A D.C. Public Schools teacher contract announced Wednesday would cost the cash-strapped city $140 million through 2012, while allowing the pay of some classroom educators to soar to nearly $150,000.
Mayor Adrian Fenty, speaking alongside giddy school and union officials, defended the cost increases, even as the city faces a $523 million shortfall.
“There are a lot of important things we do,” he said. “But there is no higher priority than an excellent education for each of our children.”
Officials expressed confidence that the city’s Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi, a Fenty appointee, would sign off on the plan’s financial viability.
About $65 million of the cost would be funded by one-time donations from private foundations. The majority of that money would be used to kick-start a pay-for-performance program, while some would be used to fund five years of cost of living increases totaling 21.6 percent by 2012.
The city expects further dollars to come from ongoing “efficiencies” within the schools, such as reducing the number of special needs students attending private schools paid for with public funds.
Under the contract, teachers who opt for performance pay would be able to earn up to $147,000. First-year teachers could earn up to $70,000. Currently, teachers max out at $87,000. The average DCPS teacher salary is $65,000.
Rhee, who has fought throughout her tenure for a pay structure based on factors like on-the-job evaluations, emphasized repeatedly that “teaching is not a ‘job for life.’ ”
“Your performance has to show that you deserve the privilege of teaching our students,” Rhee said.
The contract also includes “mutual consent” hiring, meaning that no one has the right to a job based on his or her years in the system, but that principals can hire the teachers they deem competent.
The contract also contains an “exit strategy” for teachers dropped from one school and not hired by another. As long as that teacher has been evaluated as satisfactory or better, she or he can take a $25,000 buyout, early retirement (after at least 20 years in the system), or an extra year to search for a position while on salary in a supporting role. That option would be available to the roughly 85 percent of teachers who are rated at least satisfactory.
An exit strategy “is the only way to implement mutual consent without harming the district — without having a pool of teachers who can’t be evaluated out because they’re not in the classroom,” said Emily Cohen, district policy director for the National Council on Teacher Quality.
Washington Teachers’ Union President George Parker emphasized that the contract does not require teachers to relinquish tenure rights — an issue that surfaced last year.
“This agreement provides teachers with the support they need,” Parker said.
