Four-tier salary system won't be pushed next year

DES MOINES - The Branstad administration won't push a controversial four-tiered teacher pay system for next year, but officials say they haven't given up on the idea.

The new compensation system was a key component of Gov. Terry Branstad's education blueprint released last month.

It called for replacing the current step-and-lane system, in which compensation is based on how long a teacher has been in the profession and what degrees he or she has obtained, in favor of a system of apprentice, career, mentor and master teachers.

It also called for a boost in starting teacher salaries and pay increases when teachers move from one classification to the next. Still, it limited the number of teachers who could switch classifications and required that teachers at the mentor and master levels to serve as teacher leaders and devote part of their time as mentors.

Current teachers could opt in or opt out of the system, but all new hires would be in the four-tier system.

The governor and his top education policymakers have been touring the state promoting the blueprint at town hall meetings since early October. But the compensation package continued to be a hard sell.

“We're not backing off of the concept,” said Linda Fandel, Branstad's special assistant on education policy. “We did need more time.”

Fandel said the compensation changes won't be part of the 2012 legislative package that is expected to go to lawmakers in January. She said, however, work will continue on developing a new compensation structure for Iowa teachers and there might be some proposals, such a pilot program in a specific district, to encourage teachers to take on leadership roles.

“A lot of things we still have to sort out,” she said.

To that end, Department of Education Director Jason Glass said he wants to establish a statewide task force to look at compensation models in other states with an aim toward what could work in Iowa.

“We have listened to Iowans' concerns at town hall meetings and elsewhere and realize we need to better explain how this approach will support great teaching and improve the quality of education for students,” Glass wrote in an email Wednesday. “As we have said, the blueprint is just a blueprint, and we will make revisions.”

Holding off on the compensation package was a good call, said Rep. Linda Miller, a Bettendorf Republican who serves on the House Education Committee and was in Des Moines Wednesday for a meeting.

“There just wasn't the wherewithal to pass (the compensation package) in a divided Legislature. That's a hard sell,” she said. “We need something that Republicans and Democrats can agree on, and there are things that I think have support of both parties.”

Mark Lofgren, R-Muscatine, agreed that moving the compensation part out of the reform package improves the chance “that we can get something done this year.”

Still, lawmakers will have to wait until January to find out specifically what the reform package will look like and how much it will cost.

“It's hard to have a concern on something you haven't seen yet,” said Rep. Sharon Steckman, D-Mason City, ranking member on the House Education Committee. “There's nothing really to put your finger on to say ‘yes' or ‘no' to yet.”

Steckman was one of three education legislative leaders who met with Glass and members of the State Board of Education Wednesday to discuss the board's goals for the upcoming session.

The support of the Steckman and Rep. Greg Foristall, R-Macedonia, in the House and Sens. Shawn Hamerlinck, R-Dixon, and Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, will be instrumental for the governor if he wants to move his plan forward with in a bipartisan way. The four legislators are the top members of their respective caucuses on the House and Senate education committees

Quirmbach, who joined Steckman and Foristall at the meeting, said the governor needs to show not only the cost of the reform but “evidence that it works” if he wants it to pass through the Senate Education Committee.