In the last two election cycles, out-of-state billionaires, hedge fund managers and school privatizers have poured millions of dollars into Louisiana school elections.

Louisiana is one of more than 30 states to be graded “F” on our support for public education in a new report from the Network for Public Education and the Schott Foundation for Public Education.

“Grading the States: A Report Card on Our Nation’s Commitment to Public Schools,” tracks the growth of private, for-profit charter and voucher schools that divert funding from public schools.

(Baton Rouge – August 13, 2018) Louisiana spends more than a billion dollars less on education, adjusted for inflation, now than it did prior to the recession of 2008, according to a new study by the American Federation of Teachers.

“It has taken our legislature 10 years to finally adopt a budget that is stable and predictable, without playing budget tricks and sweeping funds for one-time money,” said Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Larry Carter. “Now it’s time to address the neglect the situation that bad decisions by the previous administration brought us to.”

The Legislature passed a budget: Now it's up to us to fight for our children, our schools, and our profession!

The war on teacher unions continues: We care. We fight. We show up.

Judging by the reaction from Louisiana’s biggest business lobby, you might think that a recent Supreme Court decision about public sector unions will have a major impact in our state.

It won’t. But that’s not stopping big business from using the decision to attack the LFT and other unions in our state. Here are the facts.

Legislature steps back from budget cliff!

When it all came down to a vote, lawmakers didn’t even need the full 10-day special session to take a step back from the fiscal cliff and compromise on a multi-year budget fix that sets Louisiana on a more stable, reliable course.

Nearly 4,000 teachers respond to LFT survey
LFT will confer with local leaders and partners about next steps

(Baton Rouge – May 21, 2018) Large majorities of Louisiana public school teachers favor some type of action to convince the state legislature and local school boards that pay raises are needed, according to a survey of nearly 4,000 teachers released by the Louisiana Federation of Teachers today.

Here is your source of information about the 2018 Legislative Session. See the LFT's goals for the session, catch up on our Weekly Legislative Digest, and check out the list of bills supported and opposed by the Federation.

Governor John Bel Edwards has announced his education agenda for the regular legislative session that opens on Monday, March 12, and ends on June 4. The governor's agenda includes reasonable, fair changes to the teacher tenure process and teacher evaluati

Let’s start with a simple fact: Teachers and school employees haven’t had a state pay raise in years. Our teacher pay is about $2,000 behind the Southern regional average, and the average salary of Louisiana teachers has actually gone down over the past two years.

Here’s what can’t happen until we get a state budget that is stable, predictable and fair: Teachers and school employees can’t get a pay raise. We can’t fix our roads and bridges, preserve our coastline, support colleges and universities, or provide other public services that we must have for a decent quality of life in Louisiana.

Lawmakers know that. As State Rep. Franklin Foil said, “Until we get the budget stable, I don’t think there is going to be a push to raise teacher salaries.”