Teachers at Vaughn have received performance-based pay bonuses of up to $4,000 a year based on a strict set of criteria, said Principal Yvonne Chan. The school has been offering the bonuses for the last seven years as a way to further staff development and inspire teachers to increase their skills and knowledge.
The charter school, many of whose students come from disadvantaged backgrounds, "did not choose to throw around excuses," said Schwarzenegger. "This is what I love about this school. They went into action. They gave students more class time. They gave the students more school days. And they shrank down the class size."
Critics of Schwarzenegger's plans said the amount the governor has dedicated to education in his proposed budget is not enough to support similar changes in the state's public schools. They said the idea of merit pay isn't the right approach.
"We should focus on getting a better long-term support base for public education," said Supt. Roy Romer of the LAUSD. "We are drifting way below the national average in support of our students, and it is showing up in terms of the quality of education we can deliver."
John Perez, the president of United Teachers Los Angeles, which represents 45,000 teachers, had a similar concern. "Before we try nostrums like merit pay and combat pay, shouldn't we try what other states who are outperforming us are doing, to see if it doesn't improve student achievement?"
But Schwarzenegger said conditions in some schools are so poor, teachers deserve extra pay for agreeing to work in such an environment. The state should reward teachers who move from a "comfortable school, where everything is dandy and fine," to a school where children are unprepared and underfed, the governor said.
Teachers at these schools "should get more money," Schwarzenegger said. "The union -- the way they look at it -- is no. If you give one person more money, everyone has to get more money. So there's a disagreement."
Times staff writer Cara Mia DiMassa contributed to this report.
