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“We understand that Gov. Jindal has drawn a line in the sand with his no new taxes pledge,” Monaghan said. But on one side of this line are cheaper cigarettes, addiction, cancer and death. On the other side is better health. There ought to be no political downside for the governor to allow the extension of this existing tax.”
- LFT President Steve Monaghan

Click here to tell your senator and representative to override Governor Jindal's veto!

A sustained attack on public education in Louisiana has brought together a new coalition of organizations that have not always seen eye-to-eye, but are united in their commitment to our schools.

(Baton Rouge – May 25, 2011) As Louisiana faces a $1.6 billion budget deficit, the Legislature has advanced bills that would eliminate Louisiana's corporate and personal income taxes. Another would make it even more difficult to pass budget bills in the House of Representatives. This is apparently being done without significant opposition from the governor’s office.

(Baton Rouge – May 12, 2011) Governor Bobby Jindal and the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education should be in no hurry to appoint an interim state superintendent of education, Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan said today.

(May 10, 2011) State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek today announced that he will resign from the Department of Education to become lead counsel and corporate secretary for an aerospace firm in Washington, D.C. LFT President Steve Monaghan issued the following statement after Pastorek made his announcement:

The Louisiana Federation of Teachers wishes Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek well as he returns to the private sector. As the search begins for a new superintendent, we call upon Gov. Bobby Jindal to use carefully this opportunity for a fresh start.

(Baton Rouge – May 5, 2011) A Baton Rouge district judge has affirmed an administrative law judge’s ruling in favor of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, the American Federation of Teachers and Filipino educators who were victims of an illegitimate California-based recruiting firm.

Hundreds of citizen lobbyists, representing the diverse Better Choices for a Better Louisiana coalition, met at the capitol on May 4.The coalition is urging lawmakers and Gov. Jindal to pass a budget that does not rely solely on cuts to important services to achieve balance.

LFT President Steve Monaghan was the guest on Spud McConnell's WWL-AM talk show Thursday afternoon, April 28. Listen as Steve demolishes Chas Roemer's arguments against teacher tenure.

Watch this at WWL

Tax policy should be fair, and the responsibility for supporting public services should be evenly distributed.

Right now in Louisiana, our poorest citizens pay over 10 percent of their income in state and local taxes, while the top one percent – those making over $1 million a year – pay about five percent.

Lobbyists for big business complain that Louisiana has high corporate taxes, but because of all the exemptions available to them, big business actually pays less than one-fourth of the taxes on the books.

Louisiana doesn’t have a spending problem, we have a revenue problem. The bulge in the budget over the past five years was from federal disaster relief and recovery funds. Spending in the state general fund has remained flat, even though the demand for state services has risen.

In a series of press conferences around the state, the Better Choices for a Better Louisiana coalition made a powerful case for raising new revenues for the state, and announced that the coalition will have a lobby day on Wednesday, May 4.