State Rep. Tangie Herring
A newcomer to the Georgia State House, Rep. Tangie Herring, D-Macon, has introduced legislation that she says would provide inflation relief for teachers across the state. According to Herring, House Bill 333 would require annual updates to the state’s minimum salary schedule for elementary and secondary educators to account for inflation.
Herring, who was a classroom teacher for 28 years prior to winning the new District 145 seat in Middle Georgia in 2024, said she filed the bill after seeing data released by the National Education Association that said Georgia ranks 20th in the country on average teacher salaries.
“The cost of living has risen so dramatically that, even with pay increases, the buying power of a teacher’s base salary is now thousands of dollars less than it was 17 years ago,” said Herring. “As a former teacher, I didn’t enter the profession to get rich—I did it to change lives. But no teacher should have to work a second job or struggle as part of the working poor just to stay in the classroom. Rising costs are eroding already low salaries, making it harder for teachers to do the job they love. If we want them to support our kids, we must support them.
“That’s why I followed through on my campaign promise to stand with teachers by filing this bill. I’m also proud to have won both a competitive primary and general election, in part because of my strong support for public education and teachers,” said Herring.
HB 333 – which was filed late last week – has been assigned to the House Education Committee.
“We cannot accept being middle of the pack,” said Herring. “Our teachers deserve to live in the number one state to do business and the number one state to work. This legislation is in line with efforts to offset inflationary pressures in other parts of our economy. It just makes sense to relieve that same pressure for our teachers.”
