Education is expected to take front and center stage at the state capitol when Mississippi’s legislature begins the 2026 session next month. Leaders in both the House of Representatives and Senate are eyeing a teacher pay raise, ways to reduce the state’s chronic absenteeism rates, and the implementation of some form of school choice.
On the teacher pay front, the legislature is looking to put more money into the pockets of those who teach K-12 students in public schools across the state. Though educators were given additional compensation courtesy of legislation passed and signed by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves in 2022, a new report from State Auditor Shad White’s office shows that Mississippi’s teachers are among the lowest paid in the country.
In Mississippi, the starting salary for a public school teacher is $42,494, whereas the national average is $46,526. The divide widens more greatly for tenured educators. For Mississippi teachers who have been in the business for multiple years, the average salary is $53,704. Nationally, it is $72,030. Even adjusted for the cost of living, where Mississippi’s is 12.7% lower than the national average, local teacher salaries are still nearly $9,000 behind the national average.
Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann believes 2026 will present a great opportunity for lawmakers to address teacher pay for not only K-12 educators but also community college professors to keep Mississippi from experiencing a continued loss of educators. Mississippi is currently experiencing nearly 7,000 vacancies among teachers, administrators, and school support staff across the state.
“This year, we want to do another teacher pay raise. It’s much past-due for that,” Hosemann said. “Our community college teachers, a lot of them are teaching students who will then go out and make more money than the teacher does. It’s hard to keep a teacher when you’ve got a nurse teaching nurses, and they go out and make more money than you do.”
Another educational focal point of Hosemann’s is the rising rate of public school students missing significant class time. Chronic absenteeism – missing 10% or more of the school year for any reason – spiked by more than 3% in the 2024-25 school year, according to a recent report from the Mississippi Department of Education. The report showed that 27.6%, or 120,408, of Mississippi’s public school students were chronically absent, surpassing the previous school year’s rate of 24.4%.
Hosemann has tasked the Senate with drafting legislation that will tighten the state’s truancy laws, suggesting that he is in favor of parents having to testify before a judge as to the reason for their child’s noticeable absence from school, and is optimistic that the House will follow suit. If reform is not achieved, the state’s second-in-command fears that the future of the state’s workforce will be grim.
“Our long-term view is dark without our kids in school. There is no increase in our labor force participation rate,” Hosemann said. “We can bring all of these companies in here and give them tax breaks. … We’ve got all these positive things, but we won’t have a workforce with 27% of our kids not in school.”
Also on the docket will be school choice, a longtime priority of Republican House Speaker Jason White. School choice refers to the ability of parents to select the educational facility their child attends, rather than being limited to the public school in their zip code. School choice has been a hot topic in Mississippi for quite some time, but legislation seeking to increase options for parents has seldom made headway in the Senate.
White is calling for wholesale reform of the state’s education system, pushing lawmakers to explore legislation that would create more options specifically tailored to meet the needs of the poorest and neediest pupils. He even created a select committee to explore legislation to expand “educational freedom” in Mississippi, and has an ally in Gov. Reeves in implementing his agenda.
The speaker has long vied for students to have the chance to transfer to any other school in Mississippi, with the state’s share of money allocated for the pupil following him or her to the new district or even a private school. Opponents to the concept commonly called “portability” fear that public schools would be subverted while also expressing a fundamental disapproval of taxpayer dollars subsidizing private school education, which is, in part, why the Senate has been a no-go on the subject in recent sessions.
“Education should be a powerful equalizer that you often hear politicians talk about, yet our current system often falls short of delivering quality options for all students. Economically disadvantaged communities in Mississippi have been left with few too options for far too long,” White said. “We have the opportunity to dismantle systemic barriers that damage educational opportunities for our students. Every child, regardless of their zip code, deserves that fair chance to succeed.”
Where Hosemann and White agree is on a federal voucher program allowing taxpayers to be credited for money sent to nonprofits offering financial assistance for K-12 students. The measure allows taxpayers to donate $1,700 in cash or stocks annually to a nonprofit that grants scholarships. In return, the donor would earn a federal dollar-for-dollar tax credit. Families earning up to 300% of the area median gross income would qualify for a voucher that could be used on private education, supplies, technology, and more.
Circling back to the teacher pay raise conversation, Mississippi Professional Educators, an organization dedicated to backing the interests of teachers, speculated on social media that White would drop an education bill on day one of the upcoming session, entailing both school choice and a salary increase for teachers.The group argued that the speaker would use the bill to hold both measures hostage, meaning if lawmakers want to make headway with one topic, they would also have to push the other through.
White denied the validity of the claim while adding that the legislation his chamber plans to propose will serve to benefit all Mississippi families.
“MPE should be ashamed of this post. Misleading and uninformed at best. No one in the legislature is tying school choice policy to a teacher pay raise,” White said in response. “You use the term ‘hostage’ in your post, but the only ‘hostages’ in this entire conversation are the Mississippi families and kids trapped in failing school districts with no options. The House education reform bill will be big, bold, and sweeping, but there won’t be hostages, only wins for Mississippi families.”
Lawmakers will begin the 2026 session on Jan. 6. According to both Hosemann and White, education measures will account for more than 50% of state government spending.