La. officials say federal money lacks teacher pay
Posted on: Saturday, 17 September 2005, 11:38 CDT
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (Reuters) - Louisiana officials on Saturday said a $2.6 billion aid package for schools affected by Hurricane Katrina does not appear to include salaries for displaced teachers, one of the state's primary educational requests.
Officials of the restructuring firm that runs the New Orleans school system have said they are out of money to pay teachers for any periods after Katrina. Cecil Picard, the state superintendent of public instruction, said this week he would seek $2.4 billion for teacher salaries and benefits alone.
But state officials said the $2.6 billion package from the U.S. Department of Education will largely go to functioning school districts that have received displaced students.
"Picard did express concern that as he interprets the proposal it does not currently include money for displaced teacher salaries," the state said.
Officials from the Education Department in Washington could not immediately be reached for comment.
Louisiana has 186,000 displaced students from kindergarten through the 12th grade and 25,000 displaced school employees. Already, other districts in the state have enrolled more than 20,000 displaced children.
Districts will get 90 percent of what the state usually allocates per pupil, up to $7,500 per student. That was in line with a call by U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday for funding for districts that took in displaced students.
Source: REUTERS
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