Democrats say merit pay system won't help schools
Air Date:01/16/2012
By Jackelyn Severin
Democrats in Pierre say they share a common goal with Governor Daugaard and republican lawmakers. That goal is to improve school performance in South Dakota. However, democrats say a merit pay system for teachers is not the way to go about it.
House Minority Leader Bernie Hunhoff of Yankton says there’s no evidence that basing teacher salary on performance helps education outcomes. Hunhoff says the problem is not bad teachers or bad schools but under funding education. He says the state needs to find out how much it actually costs to educate a K-12 student and start funding to that level.
“We need to put a price-tag on what it cost to educate a child,” says Hunhoff, “We don’t have the figure and democrats have some ideas on how to put a formula. We’d welcome ideas from the other side of the isle. Let’s try to put a price-tag on it and set a goal.”
Hunhoff says over the next few weeks democrats will introduce many proposals aimed at improving education and boosting economic development in the state.
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