'This is a really big deal' -- some teachers left out of pay raise due to administrative error
The Legislature did not appropriate enough money to provide an annual $1,500 pay raise to all public school teachers in Mississippi due to an apparent administrative error, sources have told Mississippi Today.
Last week Gov. Phil Bryant signed a $1,500 pay raise for teachers and assistant teachers into law, but a mistake in the way certain types of teachers are coded in an information system means there are not enough state funds to provide the raise for certain types of teachers. This leaves already underfunded local districts on the hook.
Rep. Jay Hughes, D-Oxford, said the shortfall could be as much as $12 million.
“This is a really big deal,” Hughes said.
Mississippi Today obtained a letter sent to House and Senate education chairmen Rep. Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach and Sen. Gray Tollison, R-Oxford. In it, a Mississippi Department of Education official wrote that the Legislature asked the department to calculate the cost of the $1,500 raise for each teacher. The department did this using the Mississippi Student Information System, which tracks teachers by category. Their calculation did not include certain types of teachers, like gifted learning, special education and others.
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