(Stock photo/ MorgueFile)

ATLANTA – Georgia lawmakers are gearing up for a heated debate over teacher pay when they return to the Capitol next week, in the event that Gov. Nathan Deal pushes an education reform plan that includes compensation based on classroom performance.

Moving away from pay models based on teachers’ experience and education levels was among the recommendations of an Education Reform Commission, which dropped an 86-page report on Deal’s desk last month.

“Anytime you go in there and start changing the way you pay folks, that can really cause some hard feelings,” said Rep. Jason Shaw, R-Lakeland.

The commission said the current approach’s “rigid salary schedule” hurts efforts to hire and keep good teachers. The panel recommends giving schools the flexibility to create their own compensation plans in order to strengthen teacher recruitment and retention.

Deal has said that a portion of teacher pay should be tied to classroom success, but he hasn’t proposed any specific policies, including a new funding formula.

Still, educator advocacy groups and lawmakers are bracing for a clash when the session starts Monday.

“If he wades in real deep on that, he’ll have a challenge,” said Sen. Ellis Black, R-Valdosta, who serves on the Senate’s Education and Youth Committee.

That includes pushback from high-ranking officials, such as House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge.

Kaleb McMichen, spokesman for Ralston, said Wednesday that the speaker “still has serious reservations about the implementation of merit pay for educators in Georgia.”

Meanwhile, advocates are raising concerns about any pay plan that relies on student test scores. It’s unclear what kind of assessment Deal’s plan would use to evaluate teachers.

Rep. Tom Dickson, R- Cohutta, who chairs the House’s Education Appropriations Subcommittee, said much of the current consternation among teachers is fueled by an existing evaluation system that is “heavily weighted on test data, student evaluations and a number of things that cause a lot of concern.”

“None of that may end up being in the teacher pay system, so it’s early to really get fired up,” said Dickson, who also served on the reform commission. “But, unfortunately, that’s what happens.”

Rep. Amy Carter, R-Valdosta, who is a public school teacher, said she believes that – with a few tweaks – the current evaluation system could be a fair way to determine teacher pay.

“The teacher evaluation system does include more than just test scores,” she said.

If Deal floats a proposal that factors test scores when determining pay, there will no doubt be fireworks.

Black, for one, said to judge teachers based on test scores would be a “gross disaster.”

That’s the trouble with merit pay for teachers, he said. “There is just not a good quantitative measure of education.”

Still, Black supports giving administrators the flexibility to award some additional pay to “exceptional teachers,” he said.

He also favors alternative incentives, like tuition reimbursement instead of automatic pay raises for advanced degrees.

Likewise, Shaw said he struggles to see how merit pay for teachers can work.

“How do you do that in a fair and balanced way that takes into account that all classrooms are different?” he said.

It’s a difficult question that legislators may find themselves grappling with early in a session that could also feature robust debates on issues like religious liberty, in-state cultivation of medical cannabis, tax reform and maybe even casino gambling.

But, with this being an election year, Black says not to expect lawmakers to get drawn into many lengthy debates.

Legislators – especially those with opposition – will be ready to “get there, get ‘er done, and get out” so they can campaign.

“I look for this to be fast session,” said Black, who is currently unopposed for reelection.

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jnolin@cnhi.com.