How much will Mississippi teachers make from new pay raise bill? Here’s the salary scale.
While both the Mississippi House and Senate agreed that a pay raise for public school teachers was long overdue, coming to Thursday’s agreement was a process that took some area representatives a year to put together.
Rep. Jansen T. Owen (Lamar, Pearl River) joined House Education Committee Chairman Richard Bennett (Long Beach), Rep. Ken McCarty (Hattiesburg) and Rep. Kevin Fleisher (Biloxi) in the effort. The House will vote on HR 530, the Strategically Accelerating the Recruitment and Retention of Teachers Act, Tuesday before sending it to Gov. Tate Reeves to become law.
“I’m proud to see a massive, historic investment in teacher pay on its way to becoming law,” Owen said. “Over a year ago, myself and some of my House colleagues identified a problem facing Mississippi’s education system that we wanted to tackle: recruiting and retaining teachers.”
To that end, the START Act would raise teacher salaries an average of $5,140 in the coming school year. The proposed $250 million bill also makes provisions for a $2,000 raise for teaching assistants, bringing their minimum salary up to $17,000. Schools are not allowed to dismiss a teaching assistant in order to hire licensed teachers, but as an alternative to assistant teachers, they can use the funds to hire additional licensed teachers for kindergarten through third grade.
“The final version of this bill provides an average $5,140 pay raise. In doing so, starting teacher pay is increased to an amount that exceeds both the national and regional averages for starting teacher pay,” Owen said. “This will make Mississippi competitive in recruiting and retaining educational talent for the benefit of our students and the future of the State. This legislation goes even further by rewarding our hardworking teachers who have been in the profession their whole careers with the largest pay raise they’ve ever seen.”
The measure would set a base pay for the state’s educators that rewards teacher experience and their pursuit of higher certifications by increasing the pay scale with each advance. Mississippi educator licenses come in four class levels, from a Class A bachelor’s level license to a Class AAAA license that requires a doctoral degree, according to the Mississippi Department of Education.
Under the START Act, a starting salary would range from $41,500 to $45,500, with each upgrade in classification earning a bump in the base salary of $1,000 to $1,500. Class A licenses would see a yearly $400, except on 5-year anniversaries up to 25 years when raises would be either $1,200 or $2,500. Raises for those holding a Class A license would cap at 35 years of experience, with an annual salary of $60,800.
A teacher with a doctoral degree would have a starting salary of $45,500 and see $600 raises each year, with anniversary raises ranging from $1,350 to $2,500. Raises would cap at 35 years with a salary of $71,400.
The bill also includes the Mississippi Performance-Based Pay (MPBP) plan. In addition to the base pay scale, teachers in Claiborne, Adams, Jefferson, Wilkinson, Amite, Bolivar, Coahoma, Leflore, Quitman, Sharkey, Issaquena, Sunflower, Washington, Holmes, Yazoo and Tallahatchie counties have the opportunity to earn an additional $4,000 a year by acquiring a Master Teacher Certificate from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.
The MPBP plan would also look at the school’s performance on standardized tests. The schools would have to submit a plan showing how each teacher contributes to the improvement of student scores.
If funds are available, each school may also provide an extra $1,000 to teachers who mentor other educators.
This story was originally published March 18, 2022 at 10:24 AM.
