The Advocate. August 14, 2023.
Editorial: For teacher pay, permanent raises beat a one-time bonus
As they head back to school, teachers have already been at work preparing classrooms and administrators have been trying to ensure that the instructors are there for classrooms.
If the teacher shortages of recent years have somewhat abated, as Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley told the Press Club of Baton Rouge earlier this summer, the declines in enrollments at colleges of education suggests a generational challenge for the profession.
Our classrooms still have a significant number of teachers not certified in the areas where they instruct students; a report by the Legislative Auditor’s Office in May said that certified teachers, typically those who have completed a four-year college degree in education, perform better at the head of the class.
Roughly one of five teachers in Louisiana are either uncertified or teaching outside their field of expertise, and the report says that carries consequences.
We do not doubt it, although certainly there is an important place for midcareer professionals to be certified when they want to take on society’s important challenge of preparing the next generation for life.
Louisiana is not alone in the challenge, as Brumley noted about the auditor’s report. “Today, unfortunately, too few of our teachers are encouraging students, friends and neighbors to consider careers in education,” he wrote. “Even in our colleges of education we note about 500 fewer education graduates annually as compared to just ten years ago.”
While there is much more to a profession than purely compensation — teachers are making on average just over $51,000 a year in Louisiana — the fact is that other states are valuing their teachers’ services higher.
Of the 16 states of the southeastern United States, Louisiana ranks 12th in teacher pay.
The Legislature wrestled this year with a two-step process for teacher pay raises. Gov. John Bel Edwards said the money was available in the general fund, as it was in a year of significantly better state finances.
But approval of a formula for school funding was also necessary, and there were significant debates that derailed the usually smoother process.
Among the issues was whether the state should give raises across the board or give local school boards more flexibility to pay more for hard-to-staff positions, as Brumley did when he was superintendent in Jefferson Parish.
Ultimately, the Legislature agreed to spend $198 million to boost pay for K-12 public school staff, with a $2,000 increase for teachers and $1,000 increase for support workers like teacher aides and cafeteria workers. And some money was sent aside for targeted stipends in high-need areas.
But those are, for now, one-time boosts and not permanent because an overall new school funding formula was not passed.
“To maintain the raises, a new governor and Legislature elected in the fall will have to again allocate the dollars next year,” the Public Affairs Research Council said.
Pay is not everything, but it’s an important thing. It’s a failure in this year’s Legislature not to ensure that the raises are permanent, as other states are constantly raising teacher pay for the long term.
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