• By WILL SENTELL
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Feb 27, 2008 - Page: 11A

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Public schoolteachers are paid an average of $46,800 per year, which meets the regional average for the first time, officials of a state panel said Tuesday.

“We have been discussing it for years,” Raymond Brady, a staff official for the state’s Education Estimating Conference, said of reaching the regional figure.

The six-member panel develops information on state education trends, including teacher salaries, public school enrollment and the size of the teacher work force.

Teachers won pay raises of at least $2,375 last year, which officials called the biggest increase in state history.

Gov. Bobby Jindal said in November that he was unsure whether his budget proposal will keep teacher salaries at the regional average for the 2008-09 school year.

Jindal’s education spending plans will be unveiled Friday. Brady said salaries will have to rise by about 3.5 percent per year to stay at the Southern average.

The regional average is set by the Southern Regional Education Board in Atlanta.

It includes Louisiana and 15 other states, most in the South.

The average teacher pay for the current year is $46,700, or $100 less than the Louisiana average, according to figures distributed by Brady.

“This is still unofficial but Louisiana has reached the SREB simple average,” Brady told the panel. Figures are set to become official after the state’s financial year ends on June 30.

Under the latest estimates,  Louisiana teachers rank fifth in pay for the 16-state region.

George Silbernagel, a member of the panel, said teacher pay in Louisiana has risen by about 60 percent since the mid 1990s compared to about 40 percent in other SREB states.

Teachers in Maryland are paid an average of $57,700 per year, which is tops in the region, according to figures released at the meeting.