Senate Panel Approves Teacher Raise and Transfer Rules Affecting Local Schools

The Senate Education Committee moved quickly on the opening day of the 2026 legislative session to advance a package of measures aimed at both shoring up the educator workforce and expanding school-choice options within the public system. Lawmakers approved a $2,000 pay bump for teachers, extended that increase to teacher assistants and community college and university professors, and cleared a bill meant to make out-of-district public school transfers easier by removing the sending district’s veto.

Committee leaders framed the votes as support for public schools. Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar said the proposals were meant to bolster the system, and he drew a line against vouchers in his chamber, saying vouchers are not on the table in the Senate. DeBar added, "We need to support our public schools." He also pushed the idea that the $2,000 raise could grow to $5,000 if budgets allow.

The transfer measure would allow the per-pupil state funding, a little less than $7,000 a year, to follow transferring students. Receiving districts would still be able to charge a fee to offset costs for students outside their tax base and would need to provide some rationale for denying transfers. That fee authority drew concern from Sen. Rod Hickman of Macon, who asked, "Doesn’t it further exacerbate the socioeconomic issue? If we say we’re giving parents a choice to educate their children, particularly to leave a bad district … to then say you can charge a fee, doesn’t it allow one set of people to be able to do that and another set of people not to be able to do that?"

Public school advocates raised similar alarms. Nancy Loome of the Parents’ Campaign warned of deepening inequality, saying, "I really worry about creating a system of haves and have-nots, where children who have fewer resources also have many fewer options."

Lawmakers also voted to allow members of the state public employee pension system to teach without forfeiting retirement benefits. Sen. Hob Bryan cautioned about pension costs, saying, "I’m just saying, it’s in the financial interest for every single person to do that. I think we’re going to transfer the cost of paying teachers to the retirement system." The Senate Appropriations Committee voted minutes earlier to add $1 billion over a decade into the pension system.

For Quitman County, a small, rural district with limited local revenue, the package presents mixed prospects. The pay increase could aid recruitment and retention in a state facing a 3,815-teacher vacancy gap, but a modest $2,000 raise may do little to close the longstanding pay differential that leaves Mississippi teachers among the lowest paid nationally. Easier transfers could offer families an avenue out of struggling schools, but fees and admission barriers could leave the county’s most vulnerable students shut out, deepening educational and health disparities tied to school quality.

All measures now head to the full Senate. The House is expected to press for broader school-choice policies, including vouchers and statewide charters, raising the stakes for Quitman County families who will see policy decisions at the Capitol shape both local classrooms and long-term community health.