$30 billion state budget passes in Senate; teacher pay raises, school district funds included

Published: May 30, 2019

By: Tryfon Boukouvidis, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana Senate passed on Thursday in a 35-2 vote a $30 billion state operating budget for next year that includes pay raises for school teachers, across-the-board increases for school districts and a boost for early childhood education.

Sen. Eric LaFleur, a Democrat from Ville Platte who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said on the Senate floor “I think we have a budget that we can be proud of.”

The Senate Finance Committee on Monday amended the budget bill to better reflect the proposals of Gov. John Bel Edwards and the Board of Education and Secondary Education, or BESE, on public school funding. But the proposal differed from what House Republican leaders pursued.

Earlier this month, House Republican leaders had sent the budget proposal to the Senate after an almost unanimous vote that included $1,200 pay raises for teachers and $600 raises for support workers but excluded the governor’s plan for an additional $39 million block grant for school districts.

Yet, BESE refused to back down from the $39 million state aid proposal.

But eventually GOP lawmakers in the House Education Committee on Thursday backed the governor’s proposal for public school funding.

The Senate-amended budget includes a $140 million increase for K-12 schools, comprised of $1,000 and $500 pay raises for teachers and support workers, respectively, and $39 million funds for school districts.

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