Teacher pay plan stalls, could be headed for more study

By Kristina Torres

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gov. Sonny Perdue’s pay-for-performance teacher plan appeared headed for hiatus Monday. A Senate bill championing the plan still languished in committee as a deadline passed for bills to receive a vote to move on.

Perdue is not giving up on the bill, a spokesman said. But it is more likely he will have to work with a study committee, which could take up the proposal after the legislative session ends in late April or so.

"I would say until the final gavel bangs [for the year], he still believes in it, will fight for it, believes it's the right thing to do," Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said. Of the study committee, Brantley said, "If that's what it takes, we'll work with it."

Perdue unveiled the plan in January, calling it one of his key education initiatives in a year otherwise dominated by budget issues. With it, the state would develop a new teaching assessment model that would tie teachers' pay to how well they teach, not years on the job or level of education as is currently the standard.

From the start, however, teachers and some lawmakers balked.

State officials have not yet figured out what specific benchmarks they must meet to qualify for a raise. State revenues are down by historic proportions; systems are furloughing teachers, not contemplating pay raises. And reports nationally suggest it is too soon to tell how well performance-based pay, in its current form, works in schools.

State Sen. Don Balfour (R-Snellville), chairman of the powerful Rules Committee, sponsored the bill, SB 386, in early February. But it has not made it out of committee. Last week, Balfour filed a resolution in support of the study committee. In an e-mail sent Monday through his office, Balfour said the bill "has been changed to a study committee to answer questions that everyone has."

The bill is not technically dead. There are still procedural maneuvers that could get it before lawmakers for a vote, such as adding it as an amendment to another bill. Those maneuvers are difficult, however, making it unlikely the bill will pass out of the Senate this year.

Perdue does have a consolation. Whether or not the bill passes, 23 of the state's 181 local school systems would implement the pay plan under a state proposal being considered by federal officials. The public school systems for the city of Atlanta and Cherokee, Clayton, DeKalb and Gwinnett counties are among them. Georgia is a finalist for the Obama administration's new Race to the Top education fund, which is worth up to $4 billion to states that embrace education reform. Winners will be announced the first week of April.