BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana teachers are hanging onto hope that Senators will squeeze back in a pay raise taken out of the state budget by House members last week.
But the proposed two-thousand dollar bump still wouldn’t bring Louisiana’s teacher salaries even within ten-thousand dollars of the national average.
“It’s absolutely time for a raise. We need a raise. We need a raise this year,” said Keely Hill of United Teachers of New Orleans.
“Teachers are working two, three jobs. Teachers are more concerned on some days about like, are they going to be able to pay this bill than being to dedicate that energy and time to high-quality instruction,” she said.
Last week, the Louisiana House passed a budget that does not include any funding for pay raises for school employees or teachers. The bill was passed one day after members voted to give themselves a raise to $60,000.
As the committee nixed the governor’s proposed raise, the committee moved to pay off retirement debt for teachers, saying it would free up money for districts to set their own raises.
The Louisiana Federation of Teachers calls it a flawed plan, writing, “The reality is that local school districts are under no obligation to give teachers and school employees a raise.”
According to the Louisiana Department of Education, the average teacher salary for last school year varied by parish.
St. Tammany was the highest in our area, with an average of $54,994. Orleans Parish was not far behind at $53,384. Jefferson Parish paid an average of $51,650, and St. Bernard Parish paid an average of $44,712.
Those numbers have not kept up with inflation or other states.
According to data from the National Education Association, the national average salary for a public school teacher is just under $67,000.
Louisiana’s average teacher salary of $54,097 ranks 43rd in the nation. The average starting salary for teachers is $43,270.
Now, as the school year winds down, tension over teacher salary is ramping up.
“Teachers are engaged and we’re not going to sit down quietly while the state attempts to pass this budget without a raise for teachers and educational support professionals,” Hill said.
The Louisiana Federation of Teachers is now calling on Louisianans to write to their senators and encourage them to put the raise in their version of the budget.
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