I cannot give you Franklin's exact dollar cut. The order does not divide the $168 million among districts. It hands that job to the state Department of Education and BESE, and they have not released a parish-by-parish breakdown. So the Franklin cut figure (roughly $810,000 to $830,000) is an estimate built from Franklin's audited MFP revenue and the statewide cut percentage. Everything else below is a hard number from a primary source: the signed order, the state's stipend allocation table, Franklin's audited financial report, U.S. Census spending data, and the original reporting by the Louisiana Illuminator.
1. The order itself
Executive Order 26-047, Office of the Governor of Louisiana, signed June 2, 2026 (the signed document).
The cut:
"The MFP appropriation for Fiscal Year 2026-2027 in House Bill 1 of the 2026 Regular Session is hereby reduced by One Hundred Sixty-Eight Million Dollars ($168,000,000) from non-instructional dollars."Section 1
The stipend:
"a one-time stipend of $2,000 to classroom teachers and $1,000 to support staff, including the employer retirement contribution, for the 2026-2027 school year."Section 3
It is not final. It depends on a legislative vote it does not have yet:
"Contingent upon the written consent of two-thirds (2/3) of the elected members of each house of the Legislature, as required by La. Const. art. VIII, Section 13(B), this Order shall take effect July 1, 2026."Section 4
The order's own instruction, which concedes the cut threatens services:
"The Department and BESE should assist school districts so that the areas of security, transportation, and food services remain intact and, where feasible school systems should utilize unassigned fund balances to replace reduced allocations."Section 2
The total it is cutting from:
"House Bill No. 1 of the 2026 Regular Session ('HB 1') appropriates $4,017,822,558 to the MFP." ($168 million is 4.18% of this.)
Reported by the Louisiana Illuminator, June 2, 2026: read the article
2. The money coming to Franklin's educators
Louisiana Department of Education, FY2025-26 Certificated and Support Staff Stipend Guidance and Allocation (the identical $2,000 / $1,000 program this order continues): view the PDF
Franklin Parish, teacher (certificated) stipends, from the state's table:
"21 021 Franklin 249.900 $499,800 $104,708 $604,508"
249.9 teacher positions at $2,000 = $499,800, plus $104,708 employer retirement at 20.95%.
Franklin Parish, support (non-certificated) stipends:
"Franklin 213.236 $213,236 $46,912 $260,148"
213.2 support positions at $1,000 = $213,236, plus $46,912 employer retirement at 22%. Franklin total to staff last year: $713,036. With employer retirement: $864,656.
For this year, the governor has said administrators are excluded, so Franklin's total will run somewhat lower:
"Not every educator who has received a stipend for the past three years will get one next school year based on the governor's plan. Landry said school administrators will be excluded." ... "It would cost the state $30 million more, a total of $198 million, to include every K-12 staff member who received a stipend in the past."Louisiana Illuminator, June 2, 2026
3. Franklin's MFP, and why the cut lands hard
Franklin Parish School Board, Annual Financial Report, year ended June 30, 2024, filed with the Louisiana Legislative Auditor (audited): view the report
Franklin's MFP, and the fact that it is already shrinking:
"Minimum Foundation Program revenue, which accounts for approximately 42% of total revenues, decreased $820,000 or 4% due to a decline [in] enrollment."
Audited MFP revenue for the year: $19,783,573. A 4.18% proportional share of the statewide cut is about $827,000, in the same range the MFP already fell last year.
What "non-instructional" covers in Franklin, from the audited expense detail:
General administrative: $1,126,138. School administrative: $2,744,167. Transportation: $3,708,709. Plant operation and maintenance: $4,419,712. Special and other education: $10,772,937. Food service: $2,762,711. Total expenses: $47,145,528.
General administration is about 2.4% of the budget. A cut near $800,000 is roughly three-quarters of the entire general-administration line.
Where the cost grows, in the report's own words:
"Salaries, retirement system contributions and health insurance costs will continue to require significant components of the budget."
On the reserve the order assumes districts can spend:
"ended the fiscal year with unassigned fund balance of $6,016,011, thereby providing the system with unrestrained operating reserves of approximately 20% of annual expenditures."
The order claims "many school districts maintain tens of millions of dollars in unassigned fund balances," and the governor points to "over $1 billion" in school savings statewide. Franklin's is about $6 million, a standard 20% operating reserve.
4. What "non-instructional" means at the state level
The lawmakers' own description of the pot the cut comes from, Louisiana Illuminator, June 1, 2026: read the article
"The stipend money would come from the $1.2 billion in the formula that pays for school administrative functions such as transportation, construction, school lunches and business services, according to several lawmakers."
And the catch in that plan, from the June 2 reporting:
"About $1.2 billion of that money is supposed to go to school administrative functions, according to the Landry administration and legislative leaders, but it's unclear how much of that remains if transportation, security and food services are placed off limits."
In plain terms: the "administrative" pot they are cutting is mostly buses, buildings, and lunchrooms. Protect those, as the order says to, and there is little "administration" left to cut.
5. The governor's "$16,500 per student" claim, checked
The claim, from the order:
"the cost to educate each child has skyrocketed from approximately $9,400 per student in inflation-adjusted 1988 dollars to approximately $16,500 per student today, representing a 67% real increase in per-pupil spending."
The national average, U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of School System Finances, FY2023 (so the governor's "$16,500" is essentially the national number):
"US Average of Per Pupil Spending: $16,526." Source line on the chart: "Data: US Census Bureau - 2023 Public Elementary-Secondary Education Finance Data."
Census per-pupil comparison (FY2023)
Louisiana's actual figures, U.S. Census FY2023 (the same survey, compiled two ways that agree):
Current (classroom operating) spending: $14,645 per pupil. Total expenditure including capital: $16,303. All public funding: $18,251. Federal funding: $3,514 per pupil, or 24% of the total. "Per pupil, Louisiana ranks 25th in K-12 education funding and 30th in spending."
Source A: EducationData.org, citing U.S. Census · Source B (cross-check, same $14,645, ranks Louisiana 32nd of 51): World Population Review, citing U.S. Census
Louisiana's actual classroom operating spending ($14,645) is about $1,900 below the national average ($16,526). The order's "$16,500" matches Louisiana's total-with-construction figure ($16,303) and the national number, not what is spent on the classroom.
The order's own contradiction, in its words:
"despite per-student education spending increasing, when adjusted for inflation, classroom teachers today are paid less than they were in 1988."
Spending up while teacher pay fell tells you where the money went. Franklin's audited report names it: salaries, retirement, and health insurance, the same "non-instructional" costs the order wants to cut.
6. What the school officials and lawmakers are saying
All quotes below are from the Louisiana Illuminator's June 1 and June 2, 2026 reporting (linked above).
"The idea of giving a pay raise but, at the same time, laying people off is difficult."David Claxton, executive director, Louisiana Association of School Superintendents and Administrators
He also said he wished the governor had met with local superintendents about the impact before issuing the order.
"education administrators said a $168 million reduction to Minimum Foundation Program funding could result in layoffs at smaller school districts, particularly those in rural areas, where budget cuts likely cannot be confined to a few administrative functions."Louisiana Illuminator reporting, June 2
"I encourage local communities to show grace and patience as school systems evaluate their budgets in light of this shift in state funding."Cade Brumley, State Superintendent of Education
"Until we get more details, we still have quite a few questions. We don't know how it's going to be done, when it's going to be done, we don't know any of that yet."Larry Carter, president, Louisiana Federation of Teachers
"I support giving the teachers that money, but I would also like to know where it's coming from before we're asked to vote on anything."State Sen. Gerald Boudreaux, Senate Democratic Caucus chairman
For balance, a teachers union backs the move:
"We are profoundly encouraged by the Governor's stated commitment to elevating the compensation of our dedicated teachers and support personnel."D'Shay Oaks, president, Louisiana Association of Educators
7. The academic gains are real (credit where due)
"for the second year in a row, Louisiana ranks first among states in reading growth and second among states in math growth," and Louisiana is "the only state in the nation that has surpassed its pre-pandemic reading benchmark."Executive Order 26-047
This is consistent with the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (the Nation's Report Card), where Louisiana fourth graders were widely reported as the only group in the country to exceed their pre-pandemic reading score and the state led the nation in reading growth.
National Assessment of Educational Progress (Nation's Report Card)
Proven from primary sources: the order's text and the $168 million cut, the $2,000 / $1,000 stipend, the legislative-consent requirement, Franklin's stipend allocation, Franklin's audited MFP and reserves, the expense detail, the Census per-pupil figures, and every official and lawmaker quote above.
Pending: Franklin's exact dollar cut, because the Department of Education and BESE have not published the per-district breakdown. The $810,000 to $830,000 is a proportional estimate. When the state publishes the real number, I will update this page.