Louisiana voters will return to the polls to decide whether to approve a constitutional amendment that would permanently raise teacher salaries by $2,250 and support staff salaries by $1,125 under a pair of bills that received final passage in the Legislature on Thursday.

House Bill 466 by Rep. Josh Carlson, R-Lafayette, and HB 473 by Rep. Julie Emerson, R-Carencro, will ask voters to approve eliminating multiple constitutionally protected education trust funds in favor of giving raises to Louisiana teachers, who make roughly $5,000 less on average than educators in other southern states and about $15,000 less than the national average, according to data from the Southern Regional Education Board. If voters approve the amendment, teachers will receive the raises in the 2026-27 school year.

The raises are slightly higher than the $2,000 and $1,000 pay bumps the bills originally proposed. The Louisiana House of Representatives unanimously approved the additional increase Thursday. Both pieces of legislation now head to the governor’s desk for his signature.

“I brought this bill on behalf of our teachers,” Carlson said in a statement. “We wanted to ensure that we did all we could to provide a permanent pay raise.” 

The bills, which repackage part of a constitutional amendment championed by Gov. Jeff Landry that voters shot down earlier this year, are the state’s latest effort to increase educators’ compensation. Lawmakers failed several times in recent years to increase their pay, opting instead for one-time stipends three years in a row. If signed into law, the bills will turn the stipend amount teachers currently receive into a slightly larger permanent pay increase.

Emerson’s bill eliminates three trust funds that funnel millions annually toward state K-12 education initiatives, including early childhood education, student testing help and efforts to improve struggling schools. Instead, the trust funds would be used to pay off longstanding debts related to Louisiana’s teacher retirement system, which is expected to save school districts $2 billion in interest payments. Carlson’s bill mandates that school systems use the savings to give teachers raises.

The bill also requires the state to step in to subsidize the full cost of the raises for districts that do not realize enough savings to do so on their own. It will also cover the estimated $16.7 million to give raises to teachers and staff at charter schools that don’t pay into the retirement system.

The state will have to spend around $250,000 to fund the raises in the roughly seven districts that are expected to come up short in their savings, according to cost estimates for Carlson’s bill. Other districts are expected to have nearly $36 million left over after providing the raises, which the legislation says can be put toward a limited number of uses, including giving teachers additional pay bumps.

If the governor signs the bills into law, Louisiana voters will then need to approve changing the state constitution to eliminate the trust funds. Lawmakers say that vote will likely not happen until April 2026. 

The state’s largest teachers union supports the raises but has expressed concerns about funding them through debt-payment savings.

Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Larry Carter told lawmakers last month that it would be better to include the pay increases in the state’s school-funding formula to prevent the money from being funneled toward different uses down the road.

Educators “cannot rely on good intentions alone,” he said, adding that “we want to get some guarantees.”