State shifting part of teacher pay expense to local districts
by Robert Travis Scott - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

Under a new state policy with an especially big impact in Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes, local school districts next year will be expected to pay a mandatory $5,000 stipend for each nationally certified teacher because the Louisiana education department is discontinuing its past practice of covering the cost. The bill could reach $880,000 for the Jefferson Parish public school system, which leads the state with 176 nationally certified teachers, and $655,000 for the 131 certified teachers in the St. Tammany district. Stipend expenses for the Orleans and Recovery School districts could surpass $200,000. "These are difficult times, and all of us -- every government supported agency -- must come to terms with the fact that we will be asked to do more with less," state Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek said in a statement released Tuesday. Under an 11-year-old state law, teachers with certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards are supposed to receive an annual supplement of $5,000, which until now has been paid out of the state budget. If the state does not pay it, the local school districts will have to pick up the tab. The Department of Education expects to save $5.6 million in state general fund money during the next fiscal year by dropping its financial support for the program. Like most state agencies, the department is looking for cost reductions to cope with an anticipated 10 percent cut in its operating budget.