School systems assessing budgets following teacher stipends, days ahead of state payments to schoolsBATON ROUGE - Public schools across the state will soon receive the first Minimum Foundation Program payments from the state for the upcoming 2026-27 school year. The money would be transferred from the Minimum Foundation Program, which is set to allocate state funds to the schools on July 25. However, for some of the districts in the region, the addition of a teacher stipend has brought on some problems. Governor Jeff Landry has said school districts that already use local tax funds to increase teacher pay by $2,000 or more would not have to provide stipends. "Once our agency has access to the stipend account, we can begin to allocate those funds to school systems," a spokesperson with the Louisiana Department of Education said.