Education

Teacher Advocacy Group Won’t Compromise On Merit-Based Pay

December 18th, 2015

Sid Chapman, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, one of the largest teacher advocacy groups in the state, said Thursday the GAE won’t compromise on the issue of merit-based pay for educators.

The group will look to lobby lawmakers during next year’s General Assembly, and it may have an unlikely ally: House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge.

The highest-ranking Republican in the state Legislature said he’s opposed to a school funding system that includes merit-based pay.

“I try to support our governor when I can,” he said to a group of teachers in Gilmer County. “When I can’t, I tell him very respectfully that he and I disagree.”

Gov. Nathan Deal said merit-based pay needs to be a part of a new funding system for Georgia schools, and recommendations from an Education Reform Commission he created suggest merit pay in some form.

Deal will likely propose legislation next year based on that committee’s recommendations.

For the GAE and many teachers, merit-based pay means more testing, competition among teachers and high turnover.

“A standardized test does not measure the competency of a teacher. Period,” said Chapman at the state Capitol before he and other advocates gave a report with alternative recommendations to the governor’s office.

Deal has said teacher assessments will have objective and subjective components in his proposal.

Chapman said Thursday he wasn’t concerned about what type of merit-based pay is included in the new funding formula.

“Show me anywhere in the country where merit pay has been tried and has been successful and fair and equitable among teachers,” Chapman said. “It’s not there.”

The GAE and other advocates and researchers said the education system needs to be improved through community effort, and teachers need more support.

“I think what teachers, educators and any professional wants first and foremost are a set of conditions that allow them to be successful without taking heroic measures that can’t be sustained over time,” said Warren Simmon, an opponent of merit-based pay and executive director of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform.