Merit pay
While the Little Rock paper runs a front-page article praising its publisher's pilot program giving bonuses to Little Rock teachers based on student test scores, the push at the state Capitol for a bill setting up such pilot programs around the state — merit pay, generally speaking — looks a tad complex if not anemic. What happened was that Gov. Beebe persuaded merit-pay advocates to let him try to work something out with the AEA and file the bill himself. Here's what we've got, if I digest the lengthy amendment to the shell bill , HB2614, properly: A bill saying the state Education Board may establish criteria not limited to student test scores and then approve 12 such applications, but that schools may not submit applications without 70 percent approval of teachers, and, after approval, may not implement merit pay if 51 percent of the teachers say no.