Louisiana Teachers Deserve a Permanent Raise
Louisiana is spending millions on temporary teacher stipends. Now lawmakers must decide whether better pay becomes a permanent investment in the state’s classrooms.
BATON ROUGE, La. — The message from educators filling a state Capitol committee room Thursday was difficult to miss: Louisiana cannot build a stronger public school system on temporary checks.
Lawmakers have begun reviewing the state's Minimum Foundation Program, or MFP, the formula used to distribute state education funding to local school systems. The goal is to find a permanent, predictable way to pay teachers and school support staff more.
The timing is significant.
For the 2026-27 school year, Louisiana is providing $2,000 stipends to classroom teachers and $1,000 to support staff. The plan requires about $168 million to be redirected from the MFP.
That money will help educators this year. But it does not answer the larger question: Why shouldn't higher teacher compensation become a permanent part of the cost of educating Louisiana's children?
Louisiana knows the problem
The latest National Education Association data rank Louisiana 49th in the nation in average teacher salary, at $56,785. The national average is $74,495. Louisiana's average starting teacher salary is $46,850.
That is more than a ranking.
Lower pay can make it harder for school systems to attract and retain qualified educators, particularly when teachers can look across state lines for better compensation.
Meanwhile, Louisiana has continued to find ways to provide temporary increases.
The state's current plan shows that lawmakers can identify hundreds of millions of dollars for educator compensation when they make it a priority. The challenge is creating a recurring funding source that school districts and teachers can depend on year after year.
The money is coming from education funding
The $168 million being used for this year's stipends is not new money.
It is being redirected from the MFP, Louisiana's primary state funding mechanism for public schools. State officials have said the reduction is intended to come from non-instructional portions of the formula, while protecting areas such as transportation, security and food services.
That approach has raised concerns among school leaders because money removed from one part of a school system's budget can still mean difficult choices somewhere else.
The Legislature's own resolution acknowledges the problem: teacher and support-staff compensation is a recurring expense, and relying on one-time money is not a sustainable way to pay employees.
The bigger investment is in students
This debate is ultimately about more than teacher pay.
Students spend most of their school day with educators. Experienced teachers provide stability, build relationships with families and help students succeed academically.
If Louisiana wants to improve its schools, it must also be willing to invest in the people responsible for educating its children.
Gov. Jeff Landry has said the goal is a permanent raise, not another temporary stipend. His administration and legislative leaders created the bipartisan MFP Pay Raise Task Force to develop a long-term funding structure without raising taxes.
The task force is scheduled to make recommendations by Jan. 1, 2027.
That allows lawmakers to move the conversation beyond another annual bonus.
Louisiana's teachers are not temporary. The children they teach are not temporary. The state's commitment to educating them should not be temporary either.
