Louisiana lawmakers have advanced a bill to increase teacher pay. The measure comes less than a month after voters rejected a constitutional amendment that included permanent teacher pay raises. Lafayette Representative Josh Carlson sponsored House Bill 466. “Every year we’re not debating this and trying to say, ‘okay, well this year are we’re going to do a stipend? Okay, next year are we going to do a stipend? And we don’t have it budgeted, where are we going to pull money from to be able to do it.”
The bill would require districts to use savings from eliminating three state trust funds to provide $2,000 raises for teachers and $1,000 for support staff. Then the measure must receive voter approval in a statewide election to become effective.
The average teacher salary for public school teachers in Louisiana stands at $52,376. That’s according to the nonprofit data analysis website Data Pandas. That places the state as the 46th ranked state for teacher pay in the U.S. For comparison, Arkansas ranks 44th at $52,486, Oklahoma ranks 34th at $54,804, while Texas ranks 25th at $58,887.
