State officials say Arkansas LEARNS merit bonuses motivate teachers, critics call them unfair

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A merit-based program that is part of an overhaul of Arkansas’ education system is offering some teachers thousands of dollars in bonuses, even though some call the system inequitable.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday that 3,000 teachers will receive bonuses of $1,500 to $10,000 through the Merit Teacher Incentive Fund program, a part of the Arkansas LEARNS Act passed in March 2023.

Education Secretary Jacob Oliva said this is the top 10 percent of teachers in Arkansas.

The governor’s office said that to qualify for these bonuses, teachers must demonstrate exceptional growth in their students’ performance, serve as mentors to future teachers who participate in year-long residencies, and/or teach in a subject or a region experiencing a serious shortage of teachers.

According to the Arkansas Department of Education, bonus recipients were identified using data from the Statewide Information System, Educator Effectiveness System, Arkansas educator licensing and state student assessment data.

Even with all this data, some critics say the information used to determine bonuses isn’t sufficient.

Gwen Faulkenberry is one of the educators who calls the program far too simple, saying that bonuses based on student performance are unfair because each teacher is assigned a different class of students who might struggle more. than others for reasons such as poverty, learning difficulties or stressors at school. House.

Faulkenberry said she also fears the program will create a stressful and potentially competitive environment among teachers in a field where they already struggle to recruit and retain positions.

“Once again, we’ve deployed this thing like, ‘Oh, this is just a huge innovation and it’s really going to improve everything,’ and it’s missing the nuance, the respect for the profession,” she said. declared.

Oliva says the program is meant to motivate teachers and believes people will see the benefits from teachers in the years to come.

“Now that we’ve gone through a rule-making process and established criteria, it’s clear and people now know, ‘Hey, if I lead the appointment of teachers or if I come in and start mentoring future teachers, I’m going to be eligible for a few extra dollars,” he said.

There is also the argument among those who oppose this program that if the state had established a salary scale that paid teachers more based on their years of work in education, this merit program would not be necessary.

Last year, the state increased starting teacher pay to $50,000 a year, meaning that in some cases, depending on the district, longtime teachers earn the same salary as first-year teachers.

“We made raises for everyone. Every teacher in the state of Arkansas is getting a raise of at least $2,000,” Oliva said. “This increase was larger than any measure granted by the state before. Districts work on salary scales that work best for them.

Additional information about the bonus program, including a map showing bonus distribution, can be found at LEARNS.ADE.Arkansas.gov.