Jason Reid’s day starts at 5 a.m.

He rolls out of bed, lets his dog out and drinks his first cup of coffee. After making sure his kids’ water bottles are full, Reid walks to nearby Lewisburg Elementary School. In the crisp air and dark morning, he starts a school bus, waiting for it to warm up.

Reid, a physical education teacher in DeSoto County School District, has been teaching for 17 years. But in 2019, he also started moonlighting as a bus driver to earn extra money.

This is a reality for educators in Mississippi, which has the nation’s lowest teacher pay.

According to the National Education Association, the average teacher salary in Mississippi is $53,704. That’s $15,000 less than what the Economic Policy Institute says is needed to comfortably support a single parent, one child h

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