One system backs out of Race ot the Top; another comes in
Checks worth millions of dollars are on the way to Georgia from the federal Race to the Top grant program, but one county’s already said “return to sender.”
The Jones County School System near Macon signed up to be one of 26 local school districts partnering with the state and collecting a combined $400 million for education reform initiatives over four years.
But Jones County backed out last month and another Middle Georgia county has stepped up to claim its $1.3 million share of Race to the Top money.
The issue: the mandate that the local partnering districts establish performance pay plans.
School districts in most states, including Georgia, calculate pay based on seniority and level of education. But the Obama administration and the U.S. Department of Education are pushing Race to the Top participants to pay teachers based on the performance of their students, a strategy that teachers' groups generally object to on grounds that they don't have fair and reliable ways to measure performance.
Jones County School Superintendent Bill Mathews said he doesn't believe the research or the proposed costs would have justified the school system moving to a pay-for-performance plan. A performance pay plan would have eaten up more than half of the county's Race to the Top grant, not to mention obligating future local money, Mathews said.
Additionally, he said, it goes against what he's always told his staff.
“My philosophy has always been that from the front door to the back door, from the secretary to the lunchroom worker, [everyone] is responsible for the student achievement of every child,” Mathews said. “We set our goals and if we meet our goals, we all celebrate.”
The school system had already signed onto the state's Race to the Top application when Mathews took the superintendent's job last summer.
"If other people can make it work, I'm really happy for them," he said.
Charles Ellington Jr., superintendent of the 1,115-student Treutlen County School System based in nearby Soperton, saw opportunity for his system in the change of heart in Jones County.
"The way I look at it is, this [Race to the Top] is going to be the road map in Georgia for the next few years pretty much," Ellington said. "We have some good teachers and they deserve an opportunity at merit pay if that develops."
If merit pay is the way of the future, the systems involved through Race to the Top "will help drive the train on it," he said. "I see it as a win-win."
"I think Race to the Top is going to help us do a better job," Ellington said. "At least we get to implement some of these initiatives with money, instead of without money. That's something we considered."
Under the state's plan, local performance pay systems will be optional for all existing teachers, said Erin Hames, chief of staff at the Georgia Department of Education.
All 26 districts, including Jones when it was still on board, were required to reserve at least 30 percent of the money they receive for performance-based pay in the fourth year of Race to the Top, Hames said.
In the 2010 General Assembly session, Gov. Sonny Perdue tried without success to pass legislation that would have eliminated automatic supplements for advanced degrees for new teachers, but make them eligible for higher bonuses based on classroom observations and the degree to which their students have grown academically. Current teachers would have been allowed to opt into the new performance pay system when it was fully implemented in 2014.
