BATON ROUGE — Louisiana educators are left wondering how and when a pay raise will come to them after Amendment Three was voted down during Saturday’s election.

Both supporters of the amendment and opponents say they want teachers to have more money in their pockets; it's how and where the extra money comes from that has the two sides still divided. 

Amendment Three proposed dissolving three education trust funds to pay off retirement debt for K-12 schools and public universities. Schools would have then used the savings to permanently raise teacher salaries.

However, with 58% of voters choosing no, it became the second time in two years that similar measures to give teachers more money failed.

“They (the state) brought it back again, and I think voters are smart and we don't give them enough credit. They see these efforts were the burden trying to be shifted and they're not going for it,” Max Martin with the Power Coalition for Equity & Justice told WBRZ. 

WBRZ Political Analyst James Hartman says that, considering it’s the second time it’s been voted down, it’s a signal from voters.
 
"People want a more simplified process, a streamlined process for making change, that doesn't involve a popular vote every time there needs to be a relatively simple policy change. I think the legislature is starting to see that now,” Hartman said.

The three funds that were proposed to be cut were the Louisiana Education Quality Trust Fund, the Louisiana Quality Education Support Fund, and the Education Excellence Fund. The trust funds support education initiatives from early to higher education in Louisiana. 

"The interest from those funds paid for absolute necessities for our school systems each year. Including something as simple as making sure they have the supplies that they need and making sure that the facilities were adequate to educate children,” Civil rights attorney Alfreda Tillman Bester said. 
 
Governor Jeff Landry and supporters of Amendment Three touted the proposal as a way to give a permanent pay raise of $2,250 to certified educators and $1,125 to support staff. It would've also replaced temporary stipends teachers have received from the state over the last few years. 

Now, the vote has groups like The Louisiana Association of Educators, a teacher union that supported the amendment, worried. Its president, D’Shay Oaks, said that Louisiana Senate President Cameron Henry had said that if the public voted against the amendment, the legislature would not go against the vote of the people and would not support more money for teachers in the current budget.

"He said that if it did not pass, that they're not promised the stipends this year. Most teachers rely on the stipends, that are not guaranteed year to year,” Oaks said.

With the outcome of the vote not in its favor, the association still hopes that state lawmakers are able to find a way to give some money to teachers for stipends.

"Not sure how much that they would be willing to do though,” Oaks told WBRZ.

Oaks says that the association will meet early this week to plot next steps, in hopes of getting more money for teachers in a state that currently ranks near the bottom nationally for teacher pay. 

Meanwhile, even those who didn't support the amendment say it's time to find alternative ways to get teachers a long-term raise. 

"Just not at the expense of long-term educational funding. The governor and the legislature can pass a raise right now. They can pass it through the legislature, and we can give our teachers the raise they need,” Martin said.