The Mississippi Legislature is taking aim at teacher pay raises this year, something lawmakers say is a first step in addressing the stateâs critical teacher shortage.
But even if educators do see a pay increase this year, there is a bigger issue in solving what is considered one of the biggest problems facing the state: no one knows the full scale of the crisis.
The Mississippi Department of Education does not track teacher vacancies, meaning state officials â lawmakers included â do not know how many unfilled teacher positions there are for individual districts or for the entire state.
In December 2019, Mississippi Today asked MDE how many teacher vacancies there were. A spokesperson said that MDE surveys for that information, but individual school districts arenât required to send it in.