Mississippi lawmakers could take lessons from the historic teacher pay raise of 2000
As legislators grapple with how much and whether they can afford to provide a pay raise to teachers during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, what occurred in 2000 might be of interest.
Lawmakers that year passed the state’s largest teacher pay increase: a $337 million proposal that was enacted over a six-year period. That pay raise is equivalent to $523.9 million in today’s dollars.
There are some similarities between what happened then and what is going on now.
In the 1999 gubernatorial election, then-Lt. Gov. Ronnie Musgrove campaigned on moving the pay for Mississippi teachers to the Southeastern average. During the 2019 gubernatorial election, both candidates — Democrat Jim Hood and Republican Tate Reeves — promised large pay raises for teachers.
Read more: https://www.sunherald.com/news/politics-government/article248704060.html
(Gulfport Sun Herald)
