Jackson Free Press

"If we are to retain those teachers and get them to stay in the field of education, we have got to give them higher salaries."

—Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, on a teacher pay-raise bill recently signed into law.

Why it Stinks: Speaker Gunn's early advocacy for a teacher-pay increase led to legislative dialogue and, ultimately, a spitting match with Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves over who loves teachers more. Eventually, teachers got the raise they deserve. But the only people Gunn is really interested in retaining are teachers in Clinton, one of the highest-achieving and most desirable districts for teachers to work. But if Gunn and the Republican leadership were truly interested in recruiting and retaining the best and brightest, they'd get serious about fully funding the public education formula, the Mississippi Adequate Education Program. There's talk that the leadership may beef up MAEP next year, an election year, which proves who lawmakers really care about retaining.