We’re schoolteachers. We’re here to inform.

Though it’s been promoted as a raise, Amendment 2 actually guts education funding. Many teachers will see no pay increase. Many will see pay cuts. Charter-school teachers like us will see nothing at all. Vote NO on Amendment 2.

by JADA SMILEY AND COREY BIGGINS
ORLEANS PARISH CHARTER SCHOOL TEACHERS

To push an unpopular agenda, Gov. Jeff Landry is holding teacher-pay hostage. If he truly cared about the futures of the next generation and teachers like us amid Louisiana’s rising cost of living, he would have included a permanent pay raise in this year’s budget proposal.

Instead, he created a trap by tying an existing stipend to Constitutional Amendment 2 to force teachers and our unions into supporting his rewrite of the tax code.

We know: this is not about pay—it’s about gutting education funding. To make it worse, he and the amendment’s sponsors have insisted on misrepresenting it as a “raise”. As our students can tell you, a “raise’ is an increase in compensation. Amendment 2 does the opposite: many teachers will see no pay increase, many teachers’ pay will be cut, and charter school teachers like us will see nothing at all. 

It’s no surprise that Landry and the legislators and lobbyists behind Amendment 2 have tried to mislead the public on this point. They are the same people who packaged 109 pages of changes into 91 words on a ballot during a March election they knew would have a low voter turnout. Their whole strategy has been to try to slip this amendment through, without the public understanding their true goals.

As voters, we must see past this. Landry may be trying to use us as political pawns to gut education funding. 

As educators, it is our job to inform. This amendment is not about helping teachers—it’s about gutting school funding. Don’t fall for the smoke and mirrors. Vote NO on Amendment 2. 

Amendment 2 is a scam

Louisiana legislators could, and should, give teachers an actual raise during a regular legislative session without gutting our education trust fund. But Amendment 2 would liquidate state education trust funds that last year provided $68 million to education at no cost to taxpayers.

by MATTHEW GREEN
COLLEGE EDUCATION PROFESSOR

I’m a former third grade teacher, current associate professor of education at the largest teacher preparation program in the state, and I’m voting No on Amendment 2 because Louisiana deserves better. 

Instead of permanently and sustainably raising teacher pay, Amendment 2 locks in a regressive tax structure that limits state revenue generation, restricts the state’s ability to provide services, and disproportionately forces those in poverty to bear the burden. 

Amendment 2 would liquidate Louisiana’s education trust funds that have created over $2 billion for education funding.

Last year alone these funds poured over $68 million into our schools and universities at no cost to taxpayers. Amendment 2’s proponents are promising a teacher pay raise, but in reality some teachers won’t even see the pay bump and will just replace pay teachers were already getting.  Make no mistake—our legislators could, and should, give teachers an actual raise during a regular legislative session without gutting our education trust fund. 

Amendment 2 cuts early childhood education funding, workforce development funding, and higher education funding that focuses on promoting economic, industrial, business and professional development. These programs are critical to Louisiana thriving and prospering.

Currently, Louisiana spends over twice as much per capita on prisons than it does on schools. Louisiana deserves schools that are funded at better rates than our state prisons and we need to tell lawmakers to get their priorities straight. 

As an Associate Professor of Education at the largest teacher preparation program in the state I get to teach future and current educators about how to improve education in their classrooms, schools, and across the state. I tell these future teachers that Louisiana needs them at their best despite not getting the best from Louisiana in return. Amendment 2 would further hamstring teacher’s ability to do their jobs. 

I often tell people that Louisiana is a poor state by design. Being a poor state starts with the decision of lawmakers about what, and if, they invest in education, housing, healthcare, jobs, and infrastructure, to create the conditions under which people do or don’t thrive. Amendment 2 doesn’t just rob Louisiana of its present, it also robs Louisiana of its future. 

Schools and teachers are too often put in the position of having to respond to the institutional failures of Louisiana – poverty, lack of healthcare, lack of housing, food insecurity, and lack of jobs and opportunities. Teachers and schools face these realities on a daily basis. Seventy-one percent of public school students in Louisiana are considered economically disadvantaged. Yes, teachers deserve better pay. But teachers don’t deserve a cut to their resources to do it. 

VOTE NO on Amendment 2 on March 29th because Louisiana deserves better. 

Vote at your local precinct today, Saturday, March 29. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Find your polling location here.