Gov. Jeff Landry was adamant Tuesday that Louisiana public school teachers would not see a pay cut in the upcoming school year, but he did not specify where he would find the tens of millions of dollars needed to avoid it.

“I think the teachers deserve certainty. They deserve stability. They deserve respect and a permanent pay raise,” Landry said at a state Capitol news conference.

The governor won’t release details about where the money to restore teacher pay will come from until after the Louisiana Legislature’s lawmaking session concludes Monday. He said he first wants the final copy of the state budget, which the legislature will approve before it adjourns, before he makes that decision.

Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, confirmed that one option to preserve teacher pay involves into another year of teacher pay stipends. The money would come from the funding that gets distributed to K-12 schools through a state school funding formula called the Minimum Foundation Program.

Legislators and advocates for teachers said they want more information about what would lose money in order to keep the teachers’ pay intact.

“I think a lot of members of the legislature would like to see a firm plan,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Kyle Green, D-Marrero, said in an interview Tuesday. “We would like to hear from the governor about where the reductions would come from.”

David Claxton, with the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents and Administrators, also warned that removing money from school district operations could result in layoffs.

“I don’t think that’s a good plan unless there is money sitting around that we don’t know of,” Claxton said.

Avoiding a teacher pay cut this year

For the past three years, the legislature has provided $2,000 and $1,000 stipends to K-12 teachers and school support staff, respectively. But there is no money in the current budget plan to cover those payments, which cost $198 million annually.

The governor and lawmakers were relying on voters to approve a constitutional amendment in the May 16 election that would have provided a permanent teacher salary hike to replace the stipends this year. When it , they didn’t have an immediate backup plan to replace that money.

As a result, the governor floated a entirely new plan to legislators this week that involves taking $150 million from the Minimum Foundation Program to extend the stipends for another year.

The Minimum Foundation Program allocates a total of $4 billion in state funding to public schools, but the $150 million cut would come from the $1.2 billion that goes to “non-instructional” programs. These include school administration, business services, facility acquisitions, construction and other spending outside of the classroom.

Claxton said the cuts would be difficult for small and rural school districts to absorb, particularly when costs for fuel, electricity and food for school lunches are surging.

“If they are going to remove money from the districts, that is not a good thing,” he said.

Teacher advocates are cautiously optimistic, however. Larry Carter, president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, said he is happy Landry and legislators have committed seriously to retaining teacher pay at its current levels, even if he wants more information about the plan.

“We didn’t get a chance to really get the details,” Carter said Tuesday.

As recently as last week, Henry and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, had said they weren’t able to provide another round of teacher stipends this year because of the state’s financial and legal constraints.

Legislative leaders backed off those statements after the governor returned from his trip to Greenland as a special envoy for President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, they committed to coming up with the money to restore teacher pay over the next few months.

“[W]ith the Governor’s commitment expressed today to working with our members, we believe that with constitutional guidelines we can forge a path to providing properly appropriated, recurring funds to pay the teachers stipends in this coming year,” Henry and House Speaker Phillip DeVillier, R-Eunice, said in a joint statement.

Louisiana has 51,000 public school teachers and approximately 40,000 school support workers. In order to provide the stipends again, Landry and lawmakers will need to come up with almost $200 million in the state budget plan that goes into effect July 1.

Henry has said the lawmakers may only need to find $150 million if they exclude certified teachers who work as school administrators from receiving the stipend again.

Long-term plans to keep teacher pay level

On top of the short-term plan to avoid an immediate pay cut, Landry said he will work on a permanent solution to avoid them in the future.

The governor and the legislature are forming a task force to make recommendations for permanently rearranging the Minimum Foundation Program to drive more money into teacher compensation from existing funds.

“There is no way we can’t find a permanent pay raise in those dollars,” Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said at the governor’s news conference.

Landry said teachers deserve to be paid more in general.

“Our classroom teachers are actually making less money today than they did in 1988 when you adjust for inflation,” the governor said.

The governor and legislators will have to work closely with the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on any long-term overhaul of the Minimum Foundation Program. The state school board has more direct authority over it than the governor or lawmakers.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.

The other five districts are among the defendants in a suit filed by nine families, charging that the law is unconstitutional. The mandate is on hold in East Baton Rouge, Livingston, Orleans, St. Tammany and Vernon parishes until the appellate court takes up the issue. State Superintendent Cade Brumley and members of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education are also defendants.

On Nov. 12, U.S. District Judge John DeGravelles issued a barring the law from taking effect, saying the state was not likely to prevail in the suit. Represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church & State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation, the plaintiffs include atheists, Jews, and Presbyterian and Unitarian Universalist clergy, among others.

State Attorney General Liz Murrill filed an appeal asking that the mandate take effect in the 68 parishes not named in the lawsuit, and the appellate panel ruled in her favor.

The first mandate of its kind in more than 40 years,  calls for classroom posters at least 11 by 14 inches in size displaying a state-approved version of the biblical laws in a “large, easily readable font,” accompanied by a statement describing “the history of the Ten Commandments in American Public Education.”

Passed in June, the act requires that a specific, Protestant version be used, accompanied by a “context statement” asserting that “the Ten Commandments were a prominent part of American education for almost three centuries.” Supposed examples given include “The New England Primer,” created around 1688, McGuffey “Readers” from the early 1800s and textbooks published by Noah Webster, DeGravelles noted in his opinion.

“I can’t wait to be sued,” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry told attendees at a GOP fundraiser this summer, as he prepared to sign the edict. “If you want to respect the rule of law, you got to start from the original law given, which was Moses’. He got his commandments from God.” 

Far-right lawmakers in , Utah and South Carolina this year considered but did not pass similar bills, while Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters ordered schools in his state to incorporate the Bible — “which includes the Ten Commandments,” he noted — as “an instructional support into the curriculum.” 

At the time the Louisiana suit was filed, legal analysts told ����Ӱ�� the mandate appeared to set up a case that would essentially dare the U.S. Supreme Court to reinterpret the First Amendment’s opening line — “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Courts have repeatedly held that the Establishment Clause prohibits the creation or endorsement of a state religion.

The of making “false statements relating to a purported history and connection between the Ten Commandments and government and public education in the United States,” in one instance by fabricating a quote to that effect by James Madison, the Constitution’s primary author. In fact, the complaint says, what Madison wrote was that “The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.”

With 12 of its 17 active judges Republican appointees — six named by President-elect Donald Trump during his first term — the 5th Circuit is the  in the nation. It has become a key venue for  drafted by the conservative Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom and others hoping to advance cases that could allow the Supreme Court to shift precedents. The most notable of these has been Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Mississippi suit that overturned abortion rights.

In addition to appealing the Ten Commandments lawsuit, Murrill recently sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, arguing that a major law requiring a host of protections for students with disabilities is unconstitutional. Ostensibly, the lawsuit seeks to overturn a Biden administration rule that Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 protects those who experience gender dysphoria, a clinical diagnosis given to some transgender people.

If Murrill succeeds, however, the case could create a precedent weakening laws against numerous prohibitions on in-school discrimination, according to disability advocates and attorneys cited by the New Orleans news site The Lens, which against federal officials.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry has called for legislation to restrict what children and teens can check out from public libraries. He released a report Tuesday on what he considers sexually explicit materials available to minors at libraries.

Landry is also a candidate for governor who has been endorsed by the Republican Party of Louisiana.

His “” report includes excerpts from several books Landry singled out after a months-long investigation into public libraries. Several of the books include LGBTQ themes and are among the most challenged books in the and by groups that are seeking restrictions similar to Landry’s.

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Among the books are “Gender Queer,” an autobiographical graphic novel by Maia Kobabe about the author’s journey with gender and sexual orientation for young adults. Also on Landry’s list is “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” by George M. Johnson, a series of essays about the author’s experience growing up gay and Black.

Landry denied he is specifically targeting books with LGBTQ themes.

“This is not about banning lifestyles or any other topic,” Landry said. “This is again, about protecting the innocence of children in this state. Any member of the press or public who says otherwise is purposely being dishonest about making this more about just protecting children.”

Age-appropriate books with LGBTQ themes often end up in the crosshairs of conservative officials and proponents for restrictions despite claims they are only seeking to protect children from sexually explicit material.

Landry recently seeking complaints about libraries to protect children from “early sexualization, as well as grooming, sex trafficking, and abuse.”

Critics have called out conservatives for which typically refers to the behaviors sexual predators use to coerce potential victims, to characterize benign actions by LGBTQ people as harmful to children.

Ed Abraham, an organizer with Real Name Campaign, argued that Landry is trying to deny LGBTQ youth access to stories that represent their experiences.

“The bill announced today by Attorney General Jeff Landry was not written to protect children,” Abraham said in a press release. “It was written as part of a nationally coordinated effort by conservative politicians to rally the far-right, disappear LGBTQ+ people, and erase the gains of the LGBTQ+ movement.”

Landry said he was unsure whether comments sent to the tip line were used to formulate the report, but he noted the Louisiana Department of Justice’s investigation into libraries began before the online form was set up.

Landry was accompanied at the press conference by several local officials and state lawmakers, including Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek, who prefiled  a bill Tuesday morning that would to limit children’s and teen’s access to “sexually explicit” materials.

Senate Bill 7 would require libraries to set up a card system. It would allow parents or guardians to choose a card that indicates whether minors are allowed to check out certain materials. The bill also sets new standards for material reviews that would give local library boards the final say on what is sexually explicit. In most parish libraries, a committee of librarians and library employees determine which books are removed from their collections.

Cloud’s bill also sets out financial penalties for libraries that do not comply. It forbids the State Bond Commission from approving the financial packages  for any construction projects that would benefit a noncompliant library. The proposal would also allow, but not require, local governments to withhold funding from libraries.

Rep. Julie Emerson, R-Carenco, said she plans to introduce similar legislation in the House of Representatives.

Landry was also joined by Livingston Parish Councilmember Erin Sandefur, who formerly served on the parish’s Library Board of Control. As a library board member, Sandefur called on the board to with no sexually explicit content.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on and .

Critics say a tip line launched by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry for “taxpayer-subsidized sexualization of children” at libraries is a symptom of an anti-LGBTQ moral panic.

The will field complaints about librarians, teachers and other school and library personnel. Landry made the announcement at Monday’s meeting of the St. Tammany Parish Republican Executive Committee.

“We believe libraries should be safe places for kids to develop a lifelong love of reading, discover intellectual passions, and pursue dreams for a fulfilling career – not where they are exposed (or worse) to books that contain extremely graphic sexual content that is far from age appropriate for young audiences,” Landry wrote in a Facebook post. “Rest assured that we are committed to working with our communities to protect minors from early sexualization, as well as grooming, sex trafficking, and abuse.”

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Landry declined to answer questions as to whether he has investigated sex crimes against children originating in libraries.

Amanda Jones, president of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians, expressed disappointment that Landry is choosing to focus on what she described as a nonexistent issue.

Jones said she was worried the fear of being reported to the attorney general would have a chilling effect on legal speech for librarians.

“Not only is he going to be flooded with extremist groups, you’re just filling out these reports on teachers and librarians. It is going to become like this weird witch hunt that’s very reminiscent of the Salem witch trials or the McCarthy era,” Jones said. “You have the attorney general, stating these things, he’s running for governor. Well, nobody wants to speak out against that power.”

Jones said that in her more than 20 years as an educator and librarian, she has never seen an example of librarians providing sexually explicit material to minors.

“What these people are saying is pornography is books by the LGBTQ community,” Jones said.

St. Tammany Parish, one of the state’s most consistent Republican strongholds, has been the venue for high-profile fights over library content. Several complaints about a Pride Month display this summer triggered an internal review. of people came to a subsequent Library Board of Control meeting to support the display.

Similar confrontations have occurred in Livingston and Lafayette parish libraries, prompting concerns about censorship and LGBTQ prosecution.

Critics have called out conservatives for which typically refers to the behaviors sexual predators use to coerce potential victims, to characterize benign actions by LGBTQ people as harmful to children.

Peyton Rose Michelle, executive director of Louisiana Trans Advocates, called out Landry’s rhetoric.

“Like AG Landry, I am committed to protecting minors, so I can support his call for feedback from the people of Louisiana,” Michelle said. “However, the incredibly inflammatory rhetoric that has fueled these conversations leading up to this action from the AG has not been based on evidence-supported claims.”

In 2018, Landry was criticized for his for clergy sexual abuse. Landry said at the time that he did not have jurisdiction to investigate these crimes and referred complaints to local police entities.

Cory Dennis, a spokesperson for Landry, said that the library tip line is related to Landry’s Cyber Crime Unit but declined to comment further on Landry’s jurisdiction.

Citizens for a New Louisiana, a conservative advocacy group based in Lafayette, has been connected to library battles in Lafayette and Livingston parishes.

The group has highlighted material in those libraries it has deemed .

Michael Lunsford, the group’s executive director, applauded Landry’s actions. Unelected boards and commissions, such as local library boards of control, could benefit from Landry’s oversight, he said

“There are laws in the state of Louisiana about material harmful to juveniles,” Lunsford said. “So the attorney general in his capacity as the chief law enforcement officer in the state, it only makes natural sense that he would be curious and want to look into these things.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on and .