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McDonnell Announces Further K-12 Education InitiativesBy Amber Lester Kennedy Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Gov. Bob McDonnell announced reform initiatives before the General Assembly on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the governor announced his reform initiatives for 2011, which include a proposal to implement a pay-incentive pilot program that will provide competitive grants to school divisions identified as “hard to staff.” The pilot models will award performance pay incentives of up to $5,000 to teachers in those school divisions. The governor also announced legislation that would establish a tax credit for companies that make donations to nonprofits that provide scholarships helping low-income students attend nonpublic schools. The Virginia Performance Pay Initiative, if approved, would provide $3 million from the general fund to award competitive grants in fiscal year 2011-12 for school divisions to pilot performance pay models in schools identified as “hard-to-staff.” The pilot schools would implement a comprehensive system to evaluate teachers based on standards developed by a Virginia Department of Education workgroup meeting this year. “Our hope is that these grants will attract good teachers to schools that, for example, may be on the verge of losing their accreditation, have trouble with attendance or have a large number of limited English proficient students – with a goal that these teachers will help to turn the performance at these schools around and help their students reach higher achievement marks,” McDonnell said Tuesday. Licensed teachers working in the hard-to-staff schools who meet individual criteria established by the school divisions would be eligible to receive payments from the incentive program. There are approximately 190 schools identified as “hard-to-staff” in the state right now, according to the governor’s press release. “Hard-to-staff” schools, for the purposes of the initiative, meet at least four of eight criteria: • Accredited with warning • Average daily attendance rate is below the state average • The percent of special education students exceeds the state average by 150 percent • The percent of limited English proficient students exceeds the state average • An above average amount of teachers with provisional licenses. • An above average amount of special education teachers with special education provisional licenses. • A higher percentage of inexperienced teachers hired, with no background in the classroom. • A school with one or more inexperienced teachers in a critical shortage area. If the funding is appropriated, competitive grant proposals will be due to the Department of Education no later than June 15. The Educational Improvement Tax Credit, if approved, would be implemented in 2012. Companies would be able to take advantage of the tax credit by making donations to nonprofits that give scholarships for students to attend private elementary or secondary schools. The scholarships must be given to students who would be eligible for free and reduced lunch in their public schools. The eligible nonprofits would be required to distribute at least 90 percent of their annual receipts to the scholarships. The tax credit would equal 70 percent of the donation made by the company and would be carried forward or back for 15 years. The Department of Taxation would be responsible for issuing the tax credits, and would be allowed to issue up to $25 million in credits in each fiscal year. “This tax credit will open the door to new educational opportunities for more of our young people,” McDonnell said. “By incentivizing business leaders to donate to organizations that provide scholarships, we will help our children gain access to new educational opportunities, with no cost to the state. Education is opportunity, and every student deserves the opportunity of the very best education we can give them.” In July 2010, new laws associated with McDonnell’s “Opportunity to Learn” initiative took effect. The laws aim to improve the quality of charter school applications, develop criteria for Virtual School programs and establish laboratory schools through college partnerships. |
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