Law adds to districts' money woes
by Barbara Leader - News Star (excerpt)

The upcoming school year promises to be a tight one financially for most districts, but an unfunded mandate by the Louisiana Legislature has many districts even more concerned about their bottom line. The responsibility for paying stipends for nationally board certified teachers will likely become a local responsibility for the upcoming school year.

Louisiana law requires the governing authority of any public elementary or secondary school to give a minimum $5,000 pay supplement per year for 10 years (the life of the certificate) to teachers who have obtained their national board certification and who are employed by a public school district. School districts may receive reimbursement from the state of up to $5,000 per teacher per year, subject to legislative appropriation. "It's just something else put back on the locals," Franklin Superintendent Lanny Johnson said.

Since the law was enacted in 2005, the allocation for the nationally board certified teachers has come from the state. Last year, local districts were required to make up $16 of the $5,000 yearly stipend. For the upcoming school year, pending budget cuts from the state level make it likely that the local districts will be required for the first time to fund those stipends.