Panel passes reform

BOISE - Legislation to eliminate "tenure" for new teachers, restrict collective bargaining and introduce merit pay is headed toward its final hurdle in the Idaho Legislature.

State lawmakers on the House Education Committee signed off on the Republican-backed legislation after a nearly five-hour hearing Thursday. The panel voted 13-5 on both bills, with just two GOP state lawmakers joining the panel's three Democrats in opposition.

The two bills were passed by the Idaho Senate last week and now go to the full House for consideration. The measures are part of a plan by public schools chief Tom Luna to overhaul K-12 education in Idaho, where furor over the proposal has triggered teacher and student protests.

Luna unveiled the education reforms in January with backing from Gov. Butch Otter and they have so far dominated the 2011 session. State lawmakers facing a potential $62 million shortfall in the public schools budget for next year are at the center of Luna's campaign to restructure how Idaho's scarce education dollars are spent.

While public testimony in the Idaho House was largely in opposition to the plan, Republican Rep. Linden Bateman said he felt comfortable voting for the legislation to limit the teachers union and introduce merit pay because there was strong support among lawmakers and school board trustees, both groups elected by Idaho voters.

"I feel good about that," said Batemen, of Idaho Falls.

The legislation would restrict collective bargaining agreements to salaries and benefits while also phasing out "tenure" for new educators and current teachers who have yet to obtain a continuing contract. These educators would instead be offered one- to two-year contracts following a three-year probationary period.

Teachers with seniority would also no longer be safe when school districts reduce their workforce and Idaho school districts that lose students would no longer hold onto 99 percent of the state funding that came with that student for another year, to save the state an estimated $5.4 million annually.

Sponsors of the legislation to restrict the state teachers union and hand more power over to the locally elected school boards tout the plan as way to remove barriers to awarding good teachers and getting rid of less effective teachers. But the Idaho Education Association argues it will gut teacher rights in Idaho.

"If this bill had been introduced in Washington, D.C., you would be outraged at the federal government's overreach," said association president Sherri Wood.

The House took up the legislation this week even as the centerpiece of Luna's reform package remains stalled in the Senate, where it is being reworked amid lawmaker concerns.

The main bill would boost technology in the classroom, require online courses and bump up minimum teacher pay. It would also cut 770 teaching positions and increase classroom sizes in grades four through 12 to pay for a bulk of the reforms, including the pay-for-performance plan now headed to the House floor with a $38 million price tag in its first year.

Rep. Brian Cronin, a Boise Democrat, questioned how Idaho's fiscally conservative lawmakers could support the merit pay proposal knowing that the funding wasn't yet available.

"It's irresponsible, it's not the way this Legislature generally acts," Cronin said.

The governor's education adviser, Roger Brown, countered that lawmakers are still working on the biggest piece of the reform plan and that legislation includes answer to the funding that will allow Idaho to introduce merit pay and award bonuses to teachers who take on hard-to-fill positions and leadership roles.

"That is the governor's answer," Brown said. "We're going to continue to work on that legislation."