HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES nichano sewverr ‘Comes ASstGnMens Soosteageny cana Coca xtc STATE OF MISSISSIPPI seca PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release: July 22, 2019 am releasing this statement to express continued support regarding the Legislature's commitment to providing teacher pay raises to all 40,991 educators. It was our intent, as the Legislature, to provide pay raises to all teachers and teacher's assistants. During the legislative session, we worked diligently with the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) to ensure that each of these positions received the full salary increase. Based on MDE's calculations, we appropriated $58,442,743.00 to fulfill our intent. ‘After MDE released the pay raise information to school districts, the districts alerted MDE that certain positions had not been accounted for in MDE's calculations. After we received this information from MDE, I, along with other members of the Legislature and the Legislative Budget Office, began working with MDE to perform a deep dive into MDE's data system to address this issue. MDE has worked with each individual district to ensure that the information in the data system has been updated and is correct for this pay raise. ‘The House leadership is supportive of funding this deficit and ensuring that the school districts will not be required to absorb any costs associated with the pay raise. Asa former school board member, and now as Chair of the House Education Committee, I remain firmly committed to the best interests of Mississippi's public education system. Sincerely, Richard Bennett, Chairman House of Representatives District 120 NEW CAPITOL “P.O, BOX 1018 ~IACKSON, MISSISSIPP 9215-1018