House Tries to Revive Pay Raise for Assistant Teachers

JACKSON (AP) – The Mississippi House is trying to revive a plan to give a pay raise to assistant teachers.

The current base salary of the state’s roughly 6,000 assistants is $12,500 a year, although some local districts provide supplements.

The House voted in February to give assistant teachers a $2,500 bump, at a cost of $15 million, raising base salaries to $15,000. Senators recently killed that plan.

After brief debate Thursday, the House put the $2,500 pay raise into another education measure, Senate Bill 2300.

The Senate could accept the House change. Or, the two chambers could negotiate a final version of the bill, either with or without the pay raise for assistant teachers.

Legislators are working on a separate proposal to give teachers the second year of a pay raise.