The Georgia Legislature is expected to act on the proposals next January. People will have an opportunity to talk about what they would like the state to do, as well as submit written comments. Raise teacher standards. Nearly everyone can remember a teacher who made a positive difference in their lives. Georgia needs more of them.
Good teachers can do more to improve student performance than anything else.
Conversely, bad teachers do considerable damage. Georgia needs incentives to keep good teachers in the classroom and to encourage them to work in schools or systems where they are most needed. Give them more responsibilities, like heading peer evaluations, leading team teaching and devising internal assessment measures. Most veteran teachers will tell you that they learned far more on the job and from other teachers than they did in college. It's foolish not to make better use of this experience.