Senate Bill 2444: Teacher Pay

February 3, 2022August 16, 2022 Bill Tracker

Senate Bill 2444 would adjust the salary schedule for Mississippi public school teachers to provide a raise of at least $3,000 over two years, depending on a teacher’s years of experience and highest degree held. The starting salary for a Class A (bachelor’s degree level) teacher would increase from $37,000 to $40,000 over two years. Because teachers with additional years of experience and/or more advanced degrees would earn higher pay raises under SB 2444, the average raise is estimated to be $4,700. 

SB 2444 is one of two plans to provide a substantial pay raise for Mississippi public school teachers, the other being House Bill 530. You can read a detailed analysis of the differences between the House and Senate plans here.

The extent of pay raises under SB 2444 would range dramatically by licensure level and years of experience. Because of the way the proposed salary schedule is designed (refer to the Senate/House proposal analysis for more information), the most generous raises under SB 2444 would go to Class A teachers late in their career. For instance, a Class A teacher with 24 years of experience would earn a raise of $7,520 compared to the starting salary increase of $3,000. The pay raises for Class AAAA (PhD level) teachers with 0-13 years of experience would also be quite generous (over $6,000), while pay raises for Class AA teachers would generally lag behind other licensure levels.

SB 2444 calls for a two-year phase-in of the salary schedule, with an initial adjustment (and partial raise) in 2022-2023, followed by an across-the-board raise of $1,000 in 2023-2024. The salary schedule adjustments would cost an additional $166 million in 2022-2023, and an additional $210 million each year thereafter. 

With an average overall salary of $46,843 for Mississippi teachers in 2019-2020, SB 2444 would push this figure to roughly $52,500 (factoring in the $1,000-$1,100 raise passed in 2021). The average overall salary for Mississippi teachers would still lag behind the regional average ($55,205 in 2019-2020), but the increase would still represent a substantial raise, and make Mississippi more competitive with neighboring states who also lag behind the regional average. Particularly because the salary schedule under SB 2444 would become more generous with additional years of experience, this proposal would likely be beneficial to retaining veteran teachers—a logical priority given the looming threat of teacher attrition.

The differences between the current salary schedule and the schedule outlined in SB 2444 are as follows:

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On February 2, SB 2444 unanimously passed the Senate. It will now be transmitted to the House, where the House Appropriations Committee and House Education Committee will be expected to take action on it in the coming weeks.

Updates
3/1/22 Update:
The House declined to take action on SB 2444 by the March 1 deadline, causing this bill to die in committee.