Newsday, November 4, 2004
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ct--teacherbonuses1104nov03,0,3732364.story

Teachers Union Challenges Bonus Plan for Urban Teachers

By NOREEN GILLESPIE, Associated Press Writer

WALLINGFORD, CT — The state's largest teachers' union is criticizing a plan by state Education Commissioner Betty Sternberg to offer bonuses and an exchange program to keep quality teachers from fleeing city schools.

Under the plan, 1,000 teachers who are successful in reducing dropout rates and raising student achievement would be eligible for a $3,000 bonus and a two-year contract that protects them from layoffs. Urban and suburban teachers would also be offered similar bonuses to trade districts for two years.

"If we don't want them to jump out to other districts mid-career, as they're doing, what is it we can do to keep them?" Sternberg asked.

The union is balking because it says teachers should be paid based on experience, not merit. Union officials say the plan is illegal because it would conflict with collective bargaining and fair dismissal laws in the event of layoffs, said Rosemary Coyle, president of the Connecticut Education Association.

"There's no research that says because you pay one teacher more than another the accountability is going to be better," Coyle said.

The initiative was part of a wish list worth approximately $36 million for fiscal year 2006 approved by the state Department of Education Wednesday. The entire package will go to the state Capitol for consideration in Gov. M. Jodi Rell's budget, which will be presented to the General Assembly in January.

The initiatives are targeted at mid-career teachers. State education officials say they are the ones who frequently leave urban districts, frustrated by difficult and sometimes dangerous working conditions and lured by higher salaries in other districts.

The exchange program would give urban teachers opportunities they wouldn't have elsewhere, Sternberg said, and allow teachers to exchange ideas between districts. The union says that it would create too many problems because each district has its own unique contract, and that provisions aren't the same.

If approved, education officials would take time next year to pound out the details of the bonus and exchange plan. Sternberg said she believed the union's concerns could be worked out, and she isn't necessarily committed to the $3,000 bonus amount. "Nothing in that proposal is in stone," she said.

Board members offered mixed support. Vice Chairwoman Janet Finnernan was the only one to vote against the bonus proposition, saying she feared teachers would teach solely to content on standardized tests to earn bonus money.

Chairman Craig Toensing disagreed. "Any system that refuses to reward excellence tends to reward mediocrity," he said.

Other proposals that advanced in the package Wednesday include a plan that would provide preschool to 3,800 students in the state's cities and poor towns. Rell has appointed an expert to look into the issue for her office and will receive a report with specific recommendations later this month.

The plan also asks for funding to put laptop computers in each ninth- and tenth-grade English and social studies classroom in urban districts, and funding to provide technology training to teachers. The pilot program would be geared to help urban students prepare for the Connecticut Academic Performance Test in 2008, when it is scheduled to be administered on computers.

Another portion of the plan would hire coaches and consultants for 34 schools and seven districts told to make improvements because of inadequate progress in meeting the goals of the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Two other proposals would help fund an initiative to encourage urban teachers to become principals, and help city and poor schools enhance curriculum.

Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press

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