Teachers Union Wants Raises For Educators

VERONA, Miss. (AP) – The head of Mississippi’s largest teachers union is reiterating the group’s push to raise starting salaries for public school teachers to $40,000 a year.

Joyce Helmick, the president of the Mississippi Association of Educators, told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal Monday that her group wants to add $2,500 a year to starting salaries.

Mississippi lawmakers approved a $2,500 raise over the next two years. That will increase starting pay to $34,390 next July. Ultimately, MAE’s goal is a 5.5 percent annual increase over five years to reach $40,386 by 2019.

Lawmakers also made teachers eligible for merit payments in 2016-2017. Helmick says she opposes using student test scores to set teacher pay under the merit plan. She says testing should be used to determine students’ needs, not teachers’ pay.