Governor signs teacher pay bill into law

Iowa teachers will no longer get pay raises just because they’ve been standing in the classroom. Governor Tom Vilsack has signed legislation which ties teacher pay hikes to performance: the better the kids learn, the better the teacher’ll be paid. Vilsack, a democrat, worked with republican legislators, and business leaders to craft the legislation, sometimes over the opposition of the state teachers’ union and school administrators. He says the legislation is a sign of the dedication to the state. The idea of dumping the seniority system is a bit unsettling to teachers like Iowa State Education Association president Jolene Franken of Denison says they are concerned about the unanswered questions surrounding the bill. But she says they have to do what they can to make it as good a law as possible.But Iowa Department of Education director Ted Stilwell says it’s an historic piece of legislation.Vilsack signed two bills Wednesday. One sets out the new policy that links teacher pay to performance. The other bill committed 40-million state tax dollars to teacher pay hikes. He says the implementation will be as difficult as challenging and as important as the legislation itself. Vilsack says he is committed to the challenge.Representative Danny Carroll, a republican from Grinnell, was one of the behind-the-scenes architects of the plan. Carroll says Iowa is number one in education and the bill challenges them to move on to the next level.Carroll says the plan turns schools in a different direction. to recognize, encourage and reward excellence in teaching.The plan calls for mentoring of rookie teachers and the development of “career paths” that lead to higher salaries. It also calls for new and better evaluation of how well teachers are teaching the kids.