Louisiana Democratic Party fights for teacher raise, emphasizes need of unity

Yahoo

04-04-2025

BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — Last weekend, Louisiana voters headed to the polls, where a majority voted no on four amendments that had passed out of the legislature last year.
'This is not the end for us, and we will continue to fight to make the generational changes for Louisiana to succeed,' said Gov. Jeff Landry in a statement. 'This is not the end for us, and we will continue to fight to make the generational changes for Louisiana to succeed.'
Days later, the Louisiana Democratic Party new executive director, Dadrius Lanus held a press conference. He, along with Democrat state leaders, spoke about the failed amendments covering specialty courts, tax reforms, juvenile prosecution and judicial vacancies.
'Louisiana is not conditioned for failure,' said Lanus. 'Louisiana and the people of Louisiana are conditioned for opportunity, equity and progress and Saturday's vote proved it.'
Democratic state leaders see the defeat as a sign of unity.
'These amendments failed by over 60% of the vote,' said State Representative Edmond Jordan. 'This is the first time that the people really had a real opportunity to show the administration how they feel since the gubernatorial election.'
One of the failed amendments that's bringing concern to the people is Amendment 2, which was heavily promoted. One of the items in the amendment aimed to give teachers a raise, but with that amendment failing, now the pay raise is uncertain. Democratic state leaders send out a message to educator, emphasizing that they plan to fight for the educators during this upcoming session.
'I serve on the Appropriations Committee and I know that they're committed to making sure that the teachers get their fair wages that they should get,' said State Representative C. Denise Marcelle.
'There are several bills that have been filed that will create teacher pay raises, which will give a portion of the budget, whether it be dedicated tax funds or otherwise,' said Jordan. 'If the governor is serious about making sure that teachers get pay raises this session, we're going to give them every opportunity.'
Despite the political party, Democrats said the goal after this march election is the importance of voting, unity and make the state better as a whole.
'We're urging this administration and this Republican dominated legislature to engage with our Democratic legislators to forge legislation that's going to benefit our citizens, protect the interest of our citizens,' said Randall Gaines, chairman of Louisiana State Democratic Party.
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