How bloated is the JPS payroll? Compare the workforce of JPS and Desoto County. Desoto is the largest school district in Mississippi with 6,589 students more than JPS.* However, JPS has nearly a thousand more employees and a much smaller share of JPS’s employees are teachers. See how bad the numbers are.
Student Population
Desoto: 33,537
JPS: 26,948
Difference: 6,589
Total Number of Employees
Desoto: 4,261
JPS: 5,202 (Source: Audit)
JPS has 941 more employees despite Desoto having 6,589 more students BUT wait, it gets worse. Check out the number of teachers as a percentage of the workforce.
Total Number of Certified Teachers
Desoto: 2,358
JPS: 1,972 (Source: Audit)
Teachers as a % of Workforce
Desoto: 55%
JPS: 38%
You reading those proportions correctly. 55% of the employees at the “A” school district are teachers. 38% of the teachers at the “F” school district are teachers. The ratio only improves to 40% if JPS gets the 200 teachers it says it needs to alleviate its teacher shortage.
Jackson Jambalaya
9/22/17
