By Nolan McKendry | The Center Square

Gov. Jeff Landry told Louisiana teachers this week that they might no longer receive the $2,000 stipends they’ve been paid for the past two years, after the constitutional amendment meant to make the pay boost permanent failed to pass.

“We’ll continue to work inside the budget to see what we can find, and we’ll see where it ends up. I’m making no commitment on that,” Landry said at a news conference on Wednesday.

In a letter dated April 8, Landry addressed members of the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana, offering a personal message of appreciation while explaining why the stipends can’t continue.

“My belief in our teachers is why we worked to extend the $2,000 stipend last year, despite a potential budget shortfall,” Landry wrote. “Regrettably — with the setback faced by Amendment 2 — we are back to the drawing board, as no existing alternative recurring resources exist to fund the permanent salary increase you deserve.”

The stipends, first awarded in 2022, were seen as a temporary measure to supplement educator pay in a state that ranks near the bottom nationally in teacher salaries.

Landry and lawmakers extended the payments last year by agreeing to collect sales taxes on digital goods like streaming services and downloads — a move that helped offset the cost.

“We knew that we were going to have a budget shortfall this year,” Landry said during a press conference Tuesday. “But even knowing that… we agreed to the [digital goods taxes] to extend that stipend.”

To make the stipends permanent, Landry backed Amendment 2, a proposed constitutional change that would have redirected state savings to pay down high-interest pension debt. In doing so, Landry argued the state could save more than $1 billion in interest payments and use the freed-up funds to guarantee raises of $2,000 for every teacher and $1,000 for school support staff.

“I sent out a letter yesterday to every teacher in the state of Louisiana clearing the air, because there was a lot of disinformation and outright lies about what the legislation worked so hard to accomplish,” Landry said.

In the letter, Landry reaffirmed his administration’s broader education agenda, including efforts to reduce testing, scale back administrative burdens, and give teachers more classroom autonomy. But on pay, the message was clear: without new constitutional authority or a dedicated funding source, the stipends are gone.

For now, the administration says it’s open to ideas but offers no firm plan for replacing the lost income — leaving teachers with little more than thanks and uncertainty.

“Just as one would eagerly accept a friend’s offer to pay off their mortgage, Amendment 2 was designed to be that friend,” he wrote in the letter.

But voters rejected the amendment, leaving the stipends without a sustainable funding source. The governor emphasized that no new money currently exists in the budget to continue the payments.