Landry announces bipartisan task force to carve out permanent Louisiana teacher pay raise by Dec. 31st: The "era of patchwork” is over.

“Both myself and the legislature have been committed to delivering a permanent pay raise for classroom teachers and support stuff and we wanted to do it without raising taxes,” Landry said at a Tuesday press conference. “Let me be clear, the money for a permanent teacher pay raise did not exist in the budget under the last governor, and it doesn't exist today, but that doesn't mean it should stop us. There are 51,000 public school teachers and 40,00 support staff across Louisiana. And with the help of the legislature, they are going to receive their raise.”

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and State Senate President J. Cameron Henry, Jr gathered on Tuesday to deliver plans for a permanent teacher pay raise following a failed amendment on May 16th that would’ve secured a $2,250 bump for teachers and support staff statewide.

Landry began by providing some historical background.

“I was one of 870,00 public school students in Louisiana (The year he graduated high school in 1988). Today we have 760,000 public school students,” Landry explained. “Taking into account inflationary dollars, in 1988, Louisiana was spending about 9,400 dollars per student. Adjusted for today's dollars, which includes teacher pay, today we spend $16,000 per student.”

“And here's the most disturbing part: We’re spending twice as much on fewer students, but our classroom teachers are actually making less money today than in 1988 when you adjust for inflation. More money, less students, and the only people who are suffering are the teachers,” the Governor continued.

Landry espoused his plan to secure permanent funding for a pay raise: The creation of a task force that will analyze the current Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) formula, which Landry claims, once scrupulously examined, will reveal where budgets can be consolidated and cut to find the dollars necessary for a substantial and permanent pay raise.

During the conference, neither Landry nor Senate President J. Cameron Henry, Jr. provided a ballpark estimate of how much of a raise this process might secure (although the assumption would be somewhere above $2,000, the amount of the past teacher stipend) or where he believes the bulk of the cuts will emerge from.

“The current formula is $6.2 billion dollars ($4 billion in state and $2 billion in local dollars)…There is no way we can’t find a permanent pay raise in these dollars,” Senate President J. Cameron Henry, Jr. stated, as he outlined who will be part of the 15-member panel responsible for combing through school board budgets and reevaluating the MFP formula.

“The members of this committee will be as diverse as the legislature,” said the State Senator. “We’re also going to include the chair of the House and Senate, both of the Republican and Democratic parties, to make sure we have a 15-member panel that is as reflective as we can of the state's needs. The members will report to me (Task force members are to be named by July 1st). And the goal is for the task force to complete its task by Dec. 31st,” Henry Jr. said.

Landry stated that “nothing is off limits" for the future task force.

“A nothing should be assumed, and nothing should be protected from scrutiny,” Landry continued. “Their charge is to design a formula that is durable, transparent, and sustainable. Permanent raises must be put into the formula. They shouldn't be velcroed into the budget.”

"The era of patchwork, stipends, and year-to-year uncertainty is over. It’s why we’ve had a standstill budget 3 years in a row," Landry concluded. "Today we’re choosing a responsible path, a structural path. Our teachers deserve permanency.”

Next steps include finalizing who will make up the task force panel. Then, once members have been confirmed, the team will review local school board budgets to determine where money can be cut to make room for the pay increase.

“Once the budget reaches my desk,” Landry stated, “I’m hoping we’ll hold another press conference and I’ll go through exactly what our plan is.”