Senate Republicans have pressed forward with a plan for revamping the teacher pay system in Iowa, but without the money to implement the plan. Senator Mary Kramer, a republican from West Des Moines, says it’s important to establish the parameters for switching to a “merit-based” pay system for educators. Kramer says the plan is an innovative package for improving student achievement. Senator Mike Connolly, a democrat from Dubuque who’s a teacher, says the bill’s worth nothing if there’s no money to raise teacher pay. Connolly says the whole effort has been a story of broken promises.Connolly says republicans have broken their promise that they’d spend 40-million to raise teacher pay. On Monday, the state teachers’ union, the School Administrators of Iowa and the Iowa Association of School Boards urged legislators to drop the bill if they weren’t going to spend any money.
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