By Rachel Brown
Gov. Sonny Perdue’s proposed merit pay system for teachers could help the state gain more than $400 million in federal funds, but many teachers are receiving false information about it, his spokesman says.
Bert Brantley, a spokesman in the governor’s office who is married to a teacher, says researchers will seek input from education stakeholders across Georgia before finalizing the new system, proposed to go into effect in 2014. It must be approved by the Legislature.
Among teachers’ concerns are that their evaluations would be based on how well students perform on a single test, whether poorly performing schools could attract good teachers, what criteria would be used to determine how much students learn, and whether the Legislature can even be trusted to fund its own programs.
“I’m sad that a lot of the information they’re responding to are things we’ve already taken into account,” Brantley said.
Pay for performance is one major piece of Georgia’s application for Race to the Top funding. If selected, the state stands to receive up to $463 million in federal grant money over four years. The grant program is designed to improve education by offering financial incentives to states with innovative ideas.
Race to the Top money could be used only for certain items outlined in the 200-page grant application submitted by the state on Wednesday. One major item is a data system that would track student growth and information about individual students such as where they went to school and how they performed at their previous locations.
“That in and of itself would be a reason to do Race to the Top — just to get that,” Brantley said. “(Gov. Perdue) is very excited about the program as a whole and the prospects of the program for Georgia.”
Federal officials expect to announce grant recipients in April. Forty states and the District of Columbia submitted applications.
Georgia was one of 15 states that received technical assistance for application development from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. According to a press release from the governor’s office, the foundation selected states based on “how well poised they are to win” the grant.
A merit pay system will save money for Georgia as the state no longer has to automatically dole out pay for new teachers earning advanced degrees, Brantley said. No dollar figure of expected savings was available. He said some teachers can earn more money than they would under the old system earlier in their careers.
“The idea,” Brantley said, “is to allow our best and brightest to break through that schedule that’s there now.”
Jim Barrett, an eighth-grade teacher at LaFayette Middle School and president of the district 1 division of the Georgia Association of Educators, said he hopes lawmakers and developers take teachers’ concerns into account.
“I’m not against teachers who do a great job getting rewarded,” Barrett said, “but (it should be) a holistic approach.”
