News outlets report Gov. Phil Bryant says the agency will have to reallocate whatever funding possible to pay for the raises, since he won't be calling a special session to fix the issue. Photo by Imani Khayyam.
Thursday, April 25, 2019
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A miscalculation by the Mississippi Department of Education has left a gap of $12 million to $14 million in funding for this year's promised teacher pay raise.
News outlets report Gov. Phil Bryant says the agency will have to reallocate whatever funding possible to pay for the raises, since he won't be calling a special session to fix the issue. He says the Legislature can reimburse the agency through a deficit appropriation in January.
The estimated $58 million price tag of the $1,500 teacher raise was based on numbers from the Mississippi Student Information System database.
But the database mistakenly listed some state-funded special education, gifted and career-technical teaching positions as ineligible for funding. It's unclear how many teachers were excluded.
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