Reward math, science teachers

Rapid City (S.D.) Journal: There’s good news and bad news as state lawmakers modify Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s teacher merit pay plan.

As originally envisioned, the governor proposed giving the top 20 percent of teachers in each school district a $5,000 bonus based on evaluations and student achievement. Math and science teachers would receive a $3,500 bonus designed to attract and retain teachers in a critical area of instruction.

The good news is House Bill 1234 will give school districts more flexibility to fashion their own evaluation system to recognize and reward the top teachers in their district. The bonus of $5,000 still would apply to the top 20 percent of teachers.

School districts also could opt out of the merit pay plan but would lose the funds to other districts.

The bad news is HB 1234 significantly changes the bonus for math and science teachers to affect only new teachers. The bonus pay is increased to $8,000 and teachers would be eligible for the bonus for no more than five years.

While the bonus no doubt would help recruit new math and science teachers, what about teachers that are already in the field? In many respects, an experienced math and science teacher is more valuable than a teacher with no classroom experience.

HB 1234 makes some worthwhile changes to Daugaard’s teacher merit pay proposal, but the reworked math and science teacher bonus plan appears to do more harm than good. If math and science teachers are in such short supply that a bonus pay plan is needed to entice them to teach in South Dakota, then all math and science teachers deserve to be rewarded.