News

Staffing shortages are a big topic all over the country, and rightly so -- educators and school and college support staff bridge every gap necessary to make sure that students and families get what they need.

Join us in a professional development session to dig into staffing shortages from your vantage point and learn some ways to tell your story and step into your narrative power: Saturday, April 9th at 9:30 A.M. on Zoom.

Supporting President Kesler Camese-Jones
Thank you to everyone who has been praying for JFT President Kesler Camese-Jones. This has been a difficult time for our entire JFT family. Kesler is still in the hospital in critical condition and she is not able to receive gifts or cards at this time.

On Wednesday, March 9th we will have a Special Solidarity Day in honor of Kesler. Please wear your JFT union shirt (or any blue shirt, if you don't have a union shirt) and take pictures of you and your colleagues. In the pictures, you can hold up a sign identifying your school and saying "Kesler Strong" -- or hold a sign with a special message to Kesler. Whether you are getting together in a small group to take a picture, or joining up with your whole school – we know that your efforts will mean the world to our president.

Please email your pictures to lmarino@jft.org.
Make sure there aren’t any students featured in your pictures.

This month, the Governor announced his Executive Budget. Each year the Governor releases his proposed budget, based on the revenue recognized by the state Revenue Estimating Conference, and it is largely considered to be the starting point for the state budget process.

In this year’s budget, the Governor proposed a $1,500 raise for teachers and $750 for school employees. He also said that if the REC recognizes additional revenue at their meeting in May, $49 million should go towards funding an additional $500 pay increase for teachers.

This raise would be the largest state-wide pay raise that Louisiana teachers have received in over a decade, and there are already members of the legislature questioning whether or not such an amount is feasible. But the truth is, this isn’t enough. Our schools have gone through cataclysmic changes in the last couple years. Educators feel like they’re working more than ever. Teacher retirement has gone up 25% from 2020-2021 and enrollment in teaching programs is at an all-time low. In order to get out of this hole we’re in, Louisiana needs to do more than just a few hundred dollars better than what was done last year, we need policy makers to recognize the extraordinary sacrifice of our teachers and school employees and rise to this extraordinary moment in history.

Louisiana is nearly $5,000 below the Southern Regional Average, and given teacher raises that are being proposed in other states, that number is only going up. Teachers deserve at least a $2,500 increase this year and next year, along with guaranteed cola increases in perpetuity, so that we don’t fall back into this hole again.