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Jindal: Pay Good Teachers More

“Better teachers should earn more, Gov. Bobby Jindal says”
by Ed Anderson
Times Picayune
December 8, 2011

Gov. Bobby Jindal indicated Thursday that he may support giving financial incentives to teachers who meet certain performance standards in the state’s public schools. Addressing the annual meeting of the Council for a Better Louisiana, a statewide research and advocacy organization, Jindal emphasized that the current state of public education is not acceptable.

“One thing we won’t accept is defenders of the status quo who simply want more time or money,” he told the 350 council members at the annual meeting. “We’ve tried that already. It doesn’t work. … We have to do better and we will do better because our kids only grow up once, and they deserve better.”

Jindal has designated overhaul of the public education system as one of the main goals of his second term, which begins Jan. 9. He did not specify details of his plans during the speech or in a brief news conference with reporters after the event. The legislative session begins in March.

Jindal said that the state has made steady progress in evaluating teacher performance and schools but “clearly we have a lot more work to do” with almost half of the state’s schools having one-third of their students lagging behind the grade they should be in.

Although many factors affect student achievement, he said, studies have shown that the “one with the largest impact is the effectiveness of a teacher; nothing else comes close. Having a highly effective teacher can change a kid’s life.”

With a system in place to more closely evaluate teachers, Jindal said the state can now identify its most effective classroom teachers.

“Shouldn’t we reward the truly excellent teachers and incentivize others to achieve excellence?” Jindal asked the his audience “Unfortunately, our system doesn’t do this today . … We treat teachers the same with our one-size-fits-all system.

“We seemingly reward everything but effectiveness and in the process we tie the hands of the (local school) districts to make smart personnel decisions that retain and reward the most effective educators.”

Jindal said he wants to create an “excellent teacher pipeline” to the classroom that can better prepare students for jobs in a changing workforce.

He said any plan that is devised should set incentives to lure good teachers into the classrooms, create a scenario to get “great teachers” to stay on the job, and get support to “struggling teachers who want to improve.”

Jindal said he will be meeting in the upcoming weeks with teachers, parents, lawmakers, education policymakers, union officials and others on ways the state can attract and keep quality teachers in the classroom.

Jindal said although he is not ready to announce specifics of his legislative package for education, “all is on the table” including changes in teacher pay and other incentives as well as overhauling teacher tenure policies.

“We have great teachers in the state of Louisiana,” Jindal said, “but we need to have an honest and open discussion about teacher quality … if we truly want to give our children a world-class education.”