JACKSON, Miss. – Mississippi’s average teacher salary is the lowest in the nation while the average cost-of-living-adjusted teacher salary is the third lowest according to a new report by the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor.
“My team found that even when you adjust for Mississippi’s low cost of living, teachers here are still some of the lowest paid in the nation,” said State Auditor Shad White. “We need to cut the amount of money spent on administration and bureaucracy and redirect that money to what actually matters: teacher salaries and inside-the-classroom spending.”
Mississippi’s public-school teachers are the lowest-paid in the country according to the most recent available data. Analysts at the State Auditor’s Office found that the average teacher salary in Mississippi today is worth less than a teacher’s salary from 2008 once you adjust for inflation.
Analysts also compared Mississippi teacher’s salaries to the salaries of teachers in places with higher costs of living. Mississippi teachers are paid less than teachers in any other state, even when you adjust for our state’s low cost of living. Mississippi’s cost of living is 12.7% lower than the national average yet even after adjusting for cost of living, Mississippi teacher salaries are still nearly $9,000 behind the national average.
Mississippi spends a larger percentage of its education budget on administration than every other state in the South. Previous reports from the Office of the State Auditor recommend that Mississippi redeploy excessive administrative and outside-the-classroom spending into teacher salaries. The Mississippi Legislature could also adopt a law proposed by State Auditor Shad White last year which requires 50% of the state’s K-12 education budget be spent on teacher salaries. This law would make Mississippi public-school teachers some of the highest-paid in the country.
“My team found that when you adjust for inflation, Mississippi’s teachers are paid less than they would have been during the Great Recession,” said Auditor White. “It’s past time for the state to put more money towards teacher salaries and classroom supplies, the things that make a difference for our students, and less money towards admin salaries.”
The full report can be found under the “Reports” tab on the Auditor’s website and searching “Teacher Salaries.”