Jackson Jambalaya

I have heard some of these teachers complaining they only got 1500 a year. Please be happy with what you are getting and understand that this is costing us the taxpayers 70 plus million dollars a year.

Also understand that if Hood or Waller goes into office you will spend that raise on your taxes that will go up!

what a tiny amount

What a joke!! Don't get me wrong, teachers are getting a much-deserved raise, but $1500/year or $125/month, which nets out to about $100/month after taxes, is a pittance. If this is the best we can do as a state for our public school educators, then we will always be in 50th place when it comes to education. Phil, Tater & the legislature ought to be ashamed for passing this load of shit!!

I am so sick and fu@#$%* tired of teachers getting pay raises! What about first responders (EMT/MEDIC)? What about police officers? Why in the hell are teachers allowed to drain the tax base and everyone seems ok with it but at the same time the same people don't give a sh&* about police officers financial well being. If a "teacher' can make $70,000.00 a year plus benefits herding four and five year olds in a play pen then first responders and police officers are long overdo a pay raise. I propose that teachers receive no additional money of any sort until other more deserving public servants such as police officers and others get equalized pay. It is past time for teachers and their union sit down, shut up and learn to appreciate the very comfortable lifestyle the tax payers already provide them with.

3:25, I'd like to know what percentage of teachers in Mississippi you think receive "$70,000 plus benefits".

Just saying . . .

Teachers start at $34,000. Administrators make $90,000 and lots more.

Tell us where there's a teacher making $70,000.

@3:25, if you're sick of teacher pay raises, you must be terminally ill. They haven't received an across-the-board raise in nearly 20 years.

You make an excellent point about first responder pay, but that's a topic you can't broach without talking about teacher salaries.

The state sets the minimum salary for teachers, and local governments can add local supplements to attract the best teachers (see Rankin County millage increase). Local governments control the salary rate of first responders not employed by a contracted service like AMR.

If you REALLY want a pay raise for them, get ready to pay more ad valorem taxes. Personally, I think you'd be hard-pressed to gather much support for more taxes.

FACT: Most K-12 teachers make less that $40gs a year. MANY "administrators" make 70-80-90-100 thousand a year....they get paid the big bucks to keep the river of money flowing by covering up the numbers that aren't in the seats everyday. PLAY BALL and you can get rich with MDE. The head of the Mississippi Department of Education makes $378 grand a year....highest in the nation, and they can't determine how many teachers they actually have. A federal audit is looooong overdue.

@ 3:51 PM and 4:00 PM... Sometime recently KF posted a list of teachers names and their salaries. Do your own research. Maybe if you look in between the $34,000.00 USD "starting" and the $90,000.00 USD "administrator" you will find a plethora of over paid and underachieving $70,000.00 USD teachers and their assistants.

Wow 34 thousand for about six and a half months work. JPD officers are starting at less than 30 thousand for 12 mo of work.

Why did Rankin county raise milage taxes to pay for a teacher raise when it is from the state?
Rankin taxes are starting to suck with the infiltration of the democracks and libitards. What happen to lowering or steady state taxes?

I've never heard of a teacher making $70,000 a year and that includes my wife who retired with 45 years and a masters and was way the hell short of that salary.

And for the goob at 4:42, you obviously have no damned clue what you're talking about. This blog attracts trolls like you who are totally uninformed.

As a bonus they get 3 1/2 months a year to take on another job. Maybe even a fun job. Go work at a resort or mountain lodge or something. Every time I see this come up I think of the social media images of teachers drinking a margarita at a pool at noon on a Tuesday, or how if I go to dinner and go home at 830 on a weeknight, teachers are taking another shot before moving on to the next bar. 3 1/2 months.

9:48 - You're full of it and full of yourself. Many, many teachers are now on ten month contract, meaning they get out of school mid June and report back in July.

They also work long days, many nights, weekend meetings, required annual attendance at outside seminars (unpaid)...all just like the private sector. It's common for private sector employees to get 7 to 10 weeks of vacation per year (not all, but many), which is way more than any teacher you know.

You're part of the uninformed and willfully ignorant. Wasted enough time on you since you have no desire to be educated yourself. PS: When you go out to dinner, you don't see teachers.

So tell us how reporting to school the first week of August, and ending the last week of May gives teachers 3 1/2 months off?

I have no problem with teachers, assistants, librarians, etc. getting the raise, but what the hell is the deal with these non-educators cashing in on what should be going exclusively to those in educator positions.

“The expanded list of teaching positions eligible for the pay raise goes beyond classroom teachers, counselors, teacher assistants and librarians to include specialized positions such as dyslexia therapists, intervention specialists, audiologists and psychologists, among others.”

What do audiologists, psychologists, etc. have to do with teaching kids?

I’m not the one stating the 3.5 months off, but I do think you’d be naive to not include Spring Break, Fall Break, Christmas Break and any other break that the delicate kids require these days.
And I’m not anti-teacher raise...I’m just very much in favor of funding the raise by removing the useless over paid administrative positions.

6:47 AM - Well they do get a month off just from Thanksgiving, Christmas and Spring Break. Plus over two months in the summer. That's a lot more time off than any employee in any other field that I know of.

@8:12...YES, the graft is the "useless overpaid administrative positions." An interesting study would be to look at how school district administrative offices have ballooned in a relatively short period of time. I guess administrators are learning, at their lavish summer conferences, how to "get more people onboard" (friends and relatives) ...of course, all funded by our tax dollars...Not to mention administrators with no school district at all making $70,000 +...

Additionally:
Why are most administrators so secretive about their salaries? In my district (consistently A-rated) the salaries of the central office staff are never published. If they think they're worth it, they shouldn't be ashamed to disclose that to the tax payers.

Teacher pay should be like any other job. Pay should be based on results.
Mississippi has for a long time had a lock on the bottom of the list when it comes to education. Pay for teachers should be at the same place on the list of pay for teachers.
If we get off the bottom of the list so does the teachers pay. Until then work more and complain less.

We no longer need kids off for farm work so why don't we have a 52 week school year and increase teacher pay accordingly?

A white teacher in JPS deserves 100k hazard pay.

Almost every business of any size gives employees a day or two of for Thanksgiving and one or two (or more) days at Christmas along with five to seven (or more) weeks of paid vacation. State and federal agencies and banks and others jockey holidays around so as to give their employees a three day weekend while schools don't do that. I've never heard of 'fall break' for teachers and spring break is a couple of days for teachers. Teachers are also in school working when banks and others are enjoying most federal holidays off with pay.

Most of you are still mired in the myth that teachers get a month off at Christmas and three in the summer, neither of which is true. And while you're wallowing in myths, consider the many private sector workplaces where you suffer abuse day in and out from employees and visitors to the building. You won't find it. Welcome to school.

Rod Knocker - If you want kids in school year round, move to China.

If MS increased teacher pay $5k more a year, would those same teachers do a better job? Would the field then attract better quality teachers? And most importantly, would it actually improve our public education system and test scores? I'm no expert, but I don't think slightly bumping up teacher pay improves education much at all.

Yes, we want to be close to the regional average salary, but don't people also have to understand that our state might not have the money to spend that our neighbors do? And are other states paying 70% of their state budget on education? More? Less?

10:44 am aka Rod Knox, you have to have a screw loose that is causing your rod to knock. A 52 week school year. I guess the kids could sleep there while their families go on vacation or celebrate holidays. It would give the government more time to indoctrinate them. Yes, I said “indoctrinate” because there is a lot more indoctrination going on than there is teaching useful skills. Start that 52 week crap and watch the intelligent folks get together and home school most of the kids. Obviously you want to destroy the public school system.

But how many days off and weeks of do MOST Mississippians get from their full time jobs 12:04?

I was offered a job in education years ago and the schedule looked great to me.

@ 8:03

"What do audiologists, psychologists, etc. have to do with teaching kids?"

ha! what a dumbass

I'm not a teacher, and I don't play one on tv. I do know that the good ones are not paid what they are worth. How many of you take work home most nights and weekends, deal with other people's ticking time bombs, play shrink/confidant/pastor/parent to problem kids, help bring out unseen potential, and inspire self-confidence and self-esteem year-in and year-out? How many of you do this for $30-45k annually. How many of you use your "time off" to get second and third jobs along with doing continuing education courses and workshops on your own dime, so that you can continue to improve your craft? The good ones definitely deserve more money.

So we have 10,000 librarians, audiologists, and counselors in the public school system that were left out of the first accounting?

The good ones definitely deserve more money.

You are arguing for merit pay. THAT will never happen. Not that it shouldn't.

Rod @ 12:47 - Your question was answered at 12:04. Private sector employees at most businesses who decide to offer paid vacation as a benefit get a minimum of two weeks vacation per year during or after the second year and as many as ten depending on years of service. I'm not claiming this is the same everywhere, but, having run fifty or more wage and benefit surveys in this state, I can tell you that's the norm.

Teachers are contract workers. Some contract for what you might consider a normal school year and some contract for ten months. All of them are there on many days when students are not, including after students leave in late may and in july, long before students arrive. I have a relative in a district in north Mississippi who reported for duty at her school last week, July 18. She also just spent a week at a required seminar when she would much rather have been working in the garden or volunteering at the church.

You claim to have been offered a school job but you obviously know little to nothing about the system or demands on teachers. You might as well tell us what you've heard or read about jobs in the aerospace industry.

A teacher with 48 years in the system has the same days off as a teacher who started work yesterday.

There are a great many teaching positions that apparently don't require a teaching degree 8:14. Aerospace hasn't been a strong point in my education or work history but I enjoyed an above average income getting callouses working for myself and employing a few others for many years. Look around. All of a sudden vo-tech is a trendy issue with Mississippi politicians. I might have taken the offer but the politics involved looked like a nightmare and I feel sure the candidates who speak highly vo-tech on the campaign trail who win will add their petty nit picking to the nightmare.

The job offered me paid well and had a great calendar and daily work schedule and great benefits. Considering my lack of secondary education I was surprised.