BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana Federation of Teachers and School Employees said Wednesday that it supports a constitutional amendment that would make an already implemented stipend into a permanent pay raise for teachers and other school employees.

The state teachers' union said that it supports Amendment Two, which voters will vote for or against on March 29.

They said that they support the specific provision that makes the stipends permanent, adding that they "worked to add comprehensive provisions with accountability measures to ensure these funds become embedded in educators' base compensation.

Amendment Two was put on the ballot after it passed the legislature during last year's special session on tax reform.

The amendment has faced pushback from religious organizations, who say another provision of the amendment would allow the legislature to vote to remove property tax exemptions from churches with a two-thirds vote. A state leader who supports the amendment told WBRZ he has no intention of ever cutting exemptions for churches.

The teachers' union also said that it opposes Amendment Three, which would remove important constitutional protections that currently limit when juveniles can be tried as adults if passed.

"The current constitution specifies 16 serious felony crimes for which juveniles can be tried as adults, ensuring only the most serious cases are eligible," the union said.

The union did not take a stance on the other two amendments on the March 29 ballot.