Public education reforms, a teacher pay increase, government accessibility and the Public Employees’ Retirement System are among the issues Mississippi House and Senate leaders are planning to tackle when they return to the Capitol in 2026.
This year, House Speaker Rep. Jason White, R-West, established the House Select Committee on Education Freedom, which he said will look “hard and long” at and study “all aspects of school choice.”
He said he is passionate about allowing students to enroll in public schools outside of their districts because many Mississippi students live in areas with “chronically failing” school districts and that their parents, as taxpayers, should have a say in how their children are educated.
“Our sister states surrounding us here in the South basically have open enrollment. Now, are we ready to go that far? Do we have the votes to go that far? I don’t know that. But it’s time we had a real conversation about what is best for kids and parents and not (the) status quo or what might upset somebody somewhere,” White said at a press conference on May 30.
The House passed legislation that would have allowed students to transfer from one school district to another as long as the school district where the student wants to transfer gives written approval of the student’s decision. Under the bill, the school district would have to approve or deny the transfer within 60 days of the student’s notice; if the school district did not act within 60 days, the student would be considered eligible for transfer.
The Mississippi Senate Education Committee allowed that legislation, House Bill 1435, to die on the March 4 legislative deadline. The House also tried to add language to legalize school district transfers to a Senate bill that would have also allowed school districts to employ their own school attendance officers instead of the Mississippi Department of Education. That bill, Senate Bill 2818, died on the House calendar on a March 12 deadline.
Parents’ Campaign Executive Director Nancy Loome sent out several press releases during the 2025 legislative session that urged lawmakers to kill legislation regarding school-district transfers.
“Nine out of the top ten states for ‘school choice’ have moved backward on national assessments in reading and math, while Mississippi has the most improvement of any state,” she said in a Feb. 4 email to supporters. “School choice is a bad deal for children and a bad deal for taxpayers!”
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, said a school district should not be able to prevent a student from transferring to another one.
“My personal feeling: I think that anybody in an ‘F’ school ought to be able to transfer immediately if they’re not getting educated. I think that they ought to be able to go, and I think the Mississippi government ought to pay whatever gap in expense there is,” he told reporters on May 30.
Standardized Testing, Chronic Absenteeism
The House Select Committee on Educational Freedom in Mississippi will also examine eliminating “red tape” and “administrative responsibilities” for public-school teachers, White said. He also wants his committee to find ways to eliminate standardized tests so that teachers can focus on teaching instead of testing.
A major emphasis of the select committee’s work has been getting the Tim Tebow Act passed. Under it, homeschooled students could participate in public-school extracurricular activities at their local school district with the district’s approval. The House passed the legislation in the 2025 legislative session, but the Senate let it die in committee without a vote.
“Their parents pay local taxes just like everybody else,” White said. “As long as (homeschool students) comply with whatever regulations and rules are on students that do attend public school for their education, … why in the world shouldn’t they be allowed to interact with those kids at their local public school for extracurricular activities?”
Mississippi public schools have a 24% chronic absenteeism rate, which Hosemann said could be solved by adding truancy officers to determine why students are missing class.
The lieutenant governor said he also wants to see more Mississippians get a college education, whether they seek a two-year degree or a four-year degree. He said implementing “last dollar tuition” for community colleges would help educate students to work “high-demand jobs” without burnout.
The Senate passed legislation this year to give tuition assistance to community college students who are from Mississippi and meet a minimum requirement of a 2.5 GPA, along with other criteria. That bill, Senate Bill 2527, died in the House Appropriations A Committee on a March 4 deadline. Hosemann said he hopes to revive the legislation in the 2026 legislative session.
Hosemann: It’s Time to Significantly Increase Teacher Pay Again
Lt. Gov. Hosemann wants the state to continue its “education momentum” by significantly increasing teacher pay and bringing retired teachers back to schools. He said now that Mississippi is 35th in education, he is aiming to get the state in the top 10.
“Without an educated workforce, our Mississippi momentum will not continue. And the way to do that is (to) have our teachers, our retired teachers come back to work and yes, have our kids come back to school,” Hosemann said.
Most teachers and teachers’ assistants got a $1,000 pay raise after Gov. Tate Reeves signed a pay raise into law in 2021. The legislation also raised the salary for new teachers by $1,100. The next year, he signed into law a $5,100 per teacher pay raise. After the initial raise in that 2022 law, teachers receive several hundred dollars extra on their salaries most years, with additional raises at five and 25 years of employment.
Mississippi rose to No. 48 in the nation for teacher pay in the 2022-2023 school year, National Education Association data shows. However, Mississippi’s teacher pay raise created a domino effect across the nation with other states, so now Mississippi is back to ranking 51st for teacher pay, NEA studies show.
The Mississippi Senate passed a bill last year to bring retired teachers back to the classroom to address teacher shortages by letting the Legislature cover their retirement plan. Hosemann said he had spoken to several retired teachers who said they were bored in retirement and would be willing to return to teaching.
“Where do we go get teachers? We get them out of the university system, which is great, but you know what? Having one that worked there 20 years go back to work there brings a lot of history and a lot of experience with them,” he said.
The lieutenant governor said many of the teachers he spoke to were interested in teaching one class for a couple of hours a day and leaving after their classes end. He said it would not be mandatory for teachers to return to teach, but the state would welcome them with open arms.
One reason why some retired teachers do not want to come back to the classroom is that the Public Employees’ Retirement System does not let retirees who reenter the workforce continue to collect retirement benefits, Hosemann said. He added that the Legislature would be willing to cover the retired teachers’ benefits to allow them to resume teaching.
Legislature Must Find PERS Funding, Leaders Warn
House Speaker Jason White established a new select committee dedicated to finding funding for the Public Employees’ Retirement System, he told reporters on May 30.
Select committees work outside of the legislative session to research various topics involving the state. House State Affairs Committee Chairman State Rep. Hank Zuber, R-Ocean Springs, who is passionate about reforming PERS, will co-chair the select committee with House Municipalities Chairman Rep. Randy Rushing, a former Decatur, Mississippi, mayor and alderman who White said is “very in touch” with city and county operations.
“PERS isn’t going broke next year. I’m worried about 10, 20, 30 years from now,” the speaker told reporters on May 30.
Mississippi has 24,000 state employees; each year, the State hires between 4,500 to 5,000 employees and about the same number of employees leave or retire, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann told reporters on May 30.
With House Bill 1, the Legislature created a fifth tier in the Public Employees’ Retirement System for state employees hired on or after March 1, 2026.
The fifth tier has half of the defined benefits as tier four and eliminates the cost-of-living adjustment. It compensates future employees by adding a percentage of the employees’ paycheck to their retirement contribution accounts, similar to a 401K account, so there is money saved up over time that makes up for the lack of a lower guaranteed monthly benefit and cost-of-living adjustment. In the fourth tier, employers match their employees’ retirement contribution; no such match would exist under tier five.
Hosemann said the Senate wanted PERS to have a fixed retirement benefit as well as a “competitive” 401K plan to attract young new hires. The 401K plan is 100% vested, meaning an employee can get their full retirement benefits no matter how long they have been working for the state, the lieutenant governor said.
White: Online Sports Betting Could Help Fund PERS
White reiterated that a one-time cash infusion to PERS would not be beneficial unless the infusion was at least $1 billion, which could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in interest each year. Both sides of the Legislature and Gov. Tate Reeves have agreed that PERS needs a dedicated stream of revenue to address its $26.5 billion unfunded liability.
White gave a few examples of where PERS could find a dedicated revenue stream, including Mississippi Lottery revenue and interest on State deposits. The House speaker said the State made $100 million on interest income on all state government funds that are on deposit.
White said a new funding source for PERS could come from Mississippi legalizing online sports betting. He estimates that Mississippians spend anywhere from $40 million to $80 million yearly on illegal mobile sports betting, so legalizing it could give the State some extra pocket change.
“Jason White doesn’t wake up every morning wanting to legalize mobile sports gambling, but let’s keep a few things in mind,” White said. “We already have sports gambling as long as you’re on property at one of our gaming establishments in the state, so it’s already legal as long as you step a toe on the property. And we also know that there is a very robust illegal online gaming activity going on in our state.”
Since illegal online sports betting already has a large presence in the state, White said the state should legalize the activity and partner it with Mississippi gaming establishments.
The House tried to pass mobile sports betting legislation through multiple avenues during the 2025 legislative session, all of which the Senate killed.
Prioritizing Government ‘Efficiency’
From now until the 2026 legislative session begins in January, White said representatives would continue their work in the select committee to revitalize the capital city, Jackson. The committee worked on several pieces of legislation that are set to become law on July 1 that address blighted property, panhandling and camping in public areas.
Tackling Jackson’s water and sewer system will be the committee’s primary focus this year, he added without explaining what those plans would look like. Legislation to shift control of the water system to a regional authority failed twice in the past two years.
On the Senate side, Lt. Gov. Hosemann said he has met with Gov. Tate Reeves and other influential Mississippians about establishing a state government efficiency initiative. The lieutenant governor said the Senate will work to “reorganize the state government.”
Hosemann said that Mississippi Sen. Bart Williams, R-Starkville, will visit every public building in the state to see who works in the building, what they do, how much they are getting paid and how much the department or agency’s overhead expenses are.
“Accessibility is very important, and to do that, we have a state government that is responsive to the people, that is at the lowest cost possible,” he said.