of municipal school districts to have appointed school board members; requires that municipal school board elections be held at the time of either gubernatorial or presidential elections; makes provisions for the recall of an elected school board member by petition of 30% of the county electorate and with the governor’s approval of the petition. Numerous parents in municipal districts have reached out to us in the past to express opposition to changing their boards from appointed to elected, as many of their best school board members have been deeply committed, hard-working parents or business leaders who are willing to serve but unwilling to engage in a political campaign. All of Mississippi’s top-5-rated school districts and 8 of our top-10-rated school districts are municipal districts with appointed boards.
- HB 517 – The committee substitute as it passed the House Education Committee brings forward the charter school code sections for possible amendments. The bill as originally introduced reduced accountability for charter schools, provided for multiple authorizers (allowing those proposing to open new charter schools to “shop” for the most lenient authorizer), permitted virtual charter schools, and otherwise reduced accountability for charter schools (note: all but one of Mississippi’s existing charter schools currently are rated either D or F). We will continue to watch this bill for any amendments that expand or reduce accountability for charter schools.
Please make sure your legislators know where you stand on these important bills, and, if they are voting for bills that are hostile to public schools, please start looking now for candidates to replace them. The qualifying deadline for the 2027 election is less than a year away.
Keep calling your legislators and watching your email inbox. We promise to keep you posted on how these bills progress and how your legislators vote. Together, we’ve got this!
