ATLANTA -- Gov. Sonny Perdue said today that most teachers like the idea of basing their pay on how well they teach and that the leaders of education organizations should listen more closely to their members.
Perdue made his comments to reporters the morning the performance-pay legislation, Senate Bill 386, was introduced by Sen. Don Balfour, R-Snellville. It provides the most details yet about a shift in teacher pay Perdue outlined last month.
Perdue's office sent a questionnaire to some teachers across the state, and he said he was surprised that 20,000 of them said they like his idea.
"The leaders, I don't think, sometimes don't want to listen to what their members are saying," he said.
In response to critics who say he drafted the bill in "relative secrecy" with the advice of few educators, the governor said now that the proposal is before the General Assembly that the public, including interested teachers, will have their chance to recommend changes through their local legislators.
"The way the process works, the legislature writes the laws. I provide a framework and an idea and a concept that I believe is good for education," he said.
One aim of the bill is to improve student performance by rewarding the educators who influence it the most. Under the proposal, teachers judged the most effective could earn as much as high school football coaches, according to Perdue.
Today, a teacher after 10 years earns about $48,000 compared to as much as $66,000 under his proposal, according to the state's application for the federal grant program Race to the Top.
Securing a share in the Race to the Top funds, an estimated $462 million, is a secondary goal of the performance-pay proposal, Perdue said.
Yeah, that's all well and good as long as it REALLY IS based on how the teacher teaches and NOT on how well his/her students perform.
and then what...furlough the teachers again because of lack of money
IMO "Pay for Performance" invites "cronyism" and has no place in any environment where evaluations are subjective.
Sonny, what planet do you really live on? The pay for performance idea for teachers has more warts on it than a Wicked Witch. Just trying to define the performance measures would make half the staff in Atlanta's Twin Towers head explode! The key to success in the classroom begins at home. Until you get parents involved and engaged in their child's education, don't even think about a performance based pay system for teachers. It's impossible to meet the standards without parents pulling their weight!
this is not a good idea at all because of discipline problems that a lot counties here in GA are facing and the fact that sometimes actually for the most part teachers can't teach because of disruptive students and the lack of support coming from the administration!!
How will this program work?...A teacher at A.R. Johnson will receive a pay raise and a teacher at Butler will get a pay cut...Sounds like a stupid idea to me...my 2 cents
Let's stop making this political. Let's stop playing semantics and slight of hand tricks. Spell out exactly what this proposed pay for performance is and then let all educators voice their opinion. I have not spoken to one teacher in Columbia county that was consulted or surveyed.
Until the standards and expectations at every school is raised to the level at Davidson, there is NO way a performance based pay will work. How likely is such a parameter in our p.c. school system? The primary goal of our school systems would have to change from social engineering to education. How likely is that to happen?
"teachers judged the most effective could earn as much as high school football coaches". Now there's a goal every teacher can aspire to! I'm nearly as well-paid as the football coach! Yippee!
SEriously though, where is the money for these raises coming from? Increased education budget? doubtful. Giving other teachers a paycut? Politically untenable. Reducing administrative costs? Wouldn't they have already done that? Um.... I'm out of ideas...
Anyone?
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