Retired Louisiana Teachers Being Asked to Return at Twice the Pay

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By now, I'm sure you've heard about the dire lack of qualified teachers in schools across the state.  Almost every single school in Louisiana is searching for educators and faculty to round out their staffing needs, and they're coming up short.  Several plans have been crafted to address this critical shortage.  By far the most promising seems to be tapping a pool of trained and experienced educators that already live in Louisiana:  Retired teachers.

Unfortunately, those folks have already done their duty (and have probably had their fill).  So, how do you entice them to come back for another round?  According to the report from WAFB, Louisiana legislators hope that offering them significantly more money might do the trick.   A new bill crafted to address the massive teacher shortage has already passed in the House of Representatives, and will now move on the Louisiana State Senate for further review.  If it passes, it will essentially double the pay for retired teachers that agree to return to class.

While this move may just be a "band-aid"-type of temporary solution to the problem, it could buy administrators and legislators enough time to find a long term solution.

Honestly, if the temporary solution to the problem is to offer retired teachers more money - why isn't the permanent solution to offer current and new teachers more money from the get-go?  Wouldn't that attract and retain more teachers in our state?