BATON ROUGE, La. — Will Louisiana teachers get a pay raise next year? The fight for educators is waging on in Baton Rouge.
Thursday, the Senate Education Committee rejected the funding plan put forth by BESE, which included a $2,000 raise for teachers and a $1,000 raise for support workers.
Board members said they support those raises, but disagree with part of the formula for differential pay.
For a refresher, the Louisiana State Senate can’t change the BESE formula, only accept or reject it.
Back in March, BESE put its formula together that included those two-thousand dollar raises across the board, plus an additional thousand for some teachers. /article/news/local/the-breakdown/the-breakdown-bese-proposes-2k-raises-r-louisiana-teachers-will-it-happen/289-edb2fb54-cc59-4722-bc9f-5517670c0ce4
But it was less than what Governor John Bel Edwards had asked for. His budget proposed up to a $3,000 raise and $1,500 raise for support staff, if money was made available. /article/news/education/eductaio-k12-budget-louisiana/289-da13754e-298e-4119-b76f-3dc226337289
According to the National Education Association, Louisiana’s Average teacher salary of about $54,000 ranks 43rd in the nation.
The Louisiana Federation of Teachers tweeted a photo out today of its leaders who came to the State Capitol to fight for the pay increase asked for by the governor. https://twitter.com/LaFedTeachers/status/1659265265014648832
State Superintendent Cade Brumley said during testimony Thursday, “I would say it’s not just about recruitment its about retention. We need to make sure that we’re compensating our teachers well so they’ll stay in the profession.”
Now that the Senate has rejected the BESE plan, there’s a chance those raises could change. Right now, the House version of the proposed budget includes no raises for teachers. /article/news/education/teacher-pay-raises-debated-in-louisiana-state-legislature-local-news-education/289-75354373-8306-4cde-be7e-29dae952a180
The Senate Education Committee says the conversation is not over. All three entities will have to come to an agreement to pass a budget.