The 2026 session of the Mississippi Legislature is ready to go, and from
the looks of things, the Republican majorities in both chambers must
prepare to compromise to get anything high on their wish list accomplished.
A recent story on the Magnolia Tribune website explored education issues
ranging from school choice to teacher pay raises; and increased
financial assistance for the Public Employees Retirement System to start
decreasing its $26 billion unfunded liability.
School choice is the No. 1 issue for House Speaker Jason White. He wants
the state to allow parents to send their children to any school they
wish, public or private, with state tax dollars going with students who
switch schools.
There are plenty of school choice proposals, and it is fair to say that
nothing is settled yet. For starters, some private schools are concerned
about requirements that may come along with state money for students who
transfer from a public school. And both public and private schools
wonder whether they’ll be able to set limits on the number of transfers
they must accept.
Legitimate concerns like this make it clear there are plenty of hurdles
to setting up a school choice program. On the other hand, a number of
other states have done it, so if the Legislature follows White’s wishes,
it should be able to pick and choose from various success stories.
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, as the Tribune noted, has not been as “openly
zealous about education freedom.” He supports making it easier for
students to transfer from one public school district to another. But he
has talked about other education topics, such as figuring out how to
reduce high absentee rates in too many schools. He supports a pay raise
for all public educators, from elementary schools to universities; and
wants to increase attendance officer salaries and make sure districts
have one such officer for every 2,500 students.
White’s and Hosemann’s wish lists could be expensive, which no doubt
will discourage fiscal conservatives in the Legislature from a spending
spree. If school choice permits a public school student to switch to a
private school and receive money from the state for doing it, that
increases state costs, and there would have to be limits on such a
program. Teacher pay raises, reduced absentee rates and more attendance
officers also will cost money. It will be interesting to see which ideas
win out.
As for PERS, Hosemann wants to increase the employer contribution to
raise an extra $184 million. But that also points to the possibility, or
even the likelihood, of local tax increases. White said the House would
prefer a one-time cash transfer to PERS along with a “dedicated stream
of revenue.” He has suggested online sports betting as one such stream.
Perhaps more notable is that lawmakers already are considering changes
to the retirement plan for new public employees that became law in 2025
and takes effect in March 2026.
The “Tier 5” plan for new employees says these workers won’t be eligible
for retirement benefits until they have 35 years of service or reach age
62. It means new workers will have to wait longer to get retirement pay
than existing public workers do.
New workers also do not have a guaranteed cost-of-living adjustment,
known as the 13th check. All this tightening has drawn objections from
law enforcement officers and firefighters.
This could be as difficult a situation to solve as school choice. PERS’
finances will take time and money to fix. Lawmakers must balance that
with the desire not to give public employees a reason to get mad at them.
Jack Ryan, Enterprise-Journal
