News

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RAISES FOR TEACHERS AND SUPPORT EMPLOYEES

There are less than two weeks left in the legislative session. It’s down to the wire and yet, the House Education Committee is still working to block passage of the MFP funding plan in every way that they can. They need to hear from you. Call the House Switchboard right now and ask to leave a message for your representative:

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On Wednesday, the Senate passed SCR 3, which is the MFP! This funding plan was unanimously passed by BESE in March and would secure $101 million for pay raises for teachers and support employees and $39 million for local school districts. Securing this funding in the MFP is crucial because it can not be taken away from one year to the next! The Senate vote was nearly unanimous (Senator Appel of Metairie was the only 'no' vote). Click here to send a thank you note to your senator.

On Monday, the House Appropriations Committee approved a $30 billion budget. On Thursday, it passed through the senate floor nearly unanimously. This budget includes a pay increase of $1,200 for teachers and $600 for support staff, which is slightly more than the proposal made by the Governor and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), but contains major problems:

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On Thursday morning, the Senate Committee on Education voted to approve the MFP that was unanimously approved by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) in March. This is the same MFP that the House Education Committee rejected on April 16th: it includes $101 million for raises for teachers and support staff as well as $39 million for local school districts. The resolution was passed out of committee with nearly unanimously support (6 'yes' to 1 'no'), with Senator Conrad Appel as the lone 'no' vote on the committee.

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Student Input...

Increased Transparency...

Minimum Wage...

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"60992","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image media-image-left","style":"width: 300px; height: 194px; float: left; margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px;"}}]]On Tuesday the House Education Committee had their first meeting of the legislative session. Typically, the MFP resolution is heard much later in the legislative process, when legislators have a more accurate picture of the budget. This MFP reflects Governor Edwards' plan to increase school funding and educators' salaries and it was unanimously approved by BESE in March: $101 million for educator pay raises and $39 million for local school districts. This week, the House Education Committee voted to send the MFP back to BESE and asked them to remove $39 million for local school districts.

After a six month stalemate, the Revenue Estimating Conference (REC) finally came to a decision on the projected revenue for the state budget on Tuesday. Playing political games, Speaker Taylor Barras has again and again refused to recognize new revenues projected by bi-partisan economists. From the first meeting, economist testified that their projections were conservative, but Barras kept rejecting them until he received a report that satisfied his political goals.

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This fiscal session will be very important for teachers and support staff all across the state and at LFT we will be watching closely. Each week throughout the session we’ll send out updates to keep you informed about what’s going on. This session is only 9 weeks long and we have a lot of work to do in order to protect our rights and ensure teachers and support employees get a raise – we need all hands on deck!

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Here’s a damning report from Education Week blogger Marc Tucker that rings true in Louisiana as well as many other states: “From the beginning, the leaders of our state education systems have invited testing experts to help them set the cut points for passing or not passing the state tests.  They listen gravely to the advice of the experts, then ask them how many students will fail at the recommended cut point and set a new one at a point that is politically tolerable.”

Tucker writes as the Nation’s Report Card’s governing board sets out to write new proficiency standards. He is president of the National Center on Education and the Economy, and he believes that current NAEP standards do not align to real-world college and career readiness. That, he says, must change.