Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. After both legislative chambers killed the other’s teacher pay raise proposals this week, the House on Friday unanimously unveiled a new teacher pay bill, sharply criticizing the Senate in the process. House lead ership introduced the plan in a Senate education bill that originally dealt with school counselors. The latest House proposal would give all teachers a $5,000 pay raise, with special education teachers getting an additional $3,000. It would also raise assistant teacher pay by $3,000, school attendance officers‘ pay by $5,000 and school occupational therapists’ and licensed counselors’ pay by $6,000.  “I feel like they need one more bite at the apple,” House Education Chairman Rob Roberson, a Republican from Starkville, said of the Senate. “And we’re going to give it to them.” House Education Committee Chairman Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, discusses an education funding bill in the House chamber on Friday, March 6, 2026, at the Capitol in Jackson. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today The bill also would cap superintendents’ salaries, correct the pay gap issue that educators face over the winter holidays, allow retirees to return to the classroom while drawing retirement benefits, include changes to the Public Employees’ Retirement System and establish an improvement program for districts rated “D” or “F.” “Educators have spoken,” House Speaker Jason White said at a press conference Friday. “We have listened.” The measure now heads back across the Capitol where senators could either agree with the new House plan, seek final negotiations between the two chambers or kill the plan altogether.  Education policy issues have headlined the legislative session that started in January, and both the House and the Senate said raising teacher pay is a top priority. But the chambers haven’t seemed able to reach a compromise or work in tandem over the past two months on education issues — instead blaming each other for failed policies.  The politics reached an inflection point when most education measures died on Tuesday, the deadline for committees to pass bills originating in the opposite chamber, including the House’s $5,000 proposal and the Senate’s $2,000 proposal. The relationships have further devolved as school choice talks disintegrated. Earlier in the session, Senate leaders killed House Bill 2, White’s lengthy school choice package. Both White and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, through letters and press conferences, have pointed the finger at each other for why negotiations between the two have broken down. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann addresses state lawmakers in the Senate chamber on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, at the Capitol in Jackson. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today “We are glad the House is coming back to the table for real negotiations on legislation to support our teachers,” Hosemann said in a statement. “This follows the House’s decision just over 48 hours ago to kill the Senate’s separate, fiscally responsible bills.” Hosemann also wrote a letter this week to leaders of statewide education organizations — including Nancy Loome, executive director of public school advocacy organization The Parents’ Campaign —  expressing his disappointment that numerous education bills have died and taking issue with the omnibus policy approach the House has favored. “It has been the position of the Mississippi Senate that matters of this magnitude deserve consideration as separate, standalone legislation,” he wrote. He said that the Senate would continue to advocate for a teacher pay raise through an appropriations bill. However, that would be a one-time bonus and short-term solution because it wouldn’t change the statewide teacher pay scale. White referred to Hosemann’s correspondence as “love letters” at his Friday press conference, as representatives lining the second-floor Capitol steps tittered.  The political games have frustrated educators and advocates who say it’s unsustainable to live in Mississippi on a teacher’s salary.  “It’s incredibly disappointing,” Jason Reid told Mississippi Today after both bills died this week. Reid, a teacher in DeSoto County, drives a school bus before and after work to supplement his income.  “Two months ago, it seemed both chambers were very committed to addressing the regional and national teacher pay raise gaps and teacher shortage,” he said. “Now, Mississippi teachers will fall even further behind their peers.” Mississippi teachers are, on average, the lowest paid in the country at $53,704. Starting teachers make a little over $42,000. Educators say the low pay is driving the teacher shortage, which the Mississippi Department of Education puts at nearly 4,000 vacancies statewide.  “I’m sorry for the politics that get into it, but the math is the math is the math,” White said. “Those teachers … find one this weekend and ask them, ‘Would you rather have $5,000 or would you rather have ($2,000)?’ It’s fairly simple.” State representatives vote on an education funding bill in the Mississippi House chamber on Friday, March 6, 2026, at the Capitol in Jackson. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today Legislators passed the last meaningful teacher pay raise in 2022, which educators told Mississippi Today was quickly rendered null by rising insurance premiums and inflation. Teachers say they’ve had to take second jobs and make hard financial decisions to live within their means in the years since. During the 2022 teacher pay raise debate, legislators also squabbled and blamed one another for not negotiating in good faith on finding a compromise. That year, the House killed a Senate pay raise plan, and the Senate nearly killed the House’s proposal.  But Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar called a late-night Education Committee meeting to advance the House proposal forward to meet a legislative deadline. During that meeting in 2022, DeBar thanked his Senate colleagues for putting their personalities aside and being “the adults in the room.”  Four years later, legislative fighting has intensified, and both chambers appear willing to use parliamentary tools to put political pressure on each other, while teachers watch and wait. “They’re continuing to play games with teachers,” said Sen. Hob Bryan, a Democrat from Amory and one of the longest serving lawmakers in the Legislature. “It’s the most frustrating thing. What’s going on down here is not normal.” ...read more read less