A panel exploring ways to attract and retain better teachers in Georgia focused on pay and training during discussions Tuesday.
The teacher recruitment and retention committee of Gov. Nathan Deal’s Education Reform Commission will make formal recommendations later this year. The preliminary ideas that seem popular so far: student loan cancellation programs for new teachers at high-needs schools and a year of “clinical” classroom training experience in college.
One of the main ideas discussed, though, was higher starting pay. That could be funded with money freed by the elimination of mandatory pay raises for teachers who earn advanced degrees.
“We should make a statement that entry level salary has to go up,” said committee member Mike Dudgeon, a Republican state representative from Johns Creek. Current teachers would be exempt since they were hired under a formula that pays more for training and experience.
Dudgeon and others stressed that the proposals discussed Tuesday are preliminary “ideas” and may not end up as formal recommendations.
Deal wants formal proposals from his commission by December so he can initiate legislation to overhaul education policy in the coming General Assembly.
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