BATON ROUGE, La. – About 5,000 teachers and school support employees from throughout Louisiana, including around 200 from Concordia Parish, picketed on the steps of the state Capitol Wednesday to call for pay raises.

&uot;I’m pleased with the turnout,&uot; said Wilma McKeever, president of the Concordia Federation of Teachers and School Employees. &uot;If we hadn’t come out today, they would have said, ‘Aw, poor teachers’ and not given us a raise. This way, they have to take notice.&uot;

&uot;With this many of us here, I&160;feel like (lawmakers) will look at the numbers and do something about our situation,&uot; said Bertha Glasper, school food service manager for Ferriday Lower Elementary.

The average salary for Louisiana teachers is $32,510 — a figure some at the rally disputed as too high — while the southern average is $35,808. In Mississippi, lawmakers have approved raising salaries to about $41,000 during the next few years, leading one protester to draw up a sign calling Mississippi &uot;the dream state.&uot;

The Louisiana Federation of Teachers, which held Wednesday’s rally, held its last demonstration in 1997 and got an $850 to $1,200 raise. But whether this protest will spur lawmakers to enact a raise when they face a budget shortage of more than $200 million for the fiscal year starting July 1 depends on whom you ask.

Gov. Mike Foster, who abruptly ended his speech at the Louisiana Federation of Teachers rally after being booed from the podium, was noncommittal.

&uot;I’m neither God nor a dictator,&uot;&160;Foster said over chants of &uot;no more promises, pay raise now.&uot; &uot;I&160;can’t force my will on the people of this state or on the Legislature, … and I&160;can’t do things when I&160;don’t have support.&uot;

Following Foster’s speech, a small group of Concordia teachers stopped Foster as he made his way back into the Capitol, asking him to push for raises. One of them, Tanya Mallory, had campaigned for Foster.

&uot;I&160;told him I&160;helped put him in office, and that all we’re asking for is for him to follow through on his promise (to raise salaries),&uot;&160;Mallory said. &uot;He said he’s not a dictator, and I said we don’t want him to be. We just want him to come through with what he’s promised.&uot;

Speaking to a couple of protesters on the Capitol steps, Sen. Noble Ellington, D-Winnsboro, said he just doesn’t see where the state would get the money for raises.

&uot;I can only say we’re looking at every avenue,&uot; Ellington said. &uot;Hopefully, we’ll come up with something, but it’s probably not going to happen. But the Legislature does want to take care of teachers.&uot;

After the noontime rally, more than 20 of the Concordia group also searched the Capitol’s meeting rooms, the House chambers and called the office of the Ways and Means Committee to find local Rep. Bryant Hammett, D-Ferriday, to ask him to support raises.

But Hammett’s secretary said he would be in meetings all afternoon, and the delegation left without meeting with him.

In spirited speeches given during the rally, both Rep. Renee Gill Pratt, D-New Orleans, and Sen. Don Hines, D-Bunkie, said they favor raises. &uot;We’re asking that teachers be paid a competitive salary … that attracts the best and brightest students to the field of education,&uot;&160;Hines said.