VIDALIA, La. – Those who support raises for Louisiana teachers and school employees will soon get a chance to show it publicly, courtesy of the Concordia Association of Educators.

&uot;Our members will be there, and we’re asking the mayors, the Police Jury members and the community at large to come, too, to show their support for a raise,&uot; said CAE President D’Shay Rushing.

The rally will be held at 4 p.m. Jan. 9 on the lawn of the old parish courthouse at 405 Carter St. in Vidalia.

Participants will be asked to tie yellow ribbons around the property’s large oak trees to show their support.

The move comes less than eight months after 5,000 teachers and school support employees, including 200 from Concordia, picketed on the steps of the State Capitol to call for pay raises.

And on Nov. 7, voters rejected a tax swap package to fund pay raises for teachers and university professors.

At least 80 percent of the net gain from the swap – estimated to be $200 million in the first year alone – would have gone to fund raises for educators.

Since that election, teachers and school employees in several school systems throughout Louisiana have staged sickouts – claiming cases of the &uot;Foster flu,&uot;&160;named after Gov. Mike Foster.

But at this time, no job actions like strikes or sickouts are being planned in Concordia Parish by either the CAE or the Concordia Federation of Teachers and School Employees.

Otherwise, CAE members have begun wearing yellow ribbons to call attention to their cause.

They are also waging an e-mail campaign to press state lawmakers to vote for raises for teachers and school employees.