Teachers monitor students as they walk to their classrooms during the first day of school at Neshoba County Central Middle School on Wednesday, August 5, 2020. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today
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.”
