The Mississippi Legislature continued with their third week of the 2022 session. On Thursday, January 20, the Senate Education Committee held a meeting in which they discussed and passed four different bills. The first of those bills was SB 2444 which is the Senate’s teacher pay raise bill. Chairman DeBar stated that one of the goals of this pay raise was to give teachers across the state incentives to both join the profession and to remain in the profession. The Chairman said that during his listening tour in the fall of 2021, teachers from across the state expressed the need for a variety of teacher incentives. The Senate acknowledged that teacher pay for those teachers with under 25 years of experience is far below the southeastern average. Because of this, the plan under SB 2444 is frontloaded with large step increases up to 25 years in order to rectify this problem. In this bill, the step increase at 25 years of experience was increased to $2,500 for all teachers. This is the only change between the Senate’s plan announced last week and SB 2444.

The second bill that was taken up by the committee was SB 2422. This bill alters the deadline on teacher procurement cards in order to get the supply cards into teacher’s hands at an earlier date while allowing those cards to be used for a longer period of time. Senate Bill 2422 states that all teachers shall receive their procurement cards before September 1st of each year and that those cards would not expire before May 1st of each year. Chairman DeBar stated that this bill originated from additional feedback from his listening tour.

The last two bills that the committee addressed were SB 2424 and SB 2113. Senate Bill 2424 would allow for teachers to be paid bimonthly instead of only once per month. The payment method under this bill would not be mandatory but would instead be an option that school districts could utilize at their discretion. It would be up to local school boards and superintendents on whether they wanted to move from monthly to bimonthly payments. Senate Bill 2113 is an act to prohibit the teaching of critical race theory in all institutions of higher learning, school districts, and charter schools in the state. 

Governor Reeves’ State of the State address was originally scheduled for this week; however, it was rescheduled for next Tuesday, January 25, at 4:00 p.m. on the steps of the Capitol building. During this address, the Governor will outline his priorities for 2022. This past November, Governor Reeves highlighted some of the key priorities of his administration including improving education and raising teacher pay, investing in infrastructure, and eliminating the income tax. Governor Reeves’ is expected to expand on these priorities and others while addressing legislation that is already working its way through the system. This will be Governor Reeves’ second State of the State address.

MSBA’s Day at the Capitol has been postponed until further notice.