Louisiana’s legislative leadership has been toying with the possibility of upping K-12 teacher salaries by $1,000, hedging that commitment on the recognition of additional tax collections for the upcoming fiscal year.
Those revenues came in, but the pay raises did not.
On Monday the Senate Finance Committee released their mark-up of the state’s multibillion-dollar spending plan for the budget year beginning July 1 with spending bumps for higher education, juvenile justice and dozens of other favored projects. Teacher pay raises were left out.
Lawmakers in the upper chamber had the opportunity to divvy up hundreds of millions of dollars in better-than-expected tax revenues after the state last week forecasted $355 million in excess funds for the current fiscal year and $320 million in additional collections for the next fiscal year. The House-approved budget already included pay raises of $800 for elementary and secondary school teachers and $400 for support staff like bus drivers and cafeteria workers, with the widespread expectation of an even higher raise pending additional revenues. A press release from legislative leadership in late April celebrated teachers for their sacrifices during the coronavirus pandemic and teased a larger bump in pay for the state’s public education workforce.
Louisiana’s roughly 50,000 public school teachers are paid an average of $50,923 per year, which is about $4,000 below the average set by the Southern Regional Education Board.
