toren ballard

By Toren Ballard I Director of K-12 Policy


This week, the Senate Education Committee hosted hearings on the teacher pay raise. We submitted public comment which included three strategies.

Strategy #1: Provide a $3,300 across-the-board teacher pay raise over three years

Governor Tate Reeves has proposed an immediate $1,300 bump to the teacher salary schedule in the 2022 legislative session as well as a pair of $1,000 raises in the next two fiscal years. We fully endorse this proposal, which, building off the raise legislators provided earlier this year, would likely put the average teacher salary in Mississippi above $51,000 by the 2024-2025 school year. While legislators should consider how regional states—many of which currently have average salaries around $51,000—will also work to remain competitive, there are some clear, immediate benefits to raising teacher pay in this manner:

  • Incentive for new teachers to come to Mississippi: Depending on the rate of salary increases across the region, the starting salary for Mississippi teachers could surpass the Southeastern average as early as the 2023-2024 school year.
  • Competitive pay across professions: The average Mississippi teacher would finally earn more than the average Mississippian with “some college” or the average Mississippian with an associate’s degree.
  • A higher standard of living: The average Mississippi teacher with student debt would earn a living wage sufficient to support a child as a single adult.
  • Protection from inflation: The inflation-adjusted value of a teacher salary would begin to rise for the first time since the Great Recession.

Strategy #2: Establish a $3,000 stipend for all teachers in critical shortage areas

Key to understanding Mississippi’s critical teacher shortage is the fact that not all districts are experiencing it. We need to boost the overall supply of teachers, but we also need to incentivize employment specifically where it is most needed: in critical shortage districts. Targeting resources in this way offers a cost-effective strategy that will pay immediate dividends:

  • Teachers where we need them: A stipend of $3,000 (worth 8% of a starting teacher’s salary) would be a powerful incentive to move to the highest-need districts.
  • Cheaper than a commensurate across-the-board raise: Classifying this compensation as a stipend would save millions of dollars in benefits payments, while restricting eligibility to teachers in critical shortage areas would cut down on the number of annual recipients.

Strategy #3: Revamp the Critical Teacher Shortage Act to offer undergraduate teacher candidates grants and loan repayment assistance

One of the reasons compensation is so important to the teaching profession is that becoming a teacher is an increasingly expensive endeavor, one that often leaves teachers saddled with excessive student loan debt well into their career. There is also compelling evidence that the rising cost of college has become more of a deterrent to becoming a teacher than the prospect of low wages. Offering a one-two punch of undergraduate grants and loan repayment assistance to eligible teacher candidates can be a compelling bargain:

  • Incentive to enter educator preparation: Offering grants worth up to 50% of a Mississippi public university undergraduate’s annual tuition would be a powerful front-end incentive for students who want to teach but are skeptical of long-term earnings.
  • Incentive to teach where we need them: After incentivizing entrance into an educator preparation program, offering a back-end incentive to teach in a critical shortage area for loan repayment assistance ensures that recipients remain in our state’s educator pipeline and become employed where they are most needed.
  • Lower student debt: Participants in this program would enter the classroom with substantially less debt than they would have accrued otherwise; this financial freedom may make it easier to stay in Mississippi classrooms where they are most needed.
  • Available funds for a pilot: A two-year pilot program offering $8,000 grants and subsequent loan repayment assistance to two successive cohorts of 100 teacher candidates would cost about $3 million over two years; there is more than enough money remaining in the Mississippi Works Training Fund to fund this pilot. Lottery funds could also be used for a pilot.

Comments

  1. 1
    Tim Carter on September 15, 2021

    It is critical that you do not just focus on the entering teacher. We know teachers leave in that 1-5 year timeframe and there are also many veteran teachers who have been loyal to Mississippi. Across the board should be priority one.

    1. 2
      mhines on September 16, 2021

      Retaining high-quality veteran teachers is critical to allowing all Mississippi students to access excellent public schools. We wholeheartedly agree that providing an across-the-board raise to all teachers should be a priority for the Legislature.

  2. 3
    Ang Anderson on September 16, 2021

    Thank you, this is a great start to establishing a competitive wage and teacher retention for Mississippi teachers.

  3. 4
    Katryna McIntyre on October 21, 2021

    Oct 21, 2021

    I was so encouraged to learn of ‘Mississippi First’ and its efforts to make education a priority for the people in the beautiful Magnolia State. *1) The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of God is understanding. Proverbs 9:10; and 2) For the Lord God is a sun and shield and He bestows favor and honor;
    no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. Psalm 84:11

    His Blessings,
    Katryna Marie McIntyre
    (children: Candace, Troy, Jason)

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