Senate to debate $5K teacher pay raise amid flurry of ed bills

A proposed $5,000 across-the-board teacher pay raise is headed for the Senate, marking a significant step in ongoing efforts to boost educator compensation in Mississippi. The bill, HB 1126, passed by the House last week, also includes an additional $3,000 increase for special-education teachers working in public schools.

The legislation does not currently include a pay raise for assistant teachers and contains several provisions unrelated to teacher salaries, which some observers have said could complicate its path through the legislative process.

The Mississippi Professional Educators noted that HB 1126 is not “a stand-alone pay raise bill” but includes “numerous other issues, including PERS eligibility retirement provisions, the sections of state law governing the Mississippi Student Funding Formula, school attendance officers, superintendents’ salaries” as well as funding for teacher recruitment incentives in low-performing districts. Education advocates have raised concerns that bundling unrelated provisions with the pay raise could complicate the bill’s path through the legislative process.

A long, contentious history

The fight over teacher pay in Mississippi stretches back decades, woven into the state’s broader struggles over education funding, racial equity and political will.

When state Rep. Robert Clark became chair of the House Education Committee in 1978—the first Black committee chairman in the Mississippi Legislature in modern times—teacher compensation was already a defining issue.

Mississippi’s teacher pay lagged behind every neighboring state. Clark, working with the Mississippi Association of Educators, shepherded a teacher salary bill through the House that year, winning a 119-0 vote on a measure that added $500 to base pay and tied raises to degree level and experience. It was a modest gain in a state that had chronically underfunded its public schools, but it established a pattern: Teacher pay would advance only through sustained political pressure, often against fierce resistance to the tax increases needed to fund it.

The passage of the Education Reform Act of 1982 under Gov. William Winter represented the most sweeping education overhaul in the state’s history. The act established public kindergartens, created a compulsory attendance law, and set new standards for teacher certification. It also included a provision suggesting that teacher salaries should “to the extent possible” reach the average of the southeastern states. That aspirational clause would have consequences its authors may not have fully anticipated.

By 1985, with teacher pay still the lowest in the nation and lawmakers having failed to close the gap with the southeastern average, frustration boiled over. In February of that year, teachers in south Mississippi launched a wildcat strike—the first in the state’s history. What began with several hundred teachers in Jones, Covington, Lamar and Forrest counties spread across the state. At its peak, more than 9,000 of Mississippi’s 27,000 teachers had walked off the job, affecting more than 175,000 students in 58 school districts. Teachers were averaging $15,971 a year and demanding a $3,500 raise in each of the next two years to reach the southeastern average of roughly $19,684.

The strike unfolded in defiance of a court restraining order. Teachers picketed knowing they risked their careers. Gov. Bill Allain vetoed the resulting pay package, but the legislature overrode his veto by votes of 46-3 in the Senate and 104-16 in the House, approving a three-year, $4,400 raise funded through a mix of tax increases on alcohol, cigarettes, soft drinks and other goods. The victory came at a cost: The 1985 pay package included an anti-strike clause that automatically terminated any teacher who participated in a future walkout — a provision that remains in state law.

The decades that followed brought periodic raises, each one hard-fought. Gov. Ray Mabus in 1988 signed a pay raise that boosted average teacher pay by roughly $3,700—more than $8,000 adjusted for inflation. Gov. Kirk Fordice approved a three-year raise starting in 1997. Under Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, the legislature passed a multi-year, $338 million pay package in 2000 that increased average teacher pay from about $31,892 to $41,445 when fully implemented in 2005—a 30 percent increase.

After Republicans took control of both legislative chambers, the pace slowed. A $2,500 raise was spread over two years starting in 2014. A $1,500 raise followed in 2019, and a roughly $1,000 raise in 2021. Each time, educators and advocates argued the amounts were insufficient to address the state’s persistent ranking near the bottom nationally.

In 2022, the legislature passed what was billed as the largest teacher pay raise in state history—the START Act, providing an average increase of $5,140 at a cost of $246 million annually. Starting teacher pay rose from $37,123 to $41,638, putting Mississippi above the southeastern and national averages for entry-level salaries. The bill also included a $2,000 raise for assistant teachers. Within two years, however, inflation and rising health insurance premiums had eroded much of the raise’s impact, according to a Mississippi First teacher survey.

In 2026, the cycle continues. The House-passed $5,000 raise in HB 1126 would represent another significant investment, though the bill’s exclusion of assistant teachers marks a departure from the 2022 package. The competing Senate measure, SB 2001, proposes a smaller $2,000 raise but includes assistant teachers in its scope—a trade-off that will likely be negotiated as the bills move through the legislative process.

Additional education bills pending in both chambers

Several other education-related bills remain under consideration.

The Senate passed SB 2242, the Mississippi Math Act, which would establish a pilot program aimed at identifying students in grades K-5 who are struggling in math and providing them with targeted interventions. The bill also includes supports for math teachers in those grade levels. SB 2242 now moves to the House.

In the House, pending bills include HB 1234, which would create new accountability “dashboards” requiring public schools to publish detailed financial and academic data on a monthly basis. The bill has drawn attention for the contrast between its requirements for public schools and its explicit protections from similar scrutiny for publicly funded private schools.

HB 1606, the Excellence for All Pilot Program, seeks to address the state’s teacher shortage by improving retention through a career ladder system and additional supports and incentives in pilot districts.

SB 2001, a Senate-originated teacher pay measure now awaiting House action, proposes a $2,000 across-the-board salary increase for both teachers and assistant teachers—a smaller raise than the House-passed bill but one that includes assistant teachers.

SB 2002, a public school choice bill, would allow public schools to accept out-of-district students, though participation would be limited to students who can provide their own transportation.

SB 2003 would expand incentives for retired teachers to return to the classroom while continuing to receive Public Employees’ Retirement System benefits.

In the Senate, SB 2487 would expand literacy support to students in grades 4-8, building on the state’s existing early literacy initiatives. The adolescent literacy bill is designed to extend reading interventions to middle school students. The measure is still awaiting a Senate vote.

The various education bills reflect a legislative session in which teacher compensation, school accountability and student academic support have emerged as central priorities for Mississippi lawmakers—priorities that, as the historical record shows, the state has grappled with for generations.

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Image: Mississippi State Capitol (R.L. Nave)