JACKSON, Miss.—Students may have an easier time transferring from one public school district to another after the Mississippi Senate passed Senate Bill 2002 on Wednesday morning. Currently, the school a student is leaving could veto the student’s wish to transfer, even if the receiving school district approves the transfer. S.B. 2002 removes that power from the sending school district. Under the new bill, only the receiving district would have to approve the transfer.
Mississippi Sen. Johnny DuPree, D-Hattiesburg, said that students and their families should have to provide a reason for why a student wants to move from one school district to another, such as the students’ current schools not fulfilling their academic needs.
Mississippi Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Macon, presented an amendment to explicitly prohibit school districts from discriminating against students who wish to transfer to them.
“If we believe discrimination is wrong, why don’t we say it in the law?” he asked his peers on the Senate floor on Wednesday.
Sen. Dennis DeBar said he did not support the amendment because the current law already prevents school districts from discriminating against students who wish to attend their schools.
Simmons’ amendment failed. S.B. 2002 passed in the Senate by a 33-19 vote. The bill still needs approval in the House and from the governor to become law.
Teacher Pay Raise Approved
A pay raise for Mississippi public school teachers is one step closer to the governor’s desk after the Mississippi Senate unanimously passed a $2,000 salary increase for K-12, community college and university educators on Wednesday.
If the House approves the legislation and Gov. Tate Reeves signs it into law, it would mark the first time the Legislature approved a teacher-pay raise since 2022.
As the Senate debated the bill this morning, Sen. Juan Barnett, D-Heidelburg, asked Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, how the Legislature can ensure that school boards and institutions of higher learning will spend the money on teachers and teachers’ assistants, not superintendents’ salaries.
“When we pass our appropriations bill this year, you will see that money (is) specifically allocated for teachers and teachers’ assistants,” the Republican chairman responded. “Now, with our college professors, IHL and junior colleges, we’re appropriating a lump sum and that money will be divvied up among the professors under the discretion of the (college president) unless otherwise stated in the appropriations bill.”
But DeBar said his “intent” was to give university and community college professors a $2,000 raise through Senate Bill 2001. The chairman has expressed hope that lawmakers can find enough room to expand the pay raise to $5,000 later in the session.
Cash Influx to Retirement System
Mississippi’s Public Employees’ Retirement System may soon get a one-time deposit of $500 million to its employers’ accumulation account to help pay off its $26 billion unfunded liability after the Mississippi Senate passed legislation to direct Capital Expense funds to the account.
Senate Bill 2004 directs the state treasurer to issue the $500 million payment on July 1, 2026, while also giving deposits of $50 million to PERS starting July 1, 2027, and ending July 1, 2036. In total, the Legislature would delegate $1 billion to PERS over the next 10 years.
“We have reformed and we promised we’d give money when we reformed,” Mississippi Sen. Daniel Sparks, R-Belmont, said on the Senate floor as he acknowledged that he would introduce more legislation regarding PERS throughout the legislative session.
He has repeatedly noted during the 2025 and 2026 legislative sessions that PERS is underfunded by $26 billion.
Mississippi Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, expressed concerns that the Senate is moving through the legislative process “too fast” when it comes to PERS, as the body passed the bill on the second day of the 2026 legislative session. The retirement system does need money, but he said he wondered why the Senate would allocate money to PERS using Capital Expense funds instead of diversions from taxes.
The Senate unanimously passed S.B. 2004 on Wednesday morning.
Bringing More Retirees to the Classroom
Any members of the Public Employees’ Retirement System who retired from working for the State of Mississippi, whether as an educator or not, may soon be able to work in the classroom to help with Mississippi’s teacher shortage and draw a salary even while receiving PERS benefits under Senate Bill 2003.
Sen. Hob Bryan again shared his concerns about making changes to the Public Employees’ Retirement System without consulting its board.
“Once again, instead of looking at all of the retirement system issues at one time in terms of impact to the retirement system,” he said on the Senate floor on Wednesday, “all the discussion about this has been, ‘This is a good thing for education.’ Maybe it is, but it comes at the cost of the retirement system that y’all are all telling me is in terrible shape—so bad that you essentially voted to end the retirement system last year. And now you’re awarding out of the same pot of money more benefits.”
Bryan and Sen. Angela Turner-Ford, D-West Point, were the only two senators who voted against S.B. 2003, which passed in the Senate and now heads over to the Mississippi House for consideration.