Education Officials Pitch Teacher Bonuses

Mass. Senate President Thomas F. Birmingham '72 pitched a program he hopes will attract the "best and the brightest" teachers to state public schools yesterday afternoon in Science Center B before about 50 people.

Along with Mass. Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll, Birmingham presented a $20,000 signing bonus program for 50 well-qualified teachers.

"We want to attract the elite," Birmingham said. "What we're trying to do is to close the gap so the financial disincentives to go into teaching should not be prohibitive."

Birmingham's visit is part of a national recruitment program by the Mass. Board of Education to attract quality teachers.

State education officials began circling the nation at the University of California at San Diego in January, and will visit nearly 50 schools by the end of the month.

The signing bonus money is financed by interest accrued from a $60 million endowment fund set up by a teacher-incentive bill signed into law last summer by Governor A. Paul Cellucci.

"[The program] has focused on the nobility and dignity of teaching, and not just a signing bonus," Driscoll said. "The practical issue is that we need to attract teachers."

Driscoll said efforts are already paying off. The Mass. Department of Education has received over 5,000 requests about the program from places such as Florida, New York and Pennsylvania, he said.

Birmingham said the inspiration for the system stemmed from the failure of 59 percent of potential teachers to pass a basic competency test last April.

"The immediate genus to create a signing bonus was failure [on the teacher exam]," he said.

Birmingham characterized the initial effect of the scores release as only creating an acrimonious environment.

"Its immediate result was that there was a lot of name-calling, finger-pointing, nasty recrimination and gnashing of teeth," he said.

Last summer, Birmingham worked to get the signing bonus program, which also includes a loan forgiveness program and bonuses for veteran teachers, signed into law.

Questioned after the conference, Birmingham emphasized that a sizable quantity of money was needed to attract high-quality teachers.

According to Birmingham, if the bonus were distributed evenly among all teacher candidates, the $20,000 signing bonus would be reduced to $23 dollars.

Birmingham compared the incentive program to the "star system" in academia, where a sliding-scale pay system rewards high-profile professors with higher salaries.

"People are discouraged from going into teaching because of the money. We live in a capitalist society...Even the Nobel Prize gives you money," he said.