Perdue plan: Merit pay for teachers

Gov. Sonny Perdue wants the state to reward top principals and teachers, as well as those who teach science and math.

The proposals got mixed reviews from teacher groups, who have heard similar promises from politicians before.

Perdue announced his plan to lawmakers and business leaders Tuesday. Today he is expected to release spending plans that will include more than $2 billion in cuts.

“Increasing student achievement remains and should remain our No. 1 priority,” Perdue told those attending the Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s annual Eggs and Issues Breakfast.

“Even in the economic downturns, you’ve got to focus on the things that can make a difference in the future of Georgia,” he told reporters later.

Perdue’s proposals for bonuses, merit and differential pay would cost about $23 million. But none of the payouts would occur until July 1, 2010. So they wouldn’t affect the budgets lawmakers will be debating this year.

Lawmakers probably will have to cut state education funding this year. So Tim Callahan of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators said it’s hard to get too excited about Perdue’s plans.

“It’s sort of like the guy whose house is on fire telling you what a great deck he’s eventually going to build,” Callahan said.

Perdue said the state needs to reward success and give teachers incentives to go into areas where there are major shortages, such as math and science.

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, the Senate’s president, applauded Perdue’s initiative.

“I have always, philosophically, believed in merit pay,” Cagle said.

Jeff Hubbard, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, said the state should be looking at ways to improve the pay of all teachers.

“Merit pay based on test scores, we’re against that,” he said. “We think there needs to be more things that go into determining effectiveness.”

Hubbard was also critical of paying just math and science teachers extra.

“Who is to say teaching children to read and write in the early elementary levels doesn’t have equal importance?”

Public schools struggle to find the qualified math and science teachers they need, said George Stickel, middle and high school science supervisor for Cobb County Schools.

“We are always behind in science,” Stickel said. “More science people would probably go into teaching if they could make more money.”

Stickel questioned how a school’s dynamics would change if some teachers were making more money because they taught a certain subject.

Steven Miletto, the principal at Osborne High School in Marietta, liked the idea of paying math and science teachers more, but was unsure whether giving high school principals a bonus would improve student achievement.

“I’m a former history teacher and I understand we’re in competition with a lot of areas for high-quality math and science teachers,” Miletto said. “It might create some issues with other teachers, but paying teachers all alike is something that doesn’t make sense. If you have a subject that is more in demand, you should pay that one more.”

Perdue’s proposals aren’t new. The state had “pay for performance” awards for teachers for several years in the 1990s and earlier this decade. In 2000, then-Gov. Roy Barnes successfully pushed a school reform law that was to replace that program with merit pay tied to student performance on curriculum and end-of-course tests.

Barnes also talked about bonuses for high-performing principals and higher salaries for math and science teachers.

Barnes’ ideas weren’t implemented because he lost his re-election bid to Perdue in 2002. Perdue scrapped most of Barnes’ education programs.

Callahan said while at least parts of Perdue’s latest proposals sound good, he added, “Historically, what we’ve seen is problems with these initiatives. There has been a lack of educator input, short attention span among legislators and a real lack of funding.

“These programs tend to be hamstrung right out of the gate,” he said. “This sounds like more of the same.”

Staff writer Laura Diamond contributed to this article.