La. public schoolteachers pay still at regional average
- By WILL SENTELL
- Advocate Capitol News Bureau
- Published: Dec 3, 2009 - Page: 14A
Despite state budget problems, pay for public-schoolteachers remains at the regional average and ahead of Louisiana's neighboring states, officials said.
Teachers were paid an average of $48,627 for the 2008-09 school year, said Raymond Brady, a consultant for the state's Educating Estimating Conference.
The conference is a panel that tracks public-school trends.
Brady spelled out his preliminary findings to the conference Nov. 18 and elaborated on them this week.
He said teacher pay for the past school year was within $100 or $200 of the regional average, a longtime goal that the state reached for the first time in 2007.
Brady said it also is higher than what teachers were paid in Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
That advantage is noteworthy because, in the past, Texas and other states close to Louisiana have tried to lure teachers to those schools with the promise of higher salaries.
It also takes place amid Louisiana's biggest budget mess in decades.
One education official disputed Brady's figures.
Earlier this year, basic state aid for public schools was frozen for the first time in a dozen years.
While teachers did not get a state pay raise this year, some collected more money from their local school districts.
Teachers won state pay increases of $1,019 in 2008.
Brady said he thinks Louisiana is in good shape to keep teacher pay at the regional average, mostly because other states face financial problems of their own.
"We really worked hard to get to this average here over many administrations," he said Tuesday.
"Now, given the financial situation relative to other states, we are positioned to really maintain that, or maybe drop a little."
The regional average is calculated by the Southern Regional Education Board in Atlanta.
It includes Louisiana and 15 other states.
Figures for the 2008-09 school year may be released this month, said Alan Richard, a spokesman for the SREB.
A lobbyist for the Louisiana Association of Educators, Tom Tate, said he thinks Brady's estimates are too high for Louisiana teachers.
"I just don't see it," Tate said of the $48,627 average.
He said he thinks teachers are paid an average of $46,000 or $47,000 per year.
Tate also said the LAE is not seeking an across-the-board pay raise for teachers in 2010 because of state financial problems.
Revenue available for state services is expected to drop by $3 billion over the next two years.
Tate said his group is working with state officials on the possibility of changing the state's salary schedule, such as paying more for teaching in hard-to-fill jobs.
Average public school teacher pay, 2008-09
Louisiana: $48,627
Texas: $47,158
Mississippi: $42,902
Alabama: $47,100
Arkansas: $45,418
Florida: $46,938Source: Education Estimating Conference
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