Louisiana teachers won a major victory three months ago, when lawmakers approved a new law requiring teachers and other school employees to be paid overtime for work beyond their job descriptions. But union officials say any sense of a victory has quickly transformed into feelings of disappointment and frustration.
As reported by Aubri Juhasz with Louisiana Public Radio, union leaders say that’s because some school districts are now skirting what became known as Act 311 [with Governor Jeff Landry’s signature on May 28, 2024], by simply changing some job descriptions, adding additional responsibilities, and leaving teachers right back where they started. With the unanimous vote by the state Senate on May 1, followed by a 99-2 vote in the House on May 22, legislators put their support behind Senate Bill 205 before sending it off to the governor's desk.
The legislation stipulates that Louisiana public school districts must pay teachers at least $30 an hour for any work that is not listed in their official job description. Dr. Tia Mills, state president of the Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE) says while some districts already paid overtime for supervising clubs or sporting events others have skirted the law by tacking on new duties, in some cases several pages worth. Mills laughs briefly before stating, I’m laughing because I was very disappointed.” Mills says while teachers may have been doing these things for free, “That doesn’t mean that it’s the right thing to do.”
At a Tuesday, September 3 hearing by the Louisiana House Committee on Education, executive counsel Dannie Garrett, with the Louisiana School Boards Association, (LSBA) told lawmakers that in some cases job duties needed to be updated before the law. And if the state wants districts to pay teachers more then they need to send more money to schools.
Teacher advocates say the irony of this loophole is not lost on them, since overtime pay was one of several bills passed this year intended to reduce teachers’ workload to help retain teachers and reduce turnover. What makes this overtime development doubly painful, they say, is that it was supposed to help compensate a bit for the lack of teacher pay raises by the 2024 Louisiana Legislature. Instead, the legislature approved a $2,000 one-time stipend for teachers and $1,000 for support workers, for the second straight year. That’s despite promises of permanent raises since early 2023.
According to a report issued in April 2024, by the National Education Association (NEA), which cited FY 2022-23 NEA Rankings & Estimates, the average yearly teacher salary in Louisiana stood at $54,248, ranking the state 46th in the U.S.
Separately, in a July 10, 2024 report from iteach.net [an educational institution in Denton, TX], the average yearly teacher salary for the 2023-24 school year in Louisiana stood at $51,566, citing state education department figures.
