JACKSON, Miss — UPDATE 1/12/2022 - The Mississippi House has passed a bill that would increase teacher pay.
The bipartisan vote Wednesday was 114-6.
The bill would give raises of $4,000 to $6,000.
The Senate is proposing a separate plan to give teachers an average increase of $4,700 over two years. It is not clear when the Senate bill might come up for a vote.
The two Republican-controlled chambers and Republican Gov. Tate Reeves must agree on a single plan before teachers could see more money.
Mississippi has some of the lowest teacher salaries in the United States.
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1/10/2022 - Mississippi Senate leaders are proposing a plan to increase teachers' pay an average of $4,700 over two years.
It's an effort to move the state away from its perpetually low national ranking for educators' salaries.
Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Senate Education Committee Chairman Dennis DeBar unveiled the proposal Monday.
The Southern Regional Education Board says that in 2019, the average pay for a Mississippi teacher with 15 years' experience was about $45,100. That was the lowest salary for that experience among the organization's 16 states.
The regional average at 15 years was nearly $54,300.