As Texan business leaders sang the praises of House Bill 2, which hits the floor Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers filed a gargantuan amendment to the bill, which they call the "Live to Learn Plan."
Texas Businesses for Educational Excellence is a lobby group for businesses interested in education. No groups representing educators have come out in support of the bill.
HB 2, instead of providing for across-the-board pay raises, stipulates pay incentives for teachers based on performance. Charles McMahen, president of TBEE, likened the proposed school reforms to running a business.
"Superior educational results are worthy of financial rewards," he said during the course of his accolades for the bill.
Business leaders representing TBEE do acknowledge, however, that the bill is not perfect.
"Our group's first preference would be to use state dollars for a state program of teacher performance incentives, but HB 2 envisions a locally created program, which is still a major step in the right direction," said Ray Sullivan, spokesman for TBEE. "Regardless, many of our group's priorities are embodied in HB 2."
However, what Sullivan calls a major step equates to little more than running in place in the eyes of many educational groups.
"HB 2 does not provide the amount of money needed to adequately fund public education," said Brock Gregg, director of governmental relations for the Association of Texas Professional Educators. "It's short-sighted because it limits the ability of school districts to raise money to provide services for students."
Gregg argues that any new funding allocated by the bill will just be eaten up in new programs. The association strongly expresses its support for the Democrats' proposed amendment.
"Our plan focuses on what happens to children in the classroom where they learn. They're talking reform, while we're talking improvement," said state Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, a major supporter of the amendment. "I think HB 2 fails our children and our families."
Opponents of HB 2 take issue with the fact that the bill only restores health-care stipends to teachers, not to ancillary workers such as bus drivers, cafeteria workers and janitors. The health-care stipends were cut for all educational employees in the 2003 legislative session.
Also, many educators and lawmakers object to the proposal that would contract out any schools that are low-performing for more than two years to private bidders. The Live to Learn Plan instead advocates sending in a team to work with the school administrators to improve performance.
Opponents of HB 2 also disagree with the idea of providing pay incentives as rewards instead of simply raising salaries. In HB 2, the pay incentives would be awarded based on student performance on standardized tests.
"Basing teacher pay on test scores is bad for students in the long-run. It takes time away from teaching and forces them to focus only on test scores," said Gregg. "Pay raises are required to induce people who wouldn't normally go into teaching to go into it. The average salary needs to be competitive to other professions."
Both opponents and proponents, however, acknowledge there's a long way to go.
"I look at public education like it's an elephant," said David Russell of the TBEE. "You don't eat an elephant all in one gulp."
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