It is indeed unusual that this early in the legislative session that the House passed SB 140, an education package that provides provisions to expand public charter school and public correspondence options for students, a funding boost targeted to K-3 students with reading deficiencies, a reasonable boost of funds for pupil transportation, and a $680 increase to the base student allocation.
The bill underwent a long negotiations process, but one item not included, however, that was in my mind one of the keys to helping lift our children out of the academic deficiency hole: teacher bonuses. It is possible the governor will veto the bill so the education package could be reassembled to include what it currently does with the added teacher bonus provision.
I expect the Senate to concur with the bill today or sometime this week as the legislation is currently written. The ball will then be in Governor Dunleavy’s court to see if he’d like to play a little hardball and get the very important tool to help improve outcomes added: the teacher bonus provision.
If the governor decides to play hardball, I will be on his team. I will support his veto and support the addition of the teacher bonus amendment to the education package. Growing a school budget is not correlated with academic improvement; supporting teachers specifically is.
If the governor does not veto the bill, we can still applaud the fact that some very good provisions focused on increasing student proficiency will be added to our statutes. We can also be rest assured that the districts are well aware of their low proficiency outcomes; they know they are under scrutiny and have too often failed our students. They know they are tasked with improving student results with the funds provided by the state. If they continue to fail, we are not without recourse. More on that later.
