Louisiana lawmakers make first move on $4 billion in K-12 funding

Legislators took the first steps Tuesday toward approving more than $4 billion for Louisiana’s K-12 public schools in the coming academic year. 

The action from the House Committee on Education gave some members one last opportunity to ask why the allocation doesn’t include a permanent pay raise for teachers and school support personnel. The Landry administration has instead pushed a one-time stipend of $2,000 per teacher and $1,000 for other school staff, similar to what lawmakers approved last year.

Legislators do not have the authority to adjust the Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) formula that determines how much the state provides to each of its 72 public school districts to educate nearly 646,000 students, based on a February count. The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education handles the calculations, and lawmakers can either approve their math or reject their recommendations with suggested changes.

The education committee had no objection to the submitted MFP formula that provides a base rate of $4,015 per student. The proposal goes next to the House Committee on Appropriations.

The forecasted average will increase to about $5,400 from the state once other factors are added, such as the cost of teaching students with exceptionalities and mandated pay increases from prior years.

How much money local districts put into their schools also affects the MFP dole, with the state having to make up the difference in parishes with less of a tax base. 

Beth Scioneaux, Louisiana Department of Education deputy superintendent for management and finance, told the committee the average local share in the formula comes to $9,400, although the actual expenditure will differ in each district.

The proposed $4.098 billion spend for public schools — roughly 40% of the money lawmakers have to pay for general state services and government operations — is $71.5 million more than last year’s MFP formula. 

Another notable change is that $25 million for schools to provide raises for in-demand and high-performing teachers has been baked into the formula. Last year, lawmakers had to allocate that money separately because the Legislature failed to approve an MFP resolution. It forced the state to use the previous year’s formula to determine per-student spending.    

Education Superintendent Cade Brumley told the committee teacher vacancies continue to decline statewide, going from 2,520 two years ago to around 1,100 currently. The bulk of jobs to be filled are in high school-level subjects such as chemistry, physics, algebra, geometry and foreign languages as well as special education for K-12 classes.

The heads of the state’s two teacher unions appeared before the committee to oppose the MFP proposal. 

Larry Carter, president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, called the inability to provide teachers with a permanent pay raise a “state of emergency.” He noted the average teacher salary in Louisiana is $2,500 below the Southern regional average and $12,000 below the national average. In the 2021-22 school year, Louisiana teachers were paid a mean of $52,660 based on parish averages.  

Money lawmakers have put toward high-dose tutoring and school choice measures would be better spent on paying teachers, Carter said.

Michael Faulk, executive director of the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents, suggested more time be made available for public feedback on the MFP formula by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. BESE members have indicated they are willing to take those steps, Faulk said. His group has not taken a stance on the current MFP proposal.

“There needs to be more discussion because we have not calculated the cost of a minimum program of education in this state since 1996,” Faulk said.

A significant change could be in store for the MFP process if the Legislature approves the creation of education savings accounts (ESAs), which would allow families to use public dollars to pay for private school expenses. Lawmakers would have to update the state constitution for the MFP money to be directed into the accounts.  

The current proposal would offer ESAs to low-income families with students in poor-performing schools in the 2025-26 school year, then opening it up to all families regardless of income by 2028-29.