Governor Tate Reeves has signed the teacher pay raise passed by the Mississippi Legislature.
After it initially appeared that the pay raise for the state’s K-12 educators could get held up in the political process following its inclusion in the House’s income tax proposal, the bill eventually made its way through both chambers of the legislature earlier this month.
“It’s hard to imagine how difficult 2020/21 have been on our state’s educators,” Governor Reeves tweeted. “But so many have stepped up and done what Mississippians do – whatever it took to help MS kids! Today I signed HB852 to provide a much-needed teacher pay raise! Our teachers deserve this – and more!”
The bill provides a $1,000 raise to current teachers while also raising the starting salary for Mississippi teachers to $37,000. The bill will also raise the salary of teacher assistants to $15,000.
A huge thank you to Lt. Gov. @DelbertHosemann, Senator @DebarDennis, Speaker @PhilipGunnMS, Rep. Richard Bennett and all of our legislators for their continued support of Mississippi’s teachers! Now let’s do it again next year!!
— Tate Reeves (@tatereeves) March 29, 2021
This year’s budget includes an over $100 million increase in education funding. This includes the cost of the teacher pay raise which is slightly above $50 million.
