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STATE HOUSE

Slow 'Race to the Top'

House, Senate split on education reform funds

By Matthew Stone mstone@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

AUGUSTA -- The Maine House on Tuesday balked at a Senate attempt to strip down a piece of legislation meant to bolster Maine's bid to compete for millions in federal education reform funds.

By a 130-4 margin, representatives indefinitely postponed a bill that intends to strike down a legal barrier preventing the use of student testing data in teacher and principal evaluations. House members said they want senators to return to the drawing board on a bill amendment they approved Monday night.

Eliminating the legal barrier is a condition Maine must satisfy before it can enter Race to the Top, a federal competition aimed at spurring education reforms. Maine could receive up to $75 million if its application is successful.

The original bill approved by the Legislature's Education Committee would have struck down that prohibition. But a stripped-down version approved by senators would limit how districts can evaluate teachers and principals, if they use student testing data.

Sen. Justin Alfond, D-Portland, introduced a last-minute amendment on Monday favored by the state teachers' union, the Maine Education Association.

"I think this is a very good first step," Alfond said.

The amendment would create a five-member task force to develop models for school districts to use to evaluate staff with testing data.

The task force -- with representatives from the MEA and superintendent, school board, principal and special education director groups -- would approve models before July 1, 2011. To evaluate teachers based on student data -- a step toward performance-based pay for teachers -- districts would need to choose one of those pre-approved options.

"This will give (teachers) the protections that they want, and I'm anxious to get started and sit down with all the education groups and develop some models for the state," MEA President Chris Galgay said.

The MEA is still opposed to the law change, Galgay said. But the amended version assures teachers more protection, he said.

"It removes the prohibition that our teachers have valued for many years," Galgay said. "At least they know that their association will do its best to have some say over how they will be evaluated."

Sen. Peter Mills, R-Cornville and a gubernatorial candidate, said the measure amounted to giving the teachers' union a veto over evaluation systems.

"I'm worried about the future of education in Maine," he said. "We're going to rate teachers on how they dress, whether they brushed their teeth and whether they combed their hair, because if you take away student performance, what do you have left?"

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com