A teacher pay raise is back in the realm of possibility in the Mississippi Legislature, as the Mississippi House—in a surprise move—revived the effort by amending a bill that was originally about replacing federal ethics requirements with state requirements for school counselors.
House Education Committee Chairman Rep. Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, presented a strike-all amendment to Senate Bill 2103 on Friday morning that adds the language necessary to resuscitate a $5,000 teacher pay raise with an additional $3,000 going to special education educators teaching special education classes. Roberson said the amended legislation also adds a $3,000 salary increase for assistant teachers, noting that figure was not as robust as he wanted it to be, but it was a step in the right direction.
“It’s about time we started recognizing that the teachers out there and their assistants out there do some very tough work,” he said on the House floor on Friday morning. “These assistant teachers wipe the bottoms and the faces of the little ones that we send to school every day, and in the past, we’ve been giving them poverty-level pay. This $3,000 is frankly, not enough, but it’s a start.”
The Senate Education Committee on Tuesday killed House Bill 1126 by not bringing it up for a vote before Tuesday’s deadline. That bill included the provisions in Roberson’s amended legislation, minus the pay increase for assistant teachers.
“We sent a bill over to the Senate, and it didn’t go anywhere. I feel like they need one more bite at the apple,” Roberson said, “and we’re going to give it to them. Today we’re here to talk about a teacher pay raise.”
The House Education Committee also killed the Senate’s $2,000 teacher pay raise bill on Tuesday’s deadline by not bringing it up for a vote.
“The House rejected the Senate’s $2,000 pay proposal because it was not enough,” House Speaker Jason White, R-West, said at a Friday morning press conference. “No other reason. Our teachers deserve more than a token gesture designed to check a political box and our schools deserve real reform, not half measures and tricks. This is not about ownership of legislation and who finalizes it.”
Amendment Restructures Teacher Pay, Superintendent Salaries, PERS Service
Teachers currently have a 45-day period in December and January in which they do not get paid. The strike-all amendment, which is almost 500 pages long, would close that gap so teachers can get paid just as they do the rest of the year
The amendment restructures the superintendent salary pay scale so that they are making no more than 250% of the salary of a licensed teacher with the same education, credentials and years of experience.
“The reality is that this probably will not affect any of our superintendents out there. It may, I’m not going to promise you that it won’t, but it may,” Rep. Rob Roberson said. We’ve had an ongoing problem with districts that have failed consistently but they still don’t have the resources to the teachers. This is a way for us to start pushing some of that down.”
First responders in the Mississippi Public Employees’ Retirement System could retire after 25 years instead of 30 years, the strike-all amendment dictates. The amendment also allows all other state employees in PERS the option to retire after 30 years instead of 35. All state employees would be eligible for retirement at the age of 60 no matter how many years they worked for the state.
“Our state employees out here don’t ask for much, but they do ask for us to listen,” Roberson said. “Thirty-five years was too much. We listen to the advice that was given to us to fix the PERS system. We tried to do what they told us to do.”
PERS retirees would be able to teach in Mississippi classrooms under the amendment. The House and Senate passed bills earlier in the session regarding bringing retirees to the classroom, but both chambers killed the other’s legislation.
School attendance officers would get a $5,600 pay raise under the amendment.
The amendment also changes the student funding formula ratio for each public school student and provides funding for the Mississippi Department of Education to help D- and F-rated school districts improve metrics.
“It also establishes a district improvement and teacher stabilization supplement program with an appropriation of $18 million for D and F districts throughout our state to be awarded by MDE based on demonstrating measurable improvements in our failing and underperforming school systems,” House Speaker Jason White said at a Friday morning press conference.
Strike-All Amendment Reminiscent of Dead House Bill 2
Most of the amendment’s provisions aside from the teacher pay raise were part of House Bill 2, the House’s gigantic education package that the Senate Education Committee killed. School vouchers and school-district transfers are not included in the amendment to S.B. 2103.
“If all of this sounds familiar, y’all voted on this at least twice already, and we’ve sent it to the Senate,” Roberson said. “Unfortunately, this place has a tendency to create issues for us in terms of getting good work done, and I’m not putting the blame on the Senate, not putting the blame on the House. But it’s about time that we got the good work done. This body has always tried to do the good work.”
The changes brought by the amendment would cost the state about $280 million, House Speaker Jason White said, adding that the House budgeted for it in its appropriations bill for the Mississippi Department of Education. The House passed House Bill 1935 on Feb. 19, and the legislation is now in the hands of the Senate.
“What is something in this bill that you think I might not like?” Rep. Kabir Karriem, D-Columbus, asked Roberson on the House floor.
“I can’t,” the chairman started.
“And I know that’s vague,” Karriem continued.
“I can’t think of one thing that you and I would not agree on. Not one thing. Everything in here is about giving our teachers a pay increase, doing the things that honestly, I’ve just not heard a lot of negative on any of that,” Roberson said.
Reps. Rob Roberson, Jansen Owen, R-Poplarville; Kent McCarty, R-Hattiesburg; Kevin Felsher, R-Biloxi; and Rodney Hall, R-Southaven, sponsored the strike-all amendment. The House unanimously approved the amended S.B. 2103. It now heads back to the Senate for senators to decide whether to concur with the legislation and pass it as is, or invite conference with the House to hash out some changes.
Follow the Mississippi Free Press’ coverage of the 2026 Mississippi legislative session and read past stories here.Â