BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Gov. Jeff Landry signed a bill Tuesday doubling personal leave for teachers before issuing an executive order aimed at finding money for permanent teacher pay raises.
The move comes one day after Louisiana’s legislative session ended with lawmakers still without a final plan to fund teacher pay raises, leaving a $198 million gap that must be filled to avoid pay cuts for educators.
Landry said the order is effective immediately and directs the Louisiana Department of Education and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to identify and redirect non-instructional expenses toward teacher pay.
The governor said the order protects student services, including security, food service and transportation. He also said it does not cut money from classrooms, reduce teacher salaries or raise taxes.
“This executive order is the beginning of the structural reform, responsible budgeting, and respect our teachers deserve,” Landry said.
When asked where the money would come from, Landry said it would come from non-instructional parts of the budget. He also pointed to school board fund balances, saying some districts are sitting on large reserves.
“There’s over a billion dollars in unassigned funds that school boards are sitting on,” Landry said. “There are a couple of school boards that are sitting on over $100 million in their fund balances.”
“It is time for these school boards to tighten their belt and to put what they find in those teachers’ checks.”
Landry said the state does not have a revenue problem, but a “priorities problem.” He pointed to declining student enrollment, rising per-pupil spending and teacher pay that he said has fallen when adjusted for inflation.
“Teacher pay in Louisiana has actually declined when adjusted for inflation since I graduated high school,” Landry said. “Teachers were actually paid more when I graduated in 1988 than they do today.”
The order also begins what Landry described as a permanent restructuring of the Minimum Foundation Program, known as the MFP. The MFP is the formula the state uses to fund public school districts.
The governor said the order complements a bipartisan MFP Pay Raise Task Force that will work on a permanent funding mechanism for teacher and support staff raises. Landry said that work must be completed by Jan. 1, 2027.
“This action is not about temporary solutions, short-term patches, or another round of maybe next year,” Landry said. “Far too long, governors prior to this and legislatures have been kicking the proverbial can down the road.”
The proposal comes after lawmakers left Baton Rouge without passing a plan to continue teacher stipends or replace them with permanent raises.
Landry said the executive order is intended to make the 2026-27 school year the last year teachers have to question whether their pay raise will return.
