Huckabee: Merit pay for teachers is essential.

by Seth Blomeley

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Gov. Mike Huckabee on Tuesday held the first secret meeting with teachers he has chosen to advise him and the Legislature on overhauling education.

Later, speaking to the Little Rock Rotary Club, Huckabee said if he calls a special legislative session on education, he also wants the Legislature to adopt a statewide ban on smoking in the workplace. 

Further, he said merit pay for teachers is an “absolute must.”  After the speech, Huckabee told reporters that he has asked the state Department of Health and Human Services to try to find some way to help fill gaps left by problems in the federal government’s implementation of the Medicare prescription drug benefit. 

Huckabee said he met for 2 1/2 hours with the nine-member teacher work group he appointed, all of whom were either state teachers of the year or a Milken Award winner. 

“It was a most remarkable, refreshing and enlightening morning,” Huckabee said. “These teachers had some fantastic ideas.”  He said they wanted to be “rewarded for a job well done” and that it’s not fair that teachers who don’t perform get paid the same as those who do. 

“Life is based on the idea [that] with hard work and outstanding results come outstanding compensation and reward for it,” Huckabee said. “Moving us toward increased compensation for those who are effectively getting the job done is an absolute must.”  

TEACHER PAY, MEETINGS

Dan Marzoni of Fayetteville, president of the Arkansas Education Association, said later in an interview that the teachers union would oppose Huckabee on merit pay. 

“I believe it’s very foolish,” Marzoni said. “There’s no merit pay plan that can be fair and equitable and open to every teacher.”  He said Arkansas can’t afford to set aside money for a select group of teachers. He said teachers should first be compensated at a level of other college-educated professionals and that would entail an entry-level-salary increase of several thousand dollars. 

Huckabee provided no details of how he would propose that teacher merit pay be awarded in Arkansas and how much more money meritorious teachers should receive. 

Huckabee has called for “accountability, transparency and efficiency” in education, but he’s keeping the teacher group’s meetings closed to the public and its documents confidential. He said he is doing so to allow the teachers to be free to express their opinions without fear of retribution from their administrators. 

He has said the governor’s working papers exemption in the state Freedom of Information Act allows him to keep those documents secret. 

Huckabee was fuzzy with reporters as to whether the nine teachers would be compensated for attending work group meetings. 

“I think we will cover, if there are expenses involved, we will cover that,” Huckabee said. “We don’t want them to be out of pocket or their districts to be out of pocket. No one would be enriched and no one would be harmed.”  Asked whether state-covered expenses would include mileage, hotel or compensation for missing a school day, Huckabee wasn’t specific. 

“Whatever would be appropriate to make them whole,” he said. 

David Matthews of Lowell, a lawyer for the Rogers district, which was one of the 49 districts that sued the state over school funding, has said that he doubts Huckabee can convene a secret panel if members of that panel are receiving compensation. 

Huckabee gave no more details on when he would call a special session or whether he would call one. The state Supreme Court has given the state a Dec. 1, 2006, deadline to fix problems in the state’s public school funding system. 

The nine teachers selected for Huckabee’s work group are Scott Shirey of Helena, Elo Anderson of Marianna, Lisa Johnson of Van Buren, Pamela England of Forrest City, Donna Adkins of Arkadelphia, Patti Meeks of Hamburg, Charles Rossetti of Springdale, Yoriko Perritt of Little Rock, and Marsha Petty of Texarkana. 

Marzoni met with Huckabee last week, asking him to name AEA members to the panel. He said Tuesday that he didn’t know the panel had been picked and that he didn’t know whether any of the appointees were AEA members.