BATON ROUGE – Public school teachers and support workers in Louisiana are long overdue for a pay raise. A decade of financial stagnation means the average teacher would need to earn an extra $4,004 to have the same buying power as their salary did in 2008.

But as state policymakers consider the first across-the-board teacher pay raise in a decade, they should be mindful of the wide pay gaps that already exist between different school districts, and seek to prioritize the poorest districts. They also should ensure that teachers and support workers are able to keep up with the rising cost of living by providing annual pay adjustments.

A new report by LBP’s Neva Butkus tracks teacher pay in each of Louisiana’s school districts, and how it has evolved since the last time teachers received annual cost-of-living adjustments. Read more