The calendar has turned to June and Senate Bill 795, the "Excellent Public Schools Act", is not officially approved, but it is "tentatively approved". My original post about Bill 795 discusses many, but not all, of the main components of the bill.
The Senate passed the 2nd reading of Bill 795 yesterday (May 31st), which has been mostly supported by Republicans, yet opposed by Democrats.
Financial details were discussed in the controversial Pay-for-Performance component with an expected cost of $45.6 million for the first year of implementation. The cost may rise to an astounding $82.3 million by 2016-2017. The Pay-for-Performance component would require each individual LEA to create and implement their own teacher-payment plan, resulting in hundreds of various formats state-wide. Many have doubts on where this funding will come from, given our current financial struggles in education.
In the Teacher Tenure component, Republicans are pushing for new teachers to be initially placed on one-year contracts, allowing principals and superintendents to approve if the teacher remains on staff for the following year. After passing the initial licensure/Beginning Teacher status, teachers would be given four-year contracts. This is similar to the current contract systems of assistant principals and principals, but Democrats are requesting for this to be removed from Bill 795.
Tenure would be eliminated, but teachers who currently "have" tenure in North Carolina would not lose it.
I feel that it is extremely important for all educators in North Carolina to stay abreast on the components and amendments of Bill 795. These components will drastically change public education in North Carolina. The final vote is set for Monday, June 4th.
You can check out the history and information of the bill here.
Thanks for reading and follow me via Twitter @CSmithGoBlue.
CS
The opinions shared in this blog belong to Craig Smith and do not represent the school or district in which he works.
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