Gov. Jeff Landry tied public school teacher pay to a constitutional amendment on budget and tax policies that failed spectacularly at the polls Saturday.
Now the question is: Are the governor and legislators willing to cut teachers compensation?
Landry’s budget proposal does not contain money for stipends of $2,000 and $1,000 that teachers and school support staff have received, respectively, over the past two years. They were relying on financial benefits reaped from Amendment 2 passing to help cover the cost of that compensation.
With the amendment now scuttled, the governor and lawmakers would have to take money from other items in Landry’s budget to cover the expense. But it’s not clear what type of appetite they have to do so.
Legislators in leadership declined to say Monday whether the state’s 59,000 public school teachers should expect a pay cut as a result of Amendment 2 not passing.
“That is probably going to end up being the lynchpin of the session,” said Rep. Julie Emerson, R-Carencro, author of the failed Amendment 2. “I really don’t know how that is going to go.”
Keeping teacher pay level with the current year would be expensive. Lawmakers would have to find $200 million in Landry’s proposed budget to cover the expense of another temporary, yearly stipend or to make a similar permanent salary increase on July 1.
Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, is asking legislators to let him know if funding the additional teacher pay is their primary concern. He is one of the state budget architects as the House Appropriations Committee chairman.
“If [the lawmakers] priorities are the teachers’ stipends, then I’m going to have to know it,” McFarland said. “To do the stipend, I would have to look at everything in the budget.”
Even though teachers are facing potential pay cuts, Landry has included funding increases for other education initiatives in his budget.
For example, he’s set aside an additional $50 million for a new private school voucher program called LA GATOR for the next academic year. The initiative will allow more than 5,000 students to use public money to attend private schools or to pay for other private school education expenses such as uniforms and tutoring.
The average salary of a Louisiana teacher is already below that of other southern states. It was $54,248 for the 2022-23 school year, when the regional average was $59,145, according to the latest numbers from the Southern Regional Education Board. The additional $2,000, first awarded in the 2023-24 school year, was meant to bring teachers closer to that pay range.
The decision to cut teacher pay would be especially unfortunate this year, said Ronnie Morris, president of the Louisiana’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Louisiana made major gains in reading comprehension on national tests – larger than those seen in any other state this year. Morris said the state’s public school teachers are responsible for that success, which legislators and Landry have already celebrated, and they shouldn’t have their pay cut after reaching such a milestone, he said.
“It would be a shame not to recognize our teachers for the work they’ve done to better position our state,” Morris said. “I think that’s the wrong message.”
Louisiana’s biggest teachers unions also endorsed the failed constitutional amendment that Landry and lawmakers were backing because of its ties to teacher pay.
Louisiana legislators will begin to debate state budget priorities in their legislative session that starts April 14.