Senate Passes Performance Pay Measure

Mar 05, 2008 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) An eleventh-hour proposal to allocate $25 million for additional teacher compensation is finally on the move. Senate Bill 281 cleared the Senate yesterday evening with a 20 to 8 vote. It will be considered this morning - the last day of the session - in the House. Senate President John Valentine says this could mean lawmakers have a long day ahead of them.

"I suspect we've not seen the last of this bill. We'll probably see it again before the session is over," Valentine says.

Senate Bill 281 earmarks $20 million for performance-pay programs, and gives signing bonuses to new teachers. The Senate and House are divided over one of the bill's provisions, allocating $1 million dollars to pay for a merit-pay program offered by the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence. Salt Lake County Senator Pat Jones tried to amend the bill to open it up to a different teacher excellence program already used in the state, the National Board Certification program. Her amendment failed, though the bill will likely face similar attacks in the House. The bill's sponsor, Salt Lake County Senator Howard Stephenson, said he strongly opposed the amendment.

"The national board certification is not based on student performance. It's not based on the U-Pass test results," Stephenson says. "The American Board Certified is based on student performance gains. That's why we want to give it a pilot program, similar to what we've already been giving the National Board Certified."

Performance-pay programs that are tied to student performance are typically more controversial among educators. The state's largest teacher's union, the Utah Education Association, has supported a Task Force to study different performance-pay models, hoping this would include systems that are not linked to student test scores.

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