The Senate has passed an MFP with raises for teachers and school employees!
The Senate is also expected to pass a budget (HB 1) this week, that fully funds the MFP. In order for teachers and school employees to receive a raise, the MFP (SCR 2) must pass through the legislative process in the House and the Senate AND the legislature must fully fund the MFP in the final version of the budget (HB 1). Now it's up to the House.
Earlier this legislative session, a majority of the House voted to approve a budget that did not include funding for teacher and school employee raises. Instead, they choose use surplus funds to pay off a portion of the debt that the legislature owes to TRSL. The idea was that this would "free up funds within local school districts to give teachers a raise, but the plan didn't guarantee that teachers and school employees would actually see any pay increase whatsoever, and the funding "freed up" wouldn't be enough to give employees the raise in the MFP.
Since the House passed their budget, the Revenue Estimating Conference (REC) had their long anticipate meeting and updated their revenue projections. After hearing from the state’s economist, the REC adopted conservative revenue projections, recognizing $806 million in reoccurring revenue. In addition to the reoccurring revenue, the two state “savings accounts,” the Rainy-Day Fund and the Revenue Stabilization Fund, will increase to $903 million and $1.7 billion, respectively.
The House has ONE WEEK to do the right thing and vote to pass the MFP with a $2,000 raise for teachers and $1,000 for support staff AND fund the raise in the budget.
Join us in asking the House to support the MFP and fund it in the budget!
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