Negotiations pending between $1,000 Senate pay hike, $4,000 House proposal
Members of Marion County’s legislative delegation say they support increasing teacher pay and will wait and see the results of a compromise between different amounts in the Mississippi House and Senate.
Senate Bill 2770 would give a $1,000 total increase phased in at $500 per year over two years, but the House passed an amended version Monday that would give a $4,000 total increase phased in at $2,000 per year over two years.
State Rep. Ken Morgan, R-Morgantown, and State Sen. Angela Hill, R-Picayune, both said this week they expect it to go to a conference committee, where delegations from the House and Senate would meet together to try and work out a compromise.
“Everybody as far as I know is in favor of trying to increase teachers’ salaries. They’re due an increase no doubt. It’s something that needs to be done. We’re losing teachers,” Morgan said.
“My son-in-law is a public school teacher, and my sister is a public school teacher, and they definitely need to get to the Southeast average. Whatever is in front of me, I will vote for,” Hill said.
Mississippi has the lowest starting pay for teachers in the nation at $34,390 for a first-year educator. Teachers automatically get pay increases with each year of experience based on a standard pay schedule and can make up to $67,370 at the highest levels (35-plus years of experience and advanced certifications). The average teacher made $44,926 in 2017-2018, according to the state superintendent’s annual report as reported by Mississippi Today.
Some districts supplement teacher pay using local tax dollars.
The issue, according to Hill, is that a $1,000 teacher raise equates to $50 million out of the state budget. She said the legislative leadership will have to find $200 million out of the budget to pass the House amendment, which state Rep. Steve Holland, D-Plantersville, proposed and got passed Monday.
Hill said her plan would be to increase $1,000 per year until Mississippi reached the Southeast average for teacher pay. Hill said the national average for starting teacher pay is $38,700, and the Southeast average is around $37,000.
She said she’s discussed that plan with Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, who is running for lieutenant governor (which presides over the Senate), and she said Hosemann felt like it was a good idea.
She noted that the legislature previously passed a $2,500 teacher pay increase in 2015 and 2016.
This year Morgan said the House’s original plan was to go from the $1,000 raise the Senate proposed to a $2,000 raise, which is what the House Education Committee passed. Then both sides would meet together to work out the differences.
But he said “some Democrats wanted to jump the gun and strut their stuff” by increasing it to $4,000. Morgan said sending that much of an increase back to the Senate, though, is a good way to get the bill killed. Morgan voted for the overall bill and the House Education Committee amendment to make it a $2,000 raise but not for Holland’s amendment to make it a $4,000 raise.
Hill said a raise, in whatever form it takes, is “absolutely necessary for recruitment and retention because of the few numbers of graduates we have as far as 10 years ago.”
She said the state also needs to adopt universal acceptance of teacher certification from other states. As it is now, certified teachers from other states who move to Mississippi have to take the PRAXIS exam, which Hill said is a barrier to professionals moving here in a state that is losing people already.
