State employees – including public school and community college teachers – would get six weeks of paid parental leave under a bill that passed the Senate Thursday. It now advances to the House, which passed its own version of the policy unanimously in January. 

It’s likely the two chambers will need to go into “conference” later in the legislative session – an opportunity for a smaller group of senators and representatives to talk at length about a bill’s details and reach a compromise.

The House version gives primary caregivers eight weeks of paid leave – two more than the Senate version. However, senators added an amendment to their bill during its floor debate to include public school and community college teachers, which was not included in the House bill. 

Fourteen senators voted ‘No’ on the bill, authored by Sen. Jeremy England, R-Ocean Springs, after a long discussion. 

Sen. John Polk, R-Hattiesburg, said he thinks paid parental leave is “a step too far” since the federal government mandates 12 weeks of unpaid parental leave for state employees. 

“I don’t know why we’re even dealing with it,” he said on the floor. 

Mississippi is one of only 12 states without dedicated paid family leave for state employees, according to A Better Balance, a national nonprofit advocating for better work-life balance. 

Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, who was presenting the bill, responded by saying that it’s “the right thing to do” in the state that overturned the constitutional right to an abortion and claims to value families.

“We stand up here and put on our campaign commercials about families – ‘I’m a family man,’” said Wiggins. “Are we going to put on our campaign commercials into action or are we just going to talk about it?”

The policy has garnered wide support from leadership in both chambers. Speaker of the House Jason White  and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann have championed it. Attorney General Lynn Fitch has also publicly spoken out in support of it. 

Each bill now advances to the opposite chamber. 

The post Senate passes its own paid leave bill, including teachers appeared first on Mississippi Today.