House sends teacher pay raise to Senate

The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 3/13/8

The Mississippi Senate will have an opportunity to pass and send to the governor a House proposal to provide a pay raise to the state’s 30,000 teachers.

With limited debate, the House voted 114-8 Wednesday for legislation to provide teachers a 3 percent pay raise starting Jan. 1.

The state Board of Education has urged the Legislature to approve a 3 percent pay raise to ease the state’s perennial teacher shortage. The House opted to delay the raise from July 1, the start of the fiscal year, to Jan. 1 to save money because of the state’s revenue shortage.