YES on Constitutional Amendment 3: Pay off Debt and Make Teacher Pay Raise Permanent

The Pelican Institute recommends a YES vote on Constitutional Amendment 3.

Good public policy often comes down to a simple question: are we using existing resources as effectively as possible?

In Louisiana, the answer hasn’t always been clear. Over time, the state has created a number of constitutionally protected funds dedicated to education, each with specific rules, restrictions, and purposes. While they may be well-intentioned, these structures limit flexibility and can prevent resources from being used where they are needed most.

Louisiana voters will consider Constitutional Amendment 3 on May 16, which seeks to address these challenges by redirecting certain dedicated education funds to permanently increase teacher and support staff pay by paying off teacher retirement debt incurred by local school districts.

Amendment 3 would allow the Education Excellence Fund, the Education Quality Trust Fund, and the Quality Education Support Fund, to be deployed to the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL). The goal is straightforward: pay down the system’s retirement debt, which in turn reduces the costs that local school systems must pay into it each year. By lowering required retirement contributions, school systems would free up significant recurring dollars. Under the broader legislative framework tied to the amendment, those savings must be used to provide permanent salary increases for teachers and other school personnel.

In recent years, state lawmakers have approved temporary stipends to boost what local school boards pay school employees. Stipends from the state are one-time payments; they are different than recurring pay raises that are funded through local school board budgets. Amendment 3 is a better approach. By using one-time state resources to pay down long-term retirement debt, the amendment creates ongoing savings that these workers’ employers can use to fund permanent salary increases: $2,250 for teachers and $1,125 for support staff. This shift moves teacher compensation away from short term solutions funded by state taxpayers and toward a more stable, sustainable structure at the (appropriate) local level that doesn’t require ongoing increases in state spending.

From a policy perspective, Amendment 3 reflects an effort to better align how Louisiana uses its resources. Instead of maintaining multiple dedicated funds with narrow purposes, the amendment consolidates those dollars and applies them to the pressing, system-wide challenge of retirement debt. Reducing debt produces measurable financial benefits, like lower long-term liabilities, reduced annual contribution requirements, and increased flexibility for local school systems. In other words, it turns one-time funds into ongoing fiscal relief. Amendment 3 ultimately asks voters to consider whether currently tied-up dollars can be put to better use by strengthening school personnel compensation through stable fiscal reform.

Additional voting resources may be found here.