The legislature wrapped up its regular session this week without funding a teacher pay raise or another one-time stipend.
Instead, Governor Jeff Landry is asking lawmakers to pull the money needed for stipends from existing school funding.
WWNO education reporter Aubri Juhasz spoke with host Adam Vos about the potential impact on schools.
The following conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
ADAM VOS, HOST:
Let me make sure I’m understanding this. Landry wants to give teachers another one-time stipend — $2,000 for teachers and $1,000 for support staff, like before — but instead of adding to the budget, he wants to reallocate existing funds.
AUBRI JUHASZ, BYLINE: Correct. Under the governor’s executive order, teachers would receive a stipend at school districts’ expense, since the money would come from the $4 billion the state sends to public schools.
Schools would lose almost $170 million dollars. That’s about $30 million less than the state spent on stipends last year, since it’s restricting them this time to classroom educators. Principals are no longer included.
VOS: Is this because voters rejected dissolving the state’s education trusts in the May 16th election to fund a permanent raise?
JUHASZ: Yes. This is Landry’s workaround to make sure teachers don’t get a pay cut this year.
State revenue is down, and that’s expected to continue, so lawmakers argued they couldn’t add money to the budget for raises or stipends. Though they increased funding for prisons and included pay raises for some state employees.
Education has really been the focus of cuts. Lawmakers rejected a proposed increase in school funding to help cover the rising costs of fuel, property insurance and other expenses. They also removed the governor's request to expand funding for the state's school voucher program.
There’s been plenty of discussion at the Capitol this year about how Louisiana schools are underfunded. The amount of money schools get per student hasn’t increased since before the pandemic. But at his press conference yesterday, Landry argued schools have more than enough money.
JEFF LANDRY: We do not have a revenue problem. We have a priorities problem.
Landry suggested that districts have the money to pay teachers more but are choosing not to, and that the bureaucracy of school systems and six-figure salaries for superintendents and other officials are to blame.
VOS: Money flows to schools through the state’s school funding formula. Do we know exactly where in the formula the money will come from?
JUHASZ: We don’t yet. Landry has tasked the state’s department of education and board of education with figuring that out. His order says the money must come from “non-instructional dollars,” meaning funds that don’t go directly to classrooms.
The order also says school districts should avoid cutting security, transportation and food services and use any savings they have first.
VOS: Do districts have savings to dip into?
JUHASZ: It really depends on the district, and some school officials are warning that small, rural districts could be forced to lay people off in order to cover the stipends.
The biggest part of school funding is local revenue, and that varies widely. Some communities raise more than enough, while others struggle because of low property values and few businesses. Those districts are really reliant on state dollars.
Dannie Garrett with the Louisiana School Boards Association said at a state board meeting in January that because Louisiana hasn’t consistently increased education funding, districts have become more reliant on local dollars.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DANNIE GARRETT: What you've had is the gap between the poorer districts and the wealthier districts has gotten larger and larger and larger.
JUHASZ: Adam, I listened back to this particular meeting last night because, in it, the chief financial officer for schools in Evangeline Parish, in the middle of the state, talked about how her district has already been through several rounds of budget cuts.
Property insurance has doubled. They’re dealing with increased health insurance costs, workers' compensation and aging facilities. Here’s Amy LaFleur speaking at that meeting.
AMY LAFLEUR: The fact that we can't give raises, the fact that we locally can't do what... I'm not that far from Lafayette Parish, I'm not that far from Rapides. I'm actually slap dab in the middle.
JUHASZ: LaFleur said she’s lost teachers to other parishes that can afford to pay a lot more. She said she lost a teacher midyear who was making $46,000 and left for a job making $85,000.
So the reality is, teacher pay is all over the place across the state. Competition means districts with less revenue, like Evangeline, are losing teachers. Leading to vacancies, uncertified teachers. LaFleur said at that meeting that the state is to blame.
LAFLEUR: If we had been funded in all the years that we were not, I don't know that we would be facing the dire straits that we're facing now.
VOS: Aubri, is Landry’s plan a done deal?
JUHASZ: Probably. The constitution requires two-thirds of the House and Senate to approve changes to school funding. They’ll vote by mail since the legislature is no longer in session.
With a Republican supermajority in both chambers, meaningful opposition is unlikely. And Landry’s order is supposed to take effect July 1.
Additionally, lawmakers have created a bipartisan task force to look at the state’s school funding formula to find money for a permanent raise. Their recommendations are due by the end of December.
VOS: Aubri Juhasz is WWNO and WRKF’s education reporter. Thanks for your reporting.
JUHASZ: You’re welcome.
