Jackson, Miss. (Clarion Ledger) – After hearing pleas from underpaid teachers for years, Mississippi legislators on Thursday took a first step toward giving them $1,000 raises this year and bringing starting salaries to $37,000.
The Senate Education Committee unanimously passed Senate Bill 2001, which would also bump starting assistant teacher salaries by $1,000, up to $15,000. The legislation — with the backing of leaders including Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann — is expected to reach the full Senate for a vote next week before heading to the House.
“This is a really important step in public education,” Erica Jones, president of the Mississippi Association of Educators, said Thursday. “For years we have felt that we were neglected, and that we weren’t listened to.”
While the raise would be less than the $1,500 increase teachers received last session, this one comes with the pledge of being a starting point for increases over the next three years. Mississippi teachers make the least in the nation, and roughly $5,000 less than their counterparts around the region.
Under the proposal, most teachers would receive a $1,000 raise, though first- and second-year teachers would get about $1,100, to bring their pay to $37,000.
Education Committee Chairman Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, one of the bill’s authors, said the plan is to pass this raise, then study how future pay hikes should be structured to raise Mississippi teacher pay to the regional average.
“I’m not hearing any opposition to this pay raise,” Debar said. “I think it’s a good bill, a good start.”
He said this increase would cost the state $52 million. Legislators would’ve liked to start with a larger raise, he said, but they also must consider salary increases are needed for other state employees, including prison guards.
“I thought it was important to start off with a teacher pay raise,” Hosemann said at a news conference, flanked by several educators. “Mississippi is going to be challenged in our corrections (system), we’ll be challenged in our mental health (system) … but I thought it was important to start, to reach out and show the importance that our teachers receive (a raise).”
Hosemann said he hoped it would be a “quick journey” to bringing teacher pay up to a point where they “do not have to make an economic decision of whether to teach or not.” He said he was not concerned about just reaching the Southeast average, but ensuring that teachers want to stay in the profession and can pay their bills.
Hosemann said other state employees should expect a raise this session, too. He said the state employs more than 1,000 people who work full-time and make less than $20,000.
“Our teachers are our start, but we have other state employees who are woefully, inadequately compensated,” Hosemann said. “We are going to do pay raises for them, from the bottom up.”