Teacher stipend, early childhood education cut in budget proposal

Louisiana lawmakers advanced a state budget proposal Tuesday that would cut public school teacher pay and reduce the number of early childhood education seats available next school year in favor of other education initiatives.

The House Appropriations Committee put forward a spending plan that reduces a $2,000 pay stipend teachers received this school year to just $1,300 next year, saving the state $71 million. It cut $24.3 million out of early childhood education, resulting in a loss of almost 2,000 seats. 

The committee also put money into popular initiatives Gov. Jeff Landry had not funded. It restored $7 million for domestic violence shelters and allocated $3.7 million for a summer feeding program for children, which is expected to bring back more than $70 million in federal assistance.

Another $15 million was added for roof fortification grants, an initiative aimed at lowering Louisiana’s sky-high homeowner insurance rates. In addition, the agriculture department would get $15 million to deal with expenses from last year’s wildfires. 

Legislators are weighing a teacher pay cut in what is supposed to be a relatively easy budget year. In 2025, Louisiana is expected to face much more difficult spending choices, when an automatic sales tax cut leaves the state with a $558 million budget shortfall. 

But the House leadership chose to prioritize other education programs in their spending plan instead of keeping teacher pay level. They put $30 million toward a targeted tutoring program for kindergarten through third-graders and spent $2 million on an internship and apprenticeship program. 

The committee also allocated $25 million toward a controversial differential teacher compensation strategy for the second year in a row.

School districts that receive differential teacher compensation can use the money to pay more to teachers in hard-to-fill positions. The cash can be used to boost the salaries of educators in math, science and special education or those in schools with more low-income students.

Louisiana’s teachers unions have opposed this strategy, in part because the raises teachers receive through differential compensation aren’t permanent and can be taken away from year to year.

Public school teacher unions were already upset that Landry and lawmakers had resisted pressure to transform the $2,000 stipend they received this year into a permanent raise. They are now more frustrated teachers might face an actual pay cut under the initial House budget plan.

“It sends a really bad message to teachers that what they do isn’t valued,” said Cynthia Posey, spokeswoman for the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, one of the two largest teachers’ unions in the state.

Some teachers might not be excited about another stipend because they haven’t received the one lawmakers gave them last year. School districts and charter schools have the option of waiting until close to the end of the school year to disperse the $2,000, which means not all educators have gotten the stipend. 

Despite cutting public school teacher pay, the House committee kept large salary increases for the governor’s cabinet in place and agreed to retain a salary hike for Louisiana State Police that will cost $9 million. 

They also built on Landry’s massive increase to public safety funding in the budget. The governor added more than $100 million in criminal justice spending to the state budget in February, and now legislators have proposed giving prisons and law enforcement millions more. The House committee plan includes $11 million for crime labs, among other things. 

House budget leaders weren’t able to find funding to boost the pay for aides who assist people with disabilities. Advocates asked the state for more money to pay aides who work at night the same rate as those who work during the day.

Currently, night workers receive $13 per hour while the daytime workers receive $18 per hour, which makes it hard for organizations who help people with disabilities to find night workers. Making up the difference in wages would cost the state more than $10 million, McFarland said.

The House members have proposed using $3 million of the state’s own funding – which could go toward teacher pay, disability services or early childhood education – for anti-abortion pregnancy resource centers that used to be funded with federal dollars. Anti-abortion advocates no longer want to rely on federal funding over concerns President Joe Biden could crack down on what services it can support.

The budget proposal also doesn’t include funding to address Louisiana’s high maternal mortality rate, including money to increase reimbursements for medical care during births covered by the Medicaid health insurance program or expanded doula programs for Medicaid patients. 

In an unusual move, the House Appropriations Committee also declined to put any of the state’s surplus funding left over from last year’s budget toward Louisiana’s coastal restoration efforts. Committee Chairman Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, said House leaders decided to prioritize transportation funding over the coast in this budget cycle.

Lawmakers are likely to make several more changes to the state spending plan. The full Louisiana House and Louisiana Senate must also approve the budget before it can become law. 

The full House is expected to debate and vote on the spending proposal Thursday.