Governor John Bel Edwards’ plan to raise teacher salaries by $ 400 a year received an exciting reception from teacher leaders on Friday.
“The governor is being so cheap with these increases that we can’t buy a tank of gas every pay period with his so-called increase,” said Keith Courville, executive director of the Associated Professional Educators of Louisiana, one of the state’s three teacher organizations. .
“We remain behind,” said Courville. “We have to improve.”
Aunt Mills, president of the Louisiana Association of Educators, said the teachers were not impressed by the proposal.
“Many of them have already done the math,” said Mills. “It’s a slap in the face for them.”
LAE, like the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, is a longtime political ally of Edwards.
The governor’s executive budget was revealed on Friday during a meeting of the powerful Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget.
The session begins on April 12.
Management commissioner Jay Dardenne told the committee that, although the increase was less than in previous years, it would lead the state to reach the regional average.
Asked about the criticism at the end of the day, Edwards told reporters that he is required to present a balanced budget amid limited dollars and that he remains committed to changing the teachers’ average salary to the regional average.
Teachers in Louisiana received an average of $ 50,923 for the 2018-19 school year, the latest figures available.
The 16-state regional average was $ 54,930, a difference of $ 4,007. The gulf between Louisiana and the regional average pay widened 74% between 2019 and 2020. Edwards promised to reach the regional average when his term ends in 2024.
The difference between the average pay for teachers in Louisiana and the southern regional average rose 74% last year, according to the last …
The US average is $ 58,540.
Edwards’ $ 40 million compensation plan would also include a $ 200 increase in pay for support staff, who are cafeteria workers, school bus drivers and others.
The Louisiana Federation of Teachers, in a note to members on Thursday night, said the $ 400 annual salary increase was small.
“Being an educator is more difficult than ever,” says the message. “This year, teachers’ morale has plummeted. If we don’t work to resolve this now and show our teachers and school staff how much we value their services, our schools will continue to lose talented employees and our students will suffer.”
Group leaders urged teachers to put pressure on the governor, the Legislature and the State Council for Elementary and Secondary Education to support a “significant and sustained” increase in salaries for teachers and other school staff.
The LFT did not specify how much it should be.
When it comes to payment, public school teachers in Louisiana are better than average at first and then plummet in the ranking of the rest…
Courville said he favors an increase of $ 4,000 a year for teachers.
He also said that wage increases can be justified amid a pandemic amid high unemployment rates across the state and nationally.
“Teachers are essential frontline workers,” said Courville.
Mills said he also favors a $ 4,000 increase in teachers’ salaries, “which they are rewarded for the hard work they have been doing”.
Teachers in Louisiana were last paid a salary increase in 2019 – $ 1,000 a year.
In a twist, Governor John Bel Edwards’s office on Thursday proposed a salary increase of about $ 500 for teachers, less than two weeks after the government …
Edwards proposed a $ 500 salary increase last year, but it was shelved after the coronavirus pandemic caused the state’s revenue to plummet.
The governor said the funds were available this time because of an injection of federal aid to Louisiana’s Medicaid program.
The spending plan is for the financial year beginning on July 1st.
According to Edwards’ spending plan, basic state aid for public schools would essentially be frozen, as it has been for most of the past decade.
Senate President Page Cortez, R-Lafayette, said he supports the $ 400 proposal.
“It’s hard not to do that,” Cortez told reporters after presenting the budget on Friday. “I will be 100% for that.”
The governor’s proposal marks the beginning of a long debate that should last until the suspension of the legislature in June.
BESE will submit its own budget for public schools to the Legislative in the coming weeks.
In addition, the Minimum Foundations Program Working Group, which advises BESE, is scheduled to meet Tuesday at noon to discuss the same issue.
The MFP is the complex formula used to allocate state aid to some 700,000 public school students.
The expenses proposed by Edwards would also increase faculty salaries by an average of 4% and would be the first of its kind in 13 years, according to higher education officials.
The average salary is 14 in the region for teachers in two-year schools and 15 for four-year colleges, the Louisiana Board of Regents said.
“Today’s executive budget sends a clear message: education is critical to our success and now is the time to make strategic investments in our people,” said Higher Education Commissioner Kim Hunter Reed in a statement.
The governor’s proposal also includes roughly the same funding for the Taylor Opportunity Program For Students – based on merit – and Go Grants – based on needs.
These amounts are $ 12.2 million and $ 11 million, respectively.
Capitol newsroom staff writers Mark Ballard and Sam Karlin contributed to this report