The Louisiana House unanimously approved a $48 billion spending package Thursday that lets school districts decide how to divvy up some $166 million for K-12 teacher bonuses, an proposed but one lawmakers said budget realities made necessary.Â
The latest version of Legislature's spending package would let districts decide on the size of bonuses paid out to teachers. It offers $39 million more for those bonuses than a House committee's version of the bill, though it fell some $32 million short of $198 million in extra teacher pay Landry's budget proposal had sought.Â
To realize the teacher bonuses, the package slashes $24 million in funding for a key early childhood education program, a move that will cause 1,900 infants and toddlers to lose their day care subsidies, advocates say. The House pulled from $15 million in excess tax collections and $24 million from the state's K-12 education funding formula to add more cash for teacher bonuses, House leaders said.
Legislators left Ïã¸ÛÁùºÍ¿ª½±ÀúÊ·¼Ç¼ last spring by and $2,000 temporary bonuses all public K-12 teachers received last year into permanent raises, who are underpaid compared to their peers in most U.S. states.
But House lawmakers this week said they had to account for the scheduled roll-off of a temporary sales tax next year and plug gaps Landry's budget plan left in the state's K-12 funding formula. The revised budget moves now to the state Senate.
"I think this was as good a bill as we could have provided," said House Appropriations Committee Chair Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Winnfield.
The budget differed from an earlier version passed by the  this week, which allocated enough cash to cover "differential" pay increases for teachers in high-need roles, plus $1,300 stipends for every teacher.
Teacher unions have long opposed giving raises to some educators but not others, arguing that uniform raises are more fair.
McFarland said the stipends were engineered that way at the direction of Landry's administration. Because the spending package passed Thursday moved $24 million allocated for the state's K-12 education funding formula to give teachers bigger stipend, there will be a hole in the budget in that amount — one that, McFarland said, "the Senate will need to address."
Democrats on the House floor urged colleagues to vote against the education funding formula known as the minimum foundation program formula — which lawmakers can approve or reject but not change. The criticized how it permanently carved out those differential payments, which can go to different teachers in different years at the discretion of local officials.
They urged Republican colleagues to invoke their beliefs on "fiscal responsibility" as they considered how to vote on those permanent payments.
"We've already told our teachers we cannot give them a permanent pay raise because of the budget concern over next year. That is a fair argument," said Rep. Jason Hughes, D-New Orleans and vice chair of the Appropriations Committee. "That begs the question, why would we have a double standard here?"
The legislation carrying the formula, , passed the House 69-33, though some Republicans voted against it.
McFarland has stressed in recent days that more tax inflow could soon be recognized by the state's Revenue Estimating Conference, an outcome he said would spell an easy resolution to hand-wringing over the reduced teacher stipends.
The House's budget also featured $15 million for the state's Fortified Roofs program as requested by Gov. Jeff Landry's administration; $21.9 million for the state's Department of Transportation and Development for maintenance and repairs; $10.8 million for Louisiana State Police for Landry's proposed establishment of a New Orleans-specific unit; and $6.9 million for the Department of Children and Family Services' congregate foster care programs, among other proposals. It restored $7 million for domestic violence shelter funding, a popular initiative that Landry had not funded.
The House's main operating budget also included money for a summer feeding program for needy children, though Louisiana Children and Family Services Secretary David Matlock said on the House floor that the money likely wouldn't reach kids until after the summer.
McFarland sharply criticized Landry's administration over that response, calling it "hogwash" that the department could not dole out the money more swiftly through a program it's been running for months.
The state missed a deadline earlier this year to enter the Summer EBT program as Landry's administration said it would decline to participate. Calling it a Band-Aid solution for deeper problems, Matlock said the program from his agency's mission.
Now the Legislature is moving to counter Landry by providing the $3.7 million that would draw down $71 million from Washington, D.C.Â
