Fed program bolsters SB5

COLUMBUS

Gov. John Kasich has a new weapon in the fight to ensure public employee collective bargaining reform takes effect in the state — a federal program much touted by his Democratic predecessor.

On the day that Senate Bill 5 opponents were reveling near the Statehouse, celebrating the nearly 1.3 million signatures they gathered in their drive to repeal the new law, Kasich was unveiling the names of schools set to receive additional funding through the Race to the Top program.

Yes, that Race to the Top, the program that former Gov. Ted Strickland and his superintendent of public instruction worked so hard on to ensure Ohio was among the beneficiaries of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal education grants.

Kasich took office, abandoned much of Strickland’s evidence-based model of education reform but maintained the state’s position as a Race to the Top recipient.

And one day last week, he used the program to justify the merit pay provisions for teachers that were included in Senate Bill 5 and the $56 billion biennial budget he signed into law Thursday.

Merit pay provisions

The several hundred school districts that signed on to be part of Race to the Top agreed to implement merit pay provisions for teachers. Kasich’s question last week to the other districts that aren’t participating: Why not?

“They ought to figure out why they don’t want to participate in this,” he said, adding, “I think we ought to let this opportunity [for] excellence for our children spread to all the school districts in Ohio. That is precisely what SB5 allows us to do.”

Senate Bill 5 and the state budget include provisions enabling school districts to pay teachers based on how well they perform in the classroom, rather on the date when they were hired.

As proponents’ reasoning goes, instructors who are excelling at their profession should be rewarded — maybe even paid six-digit incomes. Those that aren’t helping Ohio’s children progress should be given resources to improve or moved out of the classroom.

Labor groups and other opponents of such merit pay provisions, however, say the setup is a ruse that doesn’t take into account the socioeconomic challenges that some districts face. And they say districts will use merit pay to get rid of longtime teachers, replacing them with younger, lower-paid ones.

The two sides will be front and center during the coming Senate Bill 5 campaign.

Kasich and other proponents are going to do their best to convince voters that merit pay is merited. Just look, they’ll say, at the hundreds of Ohio districts that are already committed to doing it, via Race to the Top.

“So mom and dad, get informed about what we’re trying to do here,” Kasich said. “We are trying to raise the bar, trying to provide a better education, better evaluation, better schools, better informed teachers. That’s what it’s all about. And that’s worth fighting for.”

Marc Kovac is The Vindicator’s Statehouse correspondent. Email him at mkovac@dixcom.com or on Twitter at OhioCapitalBlog.