Louisiana voters will decide Amendment 3 on Saturday, and the vote could decide whether teachers keep the $2,000 stipends they have received for the last several years. If the amendment fails, those payments are likely to disappear unless legislators find another way to pay for them.
Amendment 3 would turn the stipends into permanent pay raises, but it would also dissolve three state education trust funds and use that money to pay off teacher retirement debt. Public schools would then have lower annual retirement payments, and under the proposal they would be required to direct those savings toward the raises.
The stakes are not small. Renewing the stipends would cost about $200 million, and state legislators would have to come up with a replacement if voters reject the amendment. Senate President Cameron Henry said the Legislature is not going to turn around and do something that constituents just voted not to do, adding that if people are angry with Gov. Jeff Landry and want to take it out on their teachers, that is their prerogative, though it does not make much sense.
The trust funds targeted in the amendment have existed for four decades and have helped finance about $1.8 billion in education-related work, including foreign language programs, preschool programs for at-risk children, vocational and technical programs, educator bonuses and updated curriculum materials. Their liquidation would mark a major shift in how Louisiana pays for both teacher compensation and parts of its education system.
The timing adds another layer of pressure. State economists recently predicted Louisiana will bring in about $100 million less in tax revenue than expected during the current and upcoming fiscal years, narrowing the room lawmakers have to work with just as they try to balance teacher pay against other priorities. The revised forecasts cut projected money for the current fiscal year by about $113 million and lower expected money for the fiscal year starting July 1 by about $104 million.
That shortfall is already reshaping the budget fight at the Capitol. House Bill 312 would add about $293 million to the current year's budget in its present form, but State Rep. Jack McFarland said lawmakers will have to trim that by $113 million. Budget bills for next year already call for more money for state prisons, higher salaries for judges and more state funding per student for school operating costs.
Henry said, “Everybody’ll get what they need, maybe not what they want,” as lawmakers wrestle with fewer dollars and more demands. He also warned that “everything is in jeopardy with the reduction in revenue,” a reminder that the amendment vote is landing in the middle of a tighter budget season rather than a comfortable one.
The politics around the ballot also matter. Some observers believe anger over Landry’s decision to halt this month's U.S. House races so Louisiana can redraw its congressional map to favor Republicans could spill into the constitutional amendments on the May 16 ballot. But the actual choice before voters is narrower and more immediate: whether to lock in teacher raises by raiding long-standing education trust funds, or leave lawmakers to scramble for another way to pay for them.
If Amendment 3 passes, teachers get permanence and schools absorb the savings. If it fails, the stipends are in jeopardy and the Legislature will have to decide whether it is willing to replace them at a cost of about $200 million. Saturday's result will answer that question first.
