NATCHEZ &045; Mississippi’s legislators made teachers a promise more than five years ago, and Natchez-Adams’ teachers don’t believe in broken promises.

In an attempt to bring the teacher pay scale up to par with the southeastern average, the state agreed to gradually raise salaries through a five-year plan.

Now, in the fifth year, the final installment of 8 percent may be in jeopardy.

Though both Gov. Haley Barbour and the Legislative Budget Committee have recommended fully funding the raise, Senate Education Committee Chairman Mike Chaney said last week that it might be smarter to reduce the money coming to teachers this year.

Chaney said he’d like to see a 2 percent raise in the coming year, a 3 percent raise the next year and a 5 percent raise the year after that. Chaney’s remarks were in response to fears the Mississippi Adequate Education Program will be under-funded again. Last year MAEP was $79 million short of the request.

The full funding of MAEP and the teacher pay raise is something Mississippi Association of Educators President Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis said has to happen.

&uot;At some point and time the legislature has to bite the bullet and keep its promise,&uot; she said.

Arceneaux-Mathis, who teaches at Natchez High, said the current teachers were asked to stay in-state and eventually reap the benefits, but without the promised amount teachers will start leaving.

In 2003-04 the average teacher pay in Mississippi was $35,684, according to statistics from the Southern Regional Education Board. The regional average was $41,764 and the national average was $46,826.

&uot;Education is going to be the only way to raise Mississippi to where it needs to be in the country,&uot; she said. &uot;The priority should be ‘This is the promise we made and we are going to have to find a way to do it.’&uot;

Superintendent Anthony Morris, who has continually pushed for the full funding of MAEP, said the teacher pay raise was just part of the package.

&uot;I realize that funding is short, but it was promised,&uot; Morris said. &uot;We have some teachers who are very committed to what they do, and it’s nothing for them to spend in the neighborhood of $500 of their personal money to make things better for the children.&uot;

Morris said he’s also worried that without meeting the southeastern pay average, Mississippi will be in danger of losing teachers to neighboring states.

&uot;It’s very likely,&uot; he said. &uot;Young people are much more mobile than the group of folks at retirement age. We have neighboring states that will come in and recruit our people and offer them good packages.&uot;

Despite the tough budget times, Morris said he didn’t feel his request was greedy.

&uot;If they would look at the history they would see that over the years education has taken pretty much the backseat. Not during my tenure in education have we ever asked for more than we deserve. We’ve just asked for the basics.&uot;

Frazier Primary teacher Lisa Johnson said failing to fund the raise or MAEP would be unfair to all involved.

&uot;It’s not about the raise,&uot; Johnson said. &uot;It’s about the children, the school system, the teachers and the community. You have to look at the whole picture. It depends on how much that pay raise affects other things.&uot;

Johnson said she feared class sizes would increase without the additional money and that some teachers might find jobs in other states.

Legislators should have a final budget by early April.