Teacher tenure bill passes Senate, teachers protest

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - The Louisiana Senate approved Governor Bobby Jindal's proposal to get rid of the statewide teacher pay scale and to make it tougher for teachers to get the job protection known as tenure.   The measure passed by a 23-16 vote.

The tenure issue now heads to the State House of Representatives for a vote.

Hundreds of teachers once again rallied on the steps of the Capitol Wednesday to protest the measure. 

As of 4:40pm Wednesday, Senators were still debating another major part of the Governor's education plan which would allow for education vouchers.

Here's how Senators voted on the tenure bill:

VOTING YES (23):

President Alario, Adley, Allain, Amedee, Appel, Brown, Buffington, Chabert, Claitor, Cortez, Crowe, Donahue, Guillory, Heitmeier, Long, Martiny, Peacock, Riser, G.Smith, Tarver, Walsworth, Ward and White.

VOTING NO (16):

Broome, Dorsey-Colomb, Erdey, Gallot, Johns, Kostelka, LaFleur, Mills, Morrell, Morrish, Murray, Nevers, Perry, Peterson, J.Smith and Thompson.

Copyright 2012 WAFB. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.