Tonight was the deadline for committees to pass general bills that originated in the other chamber. House Education nor Senate Education met again before tonight’s deadline, so 18 Senate bills that had been referred to House Education died on the calendar, as did 15 House bills that had been referred to Senate Education. Both of the following teacher pay raise bills died with tonight’s deadline:
HB 1126 provided a $5,000 teacher pay raise and an additional $3,000 annual salary increase for licensed SPED teachers who are employed in a special education instructional capacity.
SB 2001 provided a $2,000 pay raise for teachers and increased the minimum annual salary for assistant teachers from $17,000 to $19,000, SB 2002 also expressed the legislature’s intent that community college and university professors receive a $2,000 pay raise.
Even though both bills have died, it is possible that other mechanisms could be utilized to pass a pay raise bill this session. Please contact your representative and senator to urge them to put politics aside and pass a pay raise for teachers and assistant teachers. You may contact the legislative leadership at the following:
Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann – 601-359-3200
Speaker of the House Jason White – 601-359-3300
Leave a message for any legislator with the capitol switchboard – 601-359-3770
The following education bills are among those that officially died with tonight’s deadline:
HB 2 provided vouchers for private school tuition and to homeschoolers.
HB 1035 required a computer science course for graduation.
HB 1207 provided an additional five hold harmless days for those districts impacted by Winter Storm Fern.
HB 1234, the School Accountability Dashboard Act, required districts to report a litany of performance and financial accountability measures via their websites.
SB 2022 amended current law to allow a student to transfer to another public school district with approval only from the receiving school district, rather than both the releasing and receiving districts as required by current law.
SB 2072 required EEF cards to be issued by July 15 rather than August 1.
SB 2099 required districts to adopt policies prohibiting or restricting students’ cell phones in class.
SB 2293 increased the Mississippi Student Funding Formula’s weight and multiplier for Gifted Education and included grades 7 and 8 in the CTE weight.
All of the PERS bills we have been tracking also died, including those that provided a direct monetary infusion into PERS and those that tweaked Tier 5 provisions. MPE's bill tracking spreadsheet this Friday, March 6, will reflect the latest status of all those bills we have been monitoring.
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