BATON 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.

But this year's funding may be smaller due to the new teacher stipends.

As WBRZ has reported over the last month, the state passed Governor Landry's plan to provide educators with a one-time pay increase ranging from $1,000 to $2,000. The money would be transferred from the Minimum Foundation Program, which is set to allocate state funds to the schools on July 25.

Throughout the summer, school districts have been prepping for the return of students, planning their budgets accordingly.

However, for some of the districts in the region, the addition of a teacher stipend has brought on some problems.

"The state is going to withhold 5% of our MFP money each month, so if they were supposed to give us $100,000, they'll give us $95,000. They're taking that 5% and putting it into a bucket called the over-collection fund," Tangipahoa Schools Chief Financial Officer Jeff McKneely said at a school board meeting.

The Louisiana Department of Education says the stipend funds have already been shifted out of the MFP account per the executive order, and the payments school systems will begin receiving on the 25th will not include the stipend amount.

"Once that fund accumulates enough money for the $168 million that they estimate it to be statewide, $5.1 million for us, then they will release that money and tell us to pay the stipend," McKneely said.

Tangipahoa Parish Schools Chief Financial Officer Jeff McKneely says the district could choose to take measures such as pausing purchases that are considered non-essential, delaying non-emergency capital projects, or even temporarily putting a freeze on annual salary increases for employees.

In Assumption Parish, Superintendent John Barthelemy tells WBRZ the executive order forced the school district to dip into its savings to address the funding.

The Ascension Federation of Teachers and School Employees president, Jacob Newsom, says that giving the stipend in the current manner may do more harm than good in the long run.

"You look at places like Ouachita, where they've already announced that they're going to have to do all sorts of extra measures in order to avoid violating the governor's executive order," Newsom said.

However, several school districts say the change won't affect them much.

East Baton Rouge Parish told WBRZ that their budget was done months in advance with a large reserve in place in case of a decreased amount.

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. "Our guidance will include information for school systems on how to access their portion of those funds for stipends as well as how to access those funds if they have locally provided employees with a pay increase for 2026-2027."