Gore Unveils $16-Billion Plan to Hire New Teachers

Facing a skeptical audience of educators, Vice President Al Gore on Friday offered a $16-billion plan to hire 1 million new teachers over 10 years and boost instructor pay in return for higher standards.

Taken together, his proposals would represent an enormous effort by the federal government to reshape the way localities recruit, hire, evaluate, advance and dismiss teachers.

In particular, the Democratic presidential candidate is offering a combination of carrots and sticks to pressure the most-troubled major urban school districts into adopting a sweeping agenda to improve teacher quality, shift authority from central school boards to individual principals and more closely link educators’ compensation to the academic performance of their students.

“Let me begin with a simple pledge,” Gore told members of the Michigan Education Assn., which gathered in the state capital for its spring convention. “If I’m entrusted with the presidency, I will ensure that there is a fully qualified, well-trained teacher in every single classroom, everywhere in this nation, before the next four years is out.”

Gore’s plan could face political resistance. His calls for changing the way teachers are evaluated could antagonize his allies in the teachers’ unions--a threat apparent in the cool reception portions of his remarks received. At the same time, conservatives, though generally supportive of tougher standards for teachers, recoil from the idea of Washington forcing them on local communities.

But the plan does tap into reform ideas that are gaining grass-roots strength around the country. Responding to Gore’s speech, Ramon C. Cortines, the interim superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, said the proposal moves “in the right direction” for improving teacher quality.

“I don’t see it as federal interference,” Cortines said. “These are the kinds of things legislatures are talking about, boards of education, mayors, as well as school people. I think he’s been very smart: Instead of telling, I think he’s listening.”

While Gore and his GOP rival George W. Bush both talk about the need for greater school accountability, they differ in their approach. Texas Gov. Bush would rely mostly on state-designed tests to gauge student progress, while Gore says states should be judged on the basis of a national exam.

Likewise, Bush, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, sees a much more modest role for Washington in teacher hiring and evaluation. In late March, he proposed to combine $400 million in new money with $2 billion in existing spending into a new grant to help states recruit and train teachers. In return for the money, Bush also would require states to toughen their procedures for certifying teacher qualifications--though his plan would not establish requirements nearly as specific as Gore’s.

The Gore plan outlined Friday would interject the federal government more aggressively into a teacher’s career.

Specifically, Gore’s plan calls for spending $8 billion to recruit 1 million new teachers over the next decade through college aid and scholarships for young people and signing bonuses for mid-career professionals who agree to teach in “high-need” districts. Building on a hiring plan started under President Clinton, the recruits would represent about half the 2 million new teachers that Gore said the country will need over the next decade as a result of increased enrollments and retirement of current faculty members.

Next, Gore’s plan seeks to reshape the way teachers are credentialed. Under the proposal, states by 2004 would have to ensure that all teachers have received their teachers’ certification or face a loss of federal funding.

In addition, states would be required to ensure that all new teachers pass assessment tests, including tests of their subject matter knowledge and teaching proficiency. Elementary school teachers would also be tested to ensure that they know how to teach reading.

Though Gore did not specifically mention it in Friday’s speech, he had previously proposed an initiative that would provide school districts billions of dollars in federal funds to hire more teachers. That initiative aims to help districts reduce class sizes from kindergarten through the 12th grade.

Finally, the plan Gore announced Friday--expanding on proposals he first offered in December--would change the way teachers are evaluated and compensated in the largest school districts.

Gore proposed an $8-billion incentive program that would trade increased teacher pay for tougher teaching standards.

Communities that participate in the 10-year plan would receive funds to provide all qualified teachers with across-the-board salary increases of up to $5,000. So-called master teachers could receive raises of up to $10,000.

Though participation in the program is voluntary, Gore aides say they believe the money would be so attractive that virtually all major cities would join. Communities would be required to match the federal funds dollar-for-dollar.

In exchange for the new federal money, local school districts would be required to adopt “aggressive plans to boost teacher quality and raise teacher standards,” according to documents distributed by the campaign. In perhaps the most touchy part of Gore’s plan, districts would be required to “quickly and fairly improve or remove low-performing teachers.”

The vice president was vague about the criteria that would be used for dismissal. But aides said the plan would impose a series of specific--and far-reaching--requirements on participating districts in other areas.

First, communities receiving the new funds would be required to stiffen their process for granting tenure to include an evaluation of how a teacher’s students are performing academically.

Second, the package would require school districts to grant principals more flexibility to hire teachers based on merit rather than seniority. Finally, the plan would require communities to provide bonuses to teachers and administrators at schools where academic performance improved and also to experiment with ways to compensate individual teachers based partly on student achievement.

Some of those ideas have been controversial with teachers’ unions. In Los Angeles, for instance, the district’s union contract would currently block it from allowing principals to hire without regard to seniority, Cortines said.

The vice president received a noticeably chilly response as he outlined the plan to the teachers’ union members Friday.

His calls for greater teacher accountability and more ease in firing failing instructors was met with stone silence from the audience of several hundred union members, who earlier cheered his calls for higher pay and condemnation of private school vouchers.

Twice Gore acknowledged differences with his allies. But he insisted a “central formula” is needed to foster “the revolutionary improvements that we need: reform, with new resources and new accountability.”

By comparison, national officials at the American Federation of Teachers gave the plan a more positive initial response. “There may be things in the speech we don’t agree with, but we have faith the details can be worked out,” said Greg King, the union spokesman.

The proposals detailed Friday augment the education plan outlined by the presumptive Democratic nominee in a speech a week ago.

At that time, Gore called for Washington to withhold federal funds from states that fail to improve student performance and close the gaps between white and minority students.

The vice president delivered his remarks after starting the day at Holt High School, where he visited several classrooms.