Teacher Pay, Promoting Science and Math on Legislators' Education Agenda

Jan 05, 03:33 AM

Jan. 5--Legislators will tackle several education issues during the upcoming legislative session, and teacher pay raises and promoting science and math education are primary focuses of both the House and Senate education committees.

They hope to finally pass a bill that will begin to bring Kentucky teachers' compensation up to par with teachers from contiguous states. If passed, that will cost well over $400 million, said Rep. Harry Moberly Jr., D-Richmond.

Legislators hope to address what many state education advocates think is an alarming need for science and math graduates to become competitive in the global economy.

Other proposals will include changes to the standardized testing system, including pushing test dates back.

In regard to state tests, Sen. Ken Winters, R-Murray, said there is a bill filed out of the House of Representatives that would move the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System date to later in the semester. Students are tested in April, leaving many without much to do until school ends in May, he said.

"We need all the instructional time possible," said Winters, chairman of the Senate Education Committee. "We don't want to waste the time of the students during that period following the test date."

Winters said he will file legislation to address the science and math problem. The bill will provide incentives to students who score well on Advanced Placement math, physics and chemistry exams. However, Winters said the proposal might leave out the portion where a salary bonus will be given to teachers of those subjects. That aspect of the bill was controversial among teacher groups.

"In the long haul, the issue of incentive or performance pay must be dealt with by Kentucky's educational system but that may or may not be part of this bill," Winters said.

Rep. Frank Rasche, D-Paducah, said members of the House Education committee also were focused on proposals involving teacher salaries and math and science education. He said it will be a difficult year to allot money toward education initiatives.

"Everybody says we don't have money, so it's going to be very interesting to see how we reconcile all of these desires with the budget in general," Rasche, chairman of the House Education Committee, said.

Rep. Harry Moberly Jr., D-Richmond, said that in addition to promoting math and science education at the elementary and secondary levels, legislators are looking to promote those subjects in higher education. They also are looking to address the high rate of remedial courses students take when reaching the university level. He hopes for more funding toward programs that address transitions from one grade to the next.

He also emphasized that funding toward education is going to be difficult.

"Of course education will always be our first priority," he said. "But right now our revenue picture looks bleak."

Reach Raviya H. Ismail at (859) 231-3342, 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3342.

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