Such an approach would give local school systems the latitude to invest in the educators if that's what they need to make the investment in, he said. I just want to see a deep dive into why expenses keep going up and up, DeBar said. Bill Lee proposed more money for K-12 education and a new institute to fight anti-American thought in higher education in his State of the State address. On paper, it looks great, and anytime you hear teacher pay raise, you want to cheer, Hughey said. Athena Lindsey, a teacher and policy fellow with Teach Plus Mississippi, repeatedly heard the same concern when surveying teachers in the lead-up to the historic 2022 teacher pay raise: Every time you see a pay increase, the insurance premiums always go up, so you never really get to feel the actual pay raise.. I explained to him what was going on, and he said, Mom, Im not going to have to take that medicine where I'm mean and angry am I? Webber-Butler said. Each district is unique.. We have to focus on that and alleviating some of that workload and just getting them back in the classroom doing what they do best, and thats teaching kids and not doing all of this administrative stuff at night, Meade said during the panel discussion. Hegars estimate, he said, did not include savings from the 5% cuts to certain state agencies. [CDATA[// >