Staff and cheerleaders from Jackson Public School’s Callaway School Zone swirled and slid across the floor of the Mississippi Coliseum. The staff executed the complicated line dance to Tamia’s “Can’t Get Enough.” After several minutes of performing in front of JPS faculty and staff, they clapped and cheered their way back to the green bleacher seats.
Before long each of the district’s seven feeder patterns performed a popular line dance during the dance battle, and the cheerleaders were leading each group in call-and-response cheers for their high school. The friendly competition on Aug. 4 was part of Jackson Public Schools 2024-2025 annual convocation, a family reunion-themed celebration that included cheers, dances and music..
“It was the official launch of the school year, welcoming all of our team members back. We have very, very few opportunities to bring all of our JPS team members together in one place,” Superintendent Dr. Errick L. Greene told the Mississippi Free Press on Aug. 2. “… It’s important as a team and as a community. There’s all the energy from folks having had some level of a break over the summer. So we’re coming back. We’re seeing our people again. The theme this year was the JPS Family Reunion, so just promoting (the idea that) we are a family.”
Jackson Public School faculty and staff had a lot to celebrate. On July 16, the district announced a significant pay increase for teachers and staff for the 2024-2025 school year. The district increased its local supplement by $5,000 for teachers with zero to 20 years of service, $5,250 for teachers with 21 to 30 years of service, and $5,500 for teachers with more than 31 years of service. The JPS Board of Trustees also approved hourly wages for classified staff with a minimum raise of $2 per hour. The district also increased skilled laborers’ pay by $7 per hour.
“I’m very excited to provide such significant salary increases for JPS team members,” Greene said in a July 16 press release. “As we continue to strive for excellence in education, and to hold ourselves to even higher standards of service and outcomes for scholars, it is imperative that we pay our people competitive wages. We must treat them with respect, and one of the clearest demonstrations of that respect is in the way that we compensate them.”
The increase was made possible in part by $18 million in additional revenue that the district received after the Mississippi Legislature adopted a new funding formula. The Mississippi Student Funding Formula became law on July 1, replacing the old formula, the Mississippi Adequate Education Program. The Legislature enacted it in 1997 and only fully funded it twice in its 27 years. The new formula provided an additional $218 million in funding to the state’s public schools, resulting in several school districts receiving an influx of additional cash. It also prevented any school district from receiving less state funding in fiscal years 2025, 2026 and 2027 than it received in 2024. The bill passed unanimously in the Mississippi House and only three Mississippi Senators voted against it.
“We are grateful to the Legislature for recognizing the need to increase school funding,” JPS Chief Operations Officer Earl Burke said in the press release. “These additional dollars will directly enhance the quality of instruction and service in our District.”
Superintendent: ‘It’s Important to Me That People Feel Valued’
Jackson Public Schools allocated $13.5 million of the additional funds toward salaries. The district is using the rest of the funding, along with money the district has saved through its optimization plan, to restructure its debt, increase the budget for building maintenance, assist with rising utility and fuel costs, and cover property- and health-insurance premiums.
District officials said the “increased local supplement positions JPS teachers as the highest-paid in the Jackson metropolitan area.” Greene said the decision to use the additional funds to increase teacher salaries was an easy one.
“It’s important to me that people feel valued and that people have what they need to maintain their homes and their families,” Greene said.
Legislators say the formula provides more financial resources to districts in high-poverty areas without a substantial tax base. The Jackson Public School District received the highest funding increase. The district, which is located in Mississippi’s largest city, educates a population that is approximately 96% Black with 99% of its students qualifying for free and reduced lunch. Census data from 2022 showed the city’s median household income at $41,820 and a poverty rate of 30%.
The additional funds came at a time when JPS was already finding ways to optimize the district’s money. The district has been experiencing declining enrollment for more than a decade. Jackson is home to several independent schools and a growing charter school system. That decline strained the district’s budget.
Jackson Public Schools was able to patch things together during the pandemic using COVID-relief funds, Greene said. But with those funds set to run out this fall, JPS found itself looking for ways to save money.
“We, like everybody else in the country, are going to see a funding cliff, and we’ve got to do something about it before we get to the cliff so (that) we don’t go over and find ourselves in a deficit,” Greene told the Mississippi Free Press on Aug 2.
‘It Will Help Our Impoverished Districts’
Legislators said the new formula also focuses on students who are more expensive to educate. The formula sets the base student cost or the cost to fund a student’s education at $6,995. It is based on an objective student cost formula consisting of instructional, administrative, ancillary personnel/expenses, and operations/maintenance components. The MSFF provides additional funding for sparsely-populated districts, English language learners, special education, gifted programs, low-income students and career technical education. The new formula is recalculated every four years beginning in fiscal year 2029 and includes an inflation adjustment for the years between calculations.
“It costs more to educate scholars who have more needs. That’s true. That’s physical needs, emotional needs, behavioral needs (and) academic needs,” Greene said. “… They need additional resources, and that isn’t just food or uniforms.”
Mississippi Association of Educators President Erica Jones said the new formula provides critical funding for districts in dire need of resources like JPS.
“MAE is ecstatic that our legislators listened and worked to develop a funding formula that would benefit students across Mississippi,” Jones told the Mississippi Free Press on May 15. “MAE advocated to get this bill passed. We believe this formula will result in full funding for years to come. We especially believe that it will help our impoverished districts.”
The legislation includes the components of a new formula established in a joint letter from education associations such as MAE and the Parent’s Campaign to the legislative leaders at the start of the 2024 session. One major change with the new Mississippi Student Funding Formula is that the funding is now based on student enrollment, not average daily attendance as with MAEP.
Parents Campaign Executive Director Nancy Loome said although she is excited to see the increased commitment to funding public schools, the new formula is not without issues. The 354-page bill was introduced and passed by both chambers in less than 24 hours. Loome said that the rush left no real time for vetting or review.
“Our concerns are that it was developed at the end of the legislative session, kind of in a rush without public hearings and without a very public process,” Loome said on May 21. “We didn’t have a lot of impact data run by the Department of Education, so we’re a little concerned about unintended consequences and unforeseen consequences.”
Loome said the Legislature added a provision requiring the Mississippi Department of Education to review the formula and present technical amendment recommendations to the Legislature by Nov. 1. She is hopeful that the review may catch any major flaws.
‘Imagine What They Can Do When They Get the Resources’
Superintendent Greene said that the additional funding has the potential to affect teacher recruitment and retention and, in turn, student outcomes.
“We’re expecting one that those teachers and other team members who we have, see JPS as a place where they can remain and provide for their families and meet their needs personally, but as well that those who are not with us and might be looking for a new role or a new place to work and collaborate—that they would see us as a viable option,” he said on Aug 2.
With the state’s progress in literacy education, Loome said that the additional money flowing into districts could give the state an even bigger boost.
“Our teachers and students have done really amazing work particularly compared to other states,” she said. “Our proficiency rates are improving faster than proficiency rates and other states. We are nowhere near the bottom rankings of national test scores in reading and math. So that’s very good news. And they’ve done those things with underfunding, so imagine what they can do when they get the resources.”
Some Districts Lost Funds
Despite the new funding formula, some school districts are finding themselves still struggling. West Tallahatchie School District in Tallahatchie County is one of a few districts that would have received less funding under the new formula due to low enrollment. Due to a hold harmless clause, the district received about the same amount of state dollars as last year. However, the district received $90,000 less in federal funding. As a result, the district had to make cuts to staff.
“We reduced the number of assistants we had this year,” West Tallahatchie School District Superintendent Sherry Ellington told the Mississippi Free Press on Aug. 23. “We had some classes that did not have a full load, so we did not hire a teacher back because there were too many teachers in a particular subject area.”
Ellington recognizes that the shortage is not due to state funding this year but is looking ahead to the end of the temporary hold harmless provision for fiscal years 2025, 2026, and 2027. The district currently has 441 students enrolled in K-12—less than last school year. Ellington knows the dwindling numbers will mean a reduction in state funds at some point. She is considering adding virtual classes in hopes that increased course offerings will draw students back from the area charter school. She is also conducting home visits to ensure all students in the zone are enrolled in school.
Ellington said she is not entertaining discussions of consolidation. She believes that with the right people and resources, students can thrive in the West Tallahatchie School District. Her goal now is to find avenues to generate additional funds and increase student enrollment.
“I believe in education, and I believe that all children should have the opportunity,” Ellington said. “I’m gonna make sure it gets done. I’m just gonna make sure it gets done.