Louisiana Association of Educators Meets for 45th Assembly to Discuss Future of Education

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – About 100 teachers from across Louisiana have come to the capital area to see how they can improve the education system.

Julia Reed is a 7th grade English teacher at Lafayette. She seeks to know how she can make her classroom a better environment for her students.

“It’s a chance for me to meet other like-minded educators, to come together and talk about our priorities for the profession and for our students,” Reed explained.

Reed is like many other teachers who have weathered the ups and downs of the pandemic, whether teaching online or in person, in addition to staffing shortages.

“Often, we will talk about a shortage of teachers, but it really is a shortage of educators. We lack bus drivers, guards, child nutrition workers, paraprofessionals. A lot of those positions are very… very difficult to fill,” Reed added.

Shortages in the education system are still affecting many schools across the state. On Saturday, April 9, teachers here at the Louisiana Educators’ Association Assembly are working on a plan to address this issue in the future.

“What better way to discover solutions to problems we may have in our profession than to hear it from the people who serve our students, every day,” said Tia Mills, president of the Louisiana Association of Educators.

Teachers focused on the lack of school funding and the level of education of their students. Several teachers say many of their students have fallen behind in learning due to the pandemic.

“We created Homework Louisiana, an online program to help children become tutors. We’ve seen this program, I think an 800% increase in usage due to COVID as kids feel behind,” Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser explained.

Teachers like Reed say their main goal is to maintain that sense of security for their students and to figure out how they can help them achieve their goals.

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