More than 50 educators and education advocates in Iberia Parish turned out to New Iberia City Park Monday afternoon to Wear Red for Ed.

The national event turned a spotlight to the issue of the low salaries teachers are paid across the nation, a problem that affects every teacher in Iberia Parish.

“Today we also see budgets being cut, overcrowded classrooms and outdated materials,” according to the official Wear Red for Ed website. “We see educators working around the clock to make a difference in the lives of their students and standing up to lawmakers to ask for better pay and school funding. We’re raising our voices together for our students, for our schools and for ourselves as educators.”

Teachers from around Iberia Parish conducted a march around the park holding signs and blaring “We’re Not Gonna Take” by Twisted Sister as a symbol of their outrage against the state for the low wages they receive.

Wanda Milliman, president of the Iberia Parish Association of Educators, said at the event that the time is now for teachers to demand a sustainable wage for teachers in Louisiana. Milliman said Louisiana has not seen money going toward the Minimum Foundation Program, which determines the cost to educate students at public elementary and secondary schools and defines state and local funding contributions to each district, or to teacher salaries in over 10 years.

“It hasn’t gone to teachers for more than a decade. What does that do? That makes it hard, that makes us poor. We need it to stop because we love our community,” Milliman said.

“We are here because we love teaching, we support education and we have to lift each other up. I love my public school, I stand for education even if I have to stand alone, but luckily I don’t because we’re all here today.”

Cammie Maturin, vice president of the Iberia Association of Educators, echoed the sentiment.

“The most important thing in someone’s life is education. As a single parent I work four or five different jobs to make sure I have a roof over my head. I don’t have a husband who makes five or six figures so I have to do it on my own. That means time away from my son.

“If you’re in this for a paycheck you shouldn’t be here, because it’s not worth it. Once you cut everything you need to cut you’re bringing home nothing. We can’t fault our superintendent or our school board, we have to fault Baton Rouge.”