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Full ERC Convenes - Teacher Compensation Front & Center
On August 25, 2015, the Governor's Education Reform Commission (ERC) convened to hear reports from the ERC'S five committees, including:
- Funding
- Early Childhood Education
- Move on When Ready
- Expanding Educational Options
- Teacher Recruitment, Retention and Compensation
The ERC'S power point presentation is available HERE. Dr. Charles Knapp chairs both the ERC and the ERC Funding Committee. He walked commission members through Funding Committee slides, and explained that further discussion of teacher compensation Training and Experience (T & E) proposals will take place at the Funding Committee's meeting on August 27th as will conversation on proposed student weights under the new school funding formula. 
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Other Highlights - Pre-k, School Choice, Move on When Ready, & Teacher Committee
Other ERC committee chairs walked attendees through their respective portions of the power point. The Early Childhood Education committee, which has worked quickly to build consensus around increasing pre-k teacher pay and decreasing class size, updated the commission. The school choice committee had little to report since it has not recently met. Move on When Ready chair Matt Arthur sketched out his committee's ideas to enhance competency-based student learning.
The Teacher Recruitment, Retention, and Compensation (TRR&C) committee report included several interesting items for ERC consideration, including the following teacher recruitment enhancements:
- Service Cancellable Loans for USG graduates who stay to teach in Georgia
- Full year clinical practice model for our colleges instead of 1/2 year student teaching
- Replace time in the degree, not add!
- Compensate teachers well for supervising college interns
- State funding for or refunds GACE exit exam from college
- Increase entry level salary
- Signing bonuses for tough fields
- Adopt / continue strong mentoring programs
TRR&C committee chair Pam Williams described several of the committees' ideas for teacher retention:
- Consistent and continued mentoring of new teachers
- Protected planning time
- Return to "normal" on the curricula change cycle
- Slowdown / stop of "new things" piled onto teachers legislatively or by SBOE rule
- Find extra burdensome things to repeal, sunset new "things" we put into education
Notably, two slides were dedicated to TRR&C discussion about teacher compensation.  
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Educators Testify Before the ERC
After the power point, the next ERC meeting was announced for September 24, 2015. The commission is expected to meet several more times before finalizing recommendations in December.
Several practicing and retired educators from across Georgia addressed commission members at the conclusion of the meeting. They provided powerful perspective on the impact of several controversial ERC proposals, particularly the teacher compensation reforms. Please visit the PAGE Facebook page for pictures and for more information.  Jeremy Peacock, president of the GA Science Teachers Association, addresses the ERC re: teacher compensation and recruiting and retaining science educators  Retired GA educator Beth Odom testifies before the ERC regarding the impact of student test scores on proposed educator compensation plans.Educators and other stakeholders are strongly encouraged to contact the ERC to provide feedback now at erc@opb.georgia.gov. As always, please remember to contact policymakers using non-school email accounts outside of instructional time.
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Margaret Ciccarelli - Director of Legislative Affairs
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