Category: Early Education

Editor’s Note: This post is one in an ongoing series of posts dedicated to early education policy in Mississippi. *** By Micayla Tatum I Director of Early Childhood Policy  A lack of wage parity is a longstanding issue in the early childhood profession. Childcare teachers, Head Start teachers, and public pre-K teachers have vastly different salaries and access…

By Micayla Tatum I Director of Early Childhood Policy  After four legislative sessions, we are excited to announce that our bill to permanently raise the per-pupil funding rate, HB 817, passed! The Governor signed the bill into law on April 17. This bill increases the state share of per-pupil pre-K funds from $2,150 to a…

Editor’s Note: This post is one in an ongoing series of posts dedicated to early education policy in Mississippi. *** By Micayla Tatum I Director of Early Childhood Policy  The educator pipeline crisis, which Mississippi First has researched extensively, also affects childcare centers, Head Start, and public school pre-K programs. In short, finding early childhood teachers is as…

Editor’s Note: This post is the first in an ongoing series of posts dedicated to early education policy in Mississippi. *** By Micayla Tatum I Director of Early Childhood Policy  This past summer, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Mississippi First, and other partners convened early childhood providers and advocates with the goal of centering provider voices…

Brief #4: Access to Pre-K, 2017-2018 This is the fourth and final brief in the State of Pre-K Series. The 2021 pre-K briefs as a whole provide strong evidence that the collaborative program is the path to expanding quality pre-K statewide. Today, we are releasing the fourth and final brief of the series. The fourth…

The 2022 legislative session was a wild ride for pre-K. Our bill to permanently change the per-pupil funding rate, HB 1246, died late in the session due to unrelated politics. This bill would have increased the state share of per-pupil pre-K funds from $2,150 to $2,500 per child—an increase of $350 per child in state…

On February 4, 2022, The Mississippi Department of Education released the RFP for Early Learning Collaborative Council Pre-Kindergarten Application Cohort IV Round III. Below, we have pulled out important details from the RPF including important dates and deadlines. Questions concerning the RFP should be sent to Dr. Jill Dent @ jdent@mdek12.org. Informational Webinar The MDE…