Panel declines to endorse teacher salary conclusions
The consultant for a state panel said Tuesday average public school teacher salaries had risen by nearly $2,000 since last year, triggering questions and skepticism from board members.
Mark Brantley, who provides forecasts for the Education Estimating Conference, said he thinks the average teacher salary in Louisiana is $51,560 for the current school year, up from an estimated $49,614 last year.
But David Ray, a member of the panel, repeatedly questioned Brantley’s estimate, especially with no obvious explanation for how the raises were financed.
“This raises a lot of concerns for me,” said Ray, who is senior budget analyst for the state Senate.
The six-member conference tracks public school trends.
Salaries, public school enrollment and other education figures they endorse are often cited in legislative discussions.
However, the board declined to embrace the estimated teacher salary estimate for the 2011-12 school year until more research can be done.
Another meeting is set for February.
Beth Scioneaux, deputy superintendent for the state Department of Education, said her agency can do a survey of public school districts to get an idea what teachers are paid. Scioneaux, a member of the panel, said she thinks pegging average pay this year at $51,560 is too high.
Teacher pay hikes stem from action by the Legislature or local school boards.
However, state aid for public schools has been frozen for three consecutive years, just one sign of the financial struggles state services face amid declining state revenue.
Scioneaux said that, aside from some exceptions — mostly in north Louisiana — locally funded, significant teacher pay raises are rare.
While Brantley has his own methodology, the average is meant to reflect what a typical teacher is paid this school year.
Ray said it would have taken $190 million from the state for salaries and benefits to finance teacher pay raises of nearly $2,000.
He said that, if salaries rose substantially, “we should be able to explain where it came from to our employers.”
Last year Brantley’s predecessor, Raymond Brady, told the panel that average teacher salaries had shot up 85 percent since 1995, which he called the highest gain in a 16-state region.
But Brady said salaries were expected to remain static for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years.
Louisiana has about 50,000 public school teachers.
Stafford Palmieri, policy director for Gov. Bobby Jindal and a member of the conference, questioned whether a drop in the ranks of teachers might have caused average salaries to rise.
Brantley noted that teachers landed major state pay raises in 2007, 2006 and 2001.
Those increases totaled 9.7 percent, 7 percent and 8.1 percent respectively.
Brantley said that, after years of playing catch up, average public school salaries in Louisiana remain slightly above the Southern Regional Education Board average, a longtime standard.
Brantley, who teaches at Delgado Community College, formerly worked for a defense forecasting company.
The original headline on this story, “Board denies salary report,” mischaracterized the stance of the Education Estimating Conference. The panel declined to endorse a consultant’s conclusion that teacher salaries have increased by nearly $2,000 since last year but accepted his wide-ranging report that included the teacher figures.