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Week 7 in the Legislature
It is widely acknowledged that there will be funding available for additional pay increases. To increase the pay raise, the Legislature would have to vote to return the MFP to BESE so that BESE can amend it. BESE has already agreed to the increase, so the decision rests with the Legislature, and some are already pushing back against further increases, claiming there isn’t enough money to go around.
Meanwhile, the legislature has taken up a number of bills that limit or redirect funding that could otherwise be used for our public schools...
Will School Employees Receive a Pay Raise?
On June 1st, Governor John Bel Edwards issued his line item vetoes of HB 1, the budget bill. He shifted appropriations to provide further pay increases for higher education faculty. It has been a long time since our college and university faculty got the raises they deserve, so this is a great re-appropriation. Unfortunately, the Governor did not have the political support or funding to increase the raise for K-12 school personnel beyond $1,500/$750.
Week 6 in the Legislature
In an effort to address the decade-old teacher shortage, numerous bills aimed at enticing retired teachers back to the classroom have been filed. While these bills are getting a lot of attention right now because of the teacher shortage, RTW laws have impacted TRSL since 1957.
Over the years, some of these bills have been so extreme that they threatened the long-term financial stability of TRSL. Currently, there are a few options that are modest in their reach and unlikely to cause damage to the system. They may even encourage a few teachers to come out of retirement and return to the classroom in the short term, but they offer no solution to the crippling teacher shortage that is currently plaguing our schools. Over the last few months, BESE members, legislators, and other officials have touted the idea of retirees returning to the classroom as a solution to the teacher shortage. In truth, the number of retired teachers who chose to return to the classroom has decreased dramatically over the last ten years.
Week 5 in the Legislature
✔️ HB 510: Ending the Onslaught of Trainings
✔️ HB 363: Teacher Voice in SLTs
✔️ HB 98: Amended
✔️ SB 151: Preserving Local Control of ITEP
✔️ HB 819: Extending Maternal Health Leave to All Employees
❌ HB 986: Privatizing Food Services in Schools
❌ SB 145: Eliminating Local Input in Corporate Charter Schools
➡️ Six Opportunities to TAKE ACTION
Week 4 at the Legislature
The legislative session is in full swing, and the committees are considering important legislation that will impact educators and their families all over the state. One of the most enlightening discussions came on Wednesday during the consideration of House Bill 363.
HB 363 (Bryant) seeks to cement existing BESE policy into law. Unfortunately, the policy often isn’t followed in schools. Under BESE policy, SLTs are supposed to be drafted by teachers at the beginning of each school year, based on the unique needs of their students. Unfortunately, in many districts there is little-to-no discussion. This doesn’t happen everywhere, but it does happen too often, and it deprives our students of the individualized attention they are supposed to get from their educators. HB 363 simply says that if SLTs aren’t “developed collaboratively” with the teacher, those SLT scores shall not be used in the teacher’s evaluation.
It is supported by both teachers' unions and the Louisiana Association of Principals – all the stakeholders involved in this process in the schools. However, it faced significant pushback from the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and the Pelican Institute...
Week 3 in the Legislature
This week brought an unexpected twist. The 2022 Regular Legislative Session was paused and interrupted a Redistricting Veto Override Session. On Monday, the legislature announced that a supermajority of legislators did not return ballots indicating they did not want to hold a veto override session. So, constitutionally a veto override session is called.
At the end of the day on Tuesday, the Regular Legislative Session adjourned, and at noon on Wednesday the Veto Override Session began. While scheduled to go at late as Sunday, the veto ultimately took only a few hours. By the end of the afternoon on Wednesday both the House and the Senate voted to override the Governor’s veto of the new Congressional map.