Charter schools would win under education reform recommendations
Erin Hames, a former policy chief for Gov. Nathan Deal who remains on contract as an adviser, said the education funding overhaul his Education Reform Commission recommended would free charter schools from the current salary schedule, eliminating a financial penalty for hiring inexperienced teachers with the minimum required education.
Instead of the current requirement that teachers be paid more for their training and experience, schools would be reimbursed for each new teacher based on the average of teacher pay in the state — $50,768 this year, which is well above the starting pay for teachers with the lowest level of education, just over $31,000.
So schools that hire rookies with the minimum education would get about $20,000 more from the state per teacher than they currently do.
Charter schools "are often hiring young teachers and teachers that are new to the profession" and could use the extra money "to best meet the needs of students and to reward and retain their best teachers," said Hames, who was speaking at a Georgia Charter Schools Association event. She said charter schools "are often hiring young teachers and teachers that are new to the profession" and could use the extra money "to best meet the needs of students and to reward and retain their best teachers."
She said current teachers would be grandfathered but the actual documents submitted to the governor were more equivocal.
About the Author
Ty Tagami is a staff writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Since joining the newspaper in 2002, he has written about everything from hurricanes to homelessness. He has deep experience covering local government and education, and can often be found under the Gold Dome when lawmakers meet or in a school somewhere in the state.
