Gov. Jeff Landry said Monday that state government employees should not receive pay raises unless Louisiana teachers get a permanent raise this year.
The statement came after Louisiana voters rejected Amendment 3 in Saturday’s election. The proposal was meant to make pay raises permanent for teachers and support workers. It would have required the state to dissolve three education trust funds to pay off employee retirement debt early for K-12 school districts and universities. School districts would have been required to use their savings to give teachers and support workers raises of $2,250 and $1,125, respectively.
“In light of Amendment 3 falling short, I want to make it very clear—if our teachers don’t get a permanent raise this year, nobody in state government gets a pay raise. I mean nobody,” Landry said on social media.
Without the amendment passing, teachers and school staff now face a pay cut. Legislators had been giving them $2,000 and $1,000 annual pay stipends for the past three years, but Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said they would not continue to do so if the amendment failed.
If the President of the Senate is to be believed (and I have no reason not to), a large majority of the 30% or so of voters who bothered to go the polls Saturday actually voted to reduce teacher pay by $2,000. The thinking is that many were those who just wanted to stick it to Governor Landry by voting no on all amendments, but to what end?
If people paid attention, they would know that the state is facing an accelerating budget deficit that will require reducing spending for years to come. Since teachers are not state employees, rather local district employees, and since school boards have not been particularly successful in convincing local voters to support taxes for teacher pay in their districts, this may have been the last time in a long while that there was a state plan that could have worked.
But I guess demagoguery and emotion ruled at the polls and teachers will suffer the consequences. Disbelief? Absolutely.
Advertisement
Advertisement
