Senator Mike Johnston

Newsletter 2.20.10

2010-02-21T00:45:00.001-08:00

Dear friends and family,

I apologize in advance that this is a double length newsletter as it includes a detailed overview of all of the major issues we have tackled in the Senate over the last two weeks. As many of you know, we have been enmeshed in a very difficult, time-consuming debate about how to balance the budget. One part of that balanced package involved removing 136 million of the 2.2 billion in tax exemptions currently provided to Colorado companies. The next difficult step involves the very large cuts in state services and budget that we will be taking up this week. Read more below for all the information on each of these exemptions as well as on several of my other bills that passed certain stages of the Senate this week.

In more inspiring news, I had the rare privilege of hosting an event at our community center to both honor one of the original Tuskegee Airmen and launch our February art exhibit on portraits and recollections of the Tuskegee Airmen. These courageous men changed America and forwarded our historic battle for equality in a way that will never be forgotten. I made sure to take a picture of the boys with the original Airman, Buck Newsome, and I know it will be something they cherish when they are old enough to understand they stood with one of America’s greatest military and civic heroes. If you haven’t yet had a chance, please come by the community center sometime this month to see the wonderful exhibit.

Also, see below for exciting information on President Obama’s visit to our Senate District this week, an update on the wonderful Haiti Fundraiser we held at our community center co-hosted with Linda Lee and Governor Ritter, and information on two great friends (and nationally renowned authors) hosting events at the Tattered Cover in Denver.

As always, please don’t hesitate to contact me, and please forward this newsletter to your friends, families, and coworkers.

Sincerely,
Mike Johnston

UPDATES FROM THE CAPITOL

Overview on Governor’s Tax Exemptions
The current recession has created a shortfall of more than $1.5 billion in our state’s roughly $8 billion budget. As you may know, in our efforts to balance the budget over the last 12 months more than 75% of the savings has come from cuts to existing services including the Departments of Education, Higher Education, Corrections, Health and Human Services. We have had to close schools, release prisoners early, and close some of the state’s only remaining mental health facilities. Even after all these cuts we have still not done enough to fill the hole in the budget. We must have a fair and evenhanded approach to keeping the budget balanced. As one step toward this goal, we passed 9 bills that will end or suspend some tax exemptions and save the state $130 million. Read more about the specific bills below.

House Bill 1189
This bill suspends a tax exemption that did not require cooperative direct mail vendors to pay sales tax on raw materials they purchased for their mailings. Other than cooperative direct mail advertisers, all other direct mail companies currently pay sales tax on the paper and ink they use to produce their materials. This exemption was a narrow definition carved out for cooperative direct mail where multiple advertisers jointly participate in one mailing – for example, bundles of coupons for more than one independent business. Removing this exemption only affects the purchase of raw materials (paper and ink) used in such mailings. We heard from testimonies in committee that these raw materials are a “very small” percentage of the total costs for this industry. Thus, removing this exemption means that the small number of direct mail businesses who weren’t already paying sales tax on their raw materials will now be paying the modest state sales tax of 2.9%. This tax exemption will save the state around $1.5 million a year – the equivalent of cutting 40 school teachers.

House Bill 1190
This bill suspends the tax exemption on energy use in industrial and manufacturing sectors. Previously, the tax exemption for energy use did not require manufacturers to pay sales tax on the energy they used in production. By removing this exemption Colorado joins 35 other states that currently tax energy purchased for manufacturing. These are not a random assortment of states. In fact, the most successful manufacturing states in the country currently tax this use and tax it at a marginally higher rate than the 2.9% Colorado will use. As a quick example, all four of the top coal producing states currently tax this use and tax it a higher rate than Colorado, all five of the other top natural gas producing states currently tax this use and tax it at a higher rate than Colorado, and three of the four top oil producing states currently tax this use and tax it at a higher rate than Colorado. This is not to ignore that removing this exemption will have an impact on Colorado manufacturers, but we believe our lower rate will preserve our competitive advantage against other states. It is also important that we fought to protect the much larger $780 million exemption that manufacturers currently enjoy under a separate part of our tax code.

Fortunately, the Senate made several key improvements to this bill that will help Colorado industries stay competitive. First, we introduced an amendment to ensure that energy companies themselves would not pay taxes on the energy they use to produce energy for others. This would have resulted in a double tax that would have been passed on to our manufacturers; we prevented this by exempting wholesale retailers of energy. In addition, we also exempted the agriculture industry from paying this tax as we know this sector of our economy has been hit particularly hard and faces additional strains from the removal of a separate pesticide tax exemption that directly impacts agriculture.

House Bill 1191
This bill removes the tax exemption for soda and candy. I know that Coca-Cola is a large employer in our district, and I do not take lightly the decision to remove this exemption. Colorado does not currently tax food, however, to ensure that people of all incomes can afford the essential and nutritious foods that people need for a healthy and well-rounded diet. The demand for soda and candy has remained strong through several price hikes over the last 10 years. There is nothing to suggest that consumption of these items will decline with the newly applied sales tax. Moving a can of soda from 50¢ to 51.5¢ or a bag of candy from 75¢ to 77.25¢, is not a dramatic enough change to prevent people from buying either. This convinces me that this sales tax will have a much needed impact on balancing Colorado’s budget without significantly impacting the Colorado businesses that rely on candy and soda for their livelihood.

House Bill 1192
This bill removed a tax exemption on the sale of certain software. Some confusion existed around the kinds of software this would affect. To clarify, there are four major categories of software:
1. Off-the-shelf software that you buy in a store: Customers currently pay sales tax on those items (such as Microsoft windows) and will continue to pay sales tax under this bill.
2. Purely customized software: If a software company such as Oracle designs a software program uniquely for a business, the purchase of that software does not currently include sales tax and will not include sales tax under this bill.
3. Software built by a business for internal use: For example, if a law firm’s IT department wants to build software for its own employees to monitor billable hours, that software is not taxable now and will not be taxable under this bill.
4. Modified off-the-shelf software (MOTS): This type of software is a combination of off-the-shelf and modified software. In other sectors of our tax code, an item that is partially taxable and partially tax exempt is assumed to be wholly taxable, but previous to this legislation, MOTS was entirely exempt. (This exemption was never passed by the state legislature; it was put in place by an 11th hour executive order by Governor Owens before he left office.) Under the new bill only the part of the software that is off-the-shelf will be taxable; the value of the modifications done to this software or the ongoing support provided for the use of this software will not be taxed. Finally, software that is purchased off the shelf but is delivered to you in the form of a download rather than a store purchase was not previously taxed. This bill creates a consistent standard for all purchases of the off-the-shelf software so that they are eligible for sales tax regardless of how they are delivered.

Currently, 11 other states have similar taxes on software sales, and many, like Texas and Massachusetts, are viewed as the nation’s leading centers for software development. Moreover, Colorado is ranked as the 4th best state in the country to do business based on its very favorable tax climate. We know some of the reasons we have been able to attract and grow so many software companies in Colorado include the fact that we have a wonderful quality of life, we offer outstanding research institutions as partners, and we provide strong public services to make this state so livable. In order to preserve the climate that has attracted and grown these businesses, we must make sure we can provide the core public services of education, health care, and corrections – the major reasons people move and stay in Colorado. We are confident that our pro-business tax climate combined with a very strong culture of software and technology industries in Colorado will continue to keep us a national leader in the software industry.

House Bill 1193
This bill removes the tax exemption for out-of-state online retailers. The original and amended versions of the bill address the collection of taxes from online retailers through sales tax and use tax. The first part of the bill establishes the grounds on which Colorado can collect sales tax from online retailers. The second part of this bill empowers the state to enforce the use-tax provision that is already on the books.

The Senate made several key improvements to the original House Bill 1193. Because the original bill relied on affiliates (the online businesses that direct consumers toward other online retailers) to provide a nexus to reach out-of-state retailers for the purpose of enforcing sales tax, Amazon and other retailers threatened to sever all ties with their local affiliates to avoid paying sales tax. The Senate Finance Committee was concerned about the possibility of such serious and negative impacts, and after hearing several hours of compelling testimony from local affiliates on this point, we decided to remove the affiliates entirely from the bill. To be clear, affiliates are never even mentioned in the bill. They serve no purpose to create a nexus for out-of-state retailers, and there is now absolutely no cause for the affiliates’ relationship with the out-of-state retailers to be affected in the least. This major improvement is based on input we received from the affiliate community, and we have been delighted to see how supportive they are of the changes. The new first section of the bill merely creates a presumptive nexus between corporations who have “bricks and mortar” retail stores in Colorado and an online presence. Barnes & Noble, which has stores and online sales in Colorado, is an example. When you buy online from Barnes & Noble, you will pay Colorado sales tax. They and many other good corporate citizens such as Lands End, Apple, Wal-Mart, and others, already collect sales tax for this obvious reason. Please continue to support these businesses in your online purchasing as they are doing their part to support Colorado and its people.

The second part of the bill empowers Colorado to collect use tax on online purchases. When we buy something from out of state, whether it is a car, a TV, or a book from Amazon, we owe a use tax of 2.9%. This is equivalent to the sales tax we would have paid if we bought the same item in state. Due to the difficulty of monitoring and collecting it, however, this use tax is scarcely enforced. The magnitude of this issue is large and continues to grow. This last holiday season almost 10% of Colorado purchases were made online. This not only provides out-of-state online retailers with a competitive advantage over our local businesses that are forced to collect this tax, but also seriously undercuts Colorado’s general fund. We know that online retailers like Amazon have the technology to very easily collect and remit sales tax; they currently do so for other states like New York. Go to Amazon.com, use a New York shipping address, and watch as they very easily and automatically include sales tax in your purchase.

This bill formalizes the systems we use to collect use tax by requiring out-of-state retailers to send an end-of-year notice to their clients informing them of the total amount of use tax that they owe for their purchases. If a retailer would prefer not to inform customers in this way, they can simply choose to collect and remit sales tax in one simple online transaction as they currently do for other states. The decision is the retailers’. Keep in mind that even small businesses that sell products and collect payment online have the ability to collect sales tax for in-state purchases. As an example, consider The Tattered Cover, a Colorado favorite; if you go online and buy a book from them in Colorado, you will pay Colorado sales tax. Clearly, it is not a major added hassle even for small retailers to collect tax at the point of purchase instead of sending a yearend notice to customers. The legality of this issue has been clearly addressed by the United States Supreme Court in Quill v. North Dakota, which clarifies that a state’s ability to collect a use tax falls under a separate due process clause. They say, “To the extent that our decisions have indicated that the Due Process Clause requires physical presence in a State for the imposition of duty to collect a use tax, we overrule those holdings as superseded by developments in the law of due process.”

The end result is a smart and sensible bill. It protects our local online affiliates. It protects our state’s commercial retail stores that pay our property taxes, pay our sales taxes, pay the salaries of our citizens, and make significant charitable contributions to our neighborhoods. This bill will continue to enforce sales tax on those online stores that have a physical presence in Colorado and enforce use tax on those stores that do not, and it will provide a much needed source of revenue to avoid making deeper cuts to K-12 education, higher education, corrections, or health and human services.

House Bill 1194
This bill removes a tax exemption for restaurants that purchase non-essential food items. Currently, essential items for food consumption are not taxed; this includes items such as the Happy Meal box or the wrapping on a hamburger. Under this bill, however, restaurants will have to pay a modest 2.9% sales tax on the small amount they spend to buy nonessential food containers such as napkins, forks, or additional packaging. Such containers comprise a very minimal percentage of a restaurant’s total costs, and the bill will only apply a sales tax to these inputs.

House Bill 1195
This bill suspends the exemption for pesticides, agricultural compounds, and bull semen. We fully recognize that agriculture serves as a core sector of Colorado’s economy and strongly shapes our cultural identity. It is for this reason that we are proud to still protect more than 130 million dollars of tax exemptions that the agriculture community enjoys. We are also proud that we protected the agriculture community by adding an exemption to HB 1190 that would continue to exempt agriculture from a tax on energy used in irrigation and agriculture. This exemption will protect the agriculture community from more than 5 million dollars of energy costs, a savings greater than more than the total amount of dollars at stake in this tax exemption.

House Bill 1196
This bill revises alternative fuel credits. This tax exemption previously provided a tax credit for people who owned vehicles with 30-40MPG (also known as category 7 vehicles) as an incentive to encourage consumers to purchase fuel-efficient vehicles. However, this definition no longer applies to the most efficient vehicles and as a result was already set to expire in 2012 as a category. Now, many more cars have lower emissions, and while category 7 vehicles are low emitting in airborne particles, they are not particularly fuel efficient or low carbon emitting. Thus, the credit no longer serves its intended purpose. Additionally, category 7 was only invented in the first place as a way to prevent the energy efficiency tax credit from generating revenue. Under Tabor, before the Mesa County Supreme Court decision, the state government believed it could not bring in revenue through a new program and so money generated from other parts of the sector were sent out as tax credits to category 7 vehicles. After the MESA County decision, the government understood it could use this revenue to support other programs and so an additional category 7 for credits was no longer necessary. The removal of this exemption will only be for one year as the credit is already slated for elimination in 2012.

House Bill 1199
This bill prevents the ability for very large corporations to carry forward more than $250,000 in net operating losses. Unlike individuals, when corporations experience a loss in a year, they can carry it forward and use the loss to offset any taxes they would have to pay the following year. Removing this exemption only affects the very largest corporations in the state; any small business that has less than $250,000 in losses per year can continue to carry them forward. Even after this bill, corporations will still be able to carry huge losses forward for 3 years after 2013. They will be compensated at 3.25% interest for these costs. This total exemption will generate 16 million dollars, which is less than one-fifth of the hit our own senior citizens have taken by giving up their senior homestead exemption each of the last three years.

Our state faces an unprecedented budget shortfall, and when confronted with the possibilities of cutting still more funding to K-12 education, higher education, healthcare, human services, and prisons, we must consider every option. As you know, the state has already made dramatic cuts to public services, including a proposed 260 million dollar cut to K-12 education, an 18% cut to agriculture and a 12% cut from health care. The bills we passed this week will remove around 4% of the total amount of tax exemptions that businesses currently enjoy in Colorado, a smaller percentage than almost all of the public sector cuts. We believe this package of bills is part of a fiscally responsible approach that will share the burden, protect public safety, and prevent us from making still deeper cuts to public services that would force us to fire public school teachers, pull funding for college students or stop payments to Medicaid patients. We believe this is a fair compromise to ask of Colorado’s largest corporations as we take a fiscally responsible approach to balancing the budget, spreading the burden, minimizing pain, protecting public safety and safety nets, and preserving programs that promote job creation and economic growth.

Senate Bill 8: Average Daily Membership
I am happy to update you all that Senate Bill 8 passed unanimously out of Senate Appropriations as well as second reading on the floor. As you may remember, the bill allows for a feasibility study for a new system in which school enrollment is measured by the average number of days that each student is enrolled in school during the school year. The final vote on the bill will take place next year.

Senate Bill 88: Degrees with Academic Designation
Through my experience as a principal I know that many students in our district start their post-secondary education at a community college, but many of them never successfully complete a four-year degree due in part to the difficulty of transferring credits to a four-year institution. This bill authorizes community colleges and junior colleges to offer 2-year degree programs with academic designation. This helps community college students focus their studies and their career goals earlier in their career and makes it easier for their credits to transfer to four-year institutions. Community college leadership and faculty are confident this will increase the retention and transfer rates of community college students, saving students and the state both time and money. The bill also allows students to retain the flexibility to study without an area of concentration if they so choose. I was delighted that this bill passed through Senate Education last week.

Senate Bill 90: Colorado Capital Investment Bulletin Board
Many of you may be familiar with this bill that would connect angel investors and young green technology companies through a new online “bulletin board”. The bill has been postponed by the Senate Business, Labor, & Technology Committee. Using the language of the bill, the Governor’s Office will issue an Executive Order that calls for the creation of the Colorado Capital Investment Bulletin Board. We’re excited to have the Governor’s support for this great idea to help Colorado businesses grow!

OTHER EXCITING UPDATES

Two Great Friends and Incredible Authors Come to Tattered Cover
Join me this Monday night at the Tattered Cover on Colfax to celebrate my friend and nationally-renowned author, Adam Haslett. Adam, a law school classmate of mine and one of our generations brightest literary talents, wrote the incredible collection of short stories You Are Not a Stranger Here in 2002, which was nominated for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize - not bad for a first collection of short stories. Union Atlantic, released this week and reviewed in the Sunday New York Times, will be his first novel. Join him on Monday, February 22 at 7:30 at the store’s Colfax location.

In case that weren't enough for one week I hope many of you got a chance to see my friend Jim Wallis at the Tattered Cover last week. Jim Wallis, the internationally acclaimed writer on religion and politics, was in town this past week signing books in LoDo. Jim has made the incredibly important argument that Christianity’s core mission of service and love are, at their heart, liberal causes and should be embraced by the Democratic party. If you missed it, check out his book online or check out his always inspiring work at Sojourners magazine and in the Huffington Post about fasting over lent.

Tuskegee Airmen Event
As part of our commitment to Black History Month, last Saturday we hosted an incredible event honoring our country’s heroes - the Tuskegee Airmen. We featured mural artist Jacqueline Withers’ “Eyes in the Sky/Spirit Art Work”, the VBS Talent Camp Mural P-51 painting, youth speakers, and the Abraham Lincoln High School ROTC as well as a candle lighting ceremony as a special tribute to our local Tuskegee Airmen Dave Smith, Walter Williams, and Percy Sutton. The display will be up for the remainder of the month at the community office.

Haiti Fundraiser
I want to offer a big thanks to all of you who joined us last week to support Haiti. I was so sorry to miss the event as I was in Finance Committee that night but heard it was an outstanding evening that we were proud to host at our community office. A special thanks to our co-hosts for the evening and to earthquake survivor Jim Gulley for sharing his story. We hope you all will continue to show your support for the cause.

President Obama Comes to Denver
It was also exciting to have President Obama will be in town this week for a series of events supporting U.S. Senator Michael Bennet. As I have remarked before, there are good friends and good people on both sides of our Democratic Senate primary, and I think Andrew Romanoff is a great public servant. I, along with the President, have been an early and strong supporter of Senator Bennet and am particularly thankful for the knowledge and influence he brings in his role in Ted Kennedy’s seat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) committee. And as in all Democratic primaries, we will make sure that our passion during the primary only strengthens our unified resolve for a general election.

2009-12-04T15:06:00.001-08:00

Hey Team
Just getting some practice on getting the blog running in advance of session. Grab your remote controls because the session starts january 13th and will be televised, youre gonna want to clear a lot of space on your TIVO or DVR for this so you can get home and watch all 8 hours a day of the blow by blow action.
Stay tuned for the blog as well be posting all the bills ill be sponsoring or cosponsoring. And while youre at it if you know anyone in Massachusetts tell them to vote for Alan Khazei in U.S. Senate primary this coming Tuesday, an amazing American and public servant and heir to the Ted Kennedy legacy!
Have a great weekend
Mike

An Interview with Mike Johnston, member of the Commission on No Child Left Behind and Colorado State Senator: Fixing No Child Left Behind

2009-11-11T16:28:00.000-08:00

Written By: Michael F. Shaughnessy Senior Columnist EducationNews.org

1. Senator Johnston, as a former principal, you are uniquely qualified to lead this committee. What is your basic charge?

Broadly speaking, we want to ensure that all kids benefit from having effective teachers and principals who set high expectations and help students meet them. Specifically, we will build on the Commission’s previous work by developing updated federal policy recommendations to improve teacher and principal effectiveness.

By way of background, in 2007, the Commission called for a major shift in the way the nation measures teacher quality—from evaluations based on qualifications to those based significantly on classroom results, together with principal or peer evaluations. The Commission also called for measuring principal effectiveness—a recommendation I welcome given that the importance of school leadership is often overlooked. Since then, a lot has changed. More states have developed the sophisticated data systems needed to measure teacher and principal effectiveness, and new requirements and funding under the stimulus law (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)) may spur additional progress in improving teacher and principal effectiveness.

We’re examining how teacher and principal effectiveness can be measured; how we can attract, prepare, better support, and retain effective teachers and principals and remove those who do not improve; how to ensure disadvantaged students have access to effective educators and school leaders; and how the next version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (now known as No Child Left Behind or NCLB) can more effectively support teacher and principal effectiveness. We began tackling these tricky but vital issues at a public hearing in Denver late last month.

2. In these fiscally turbulent times, how big a factor will finances be and figure into your modifications of NCLB?

The Commission recognizes that communities across the country are facing painful tradeoffs at a time of belt-tightening. But we’re also at a moment of opportunity. Significant resources for a variety of critical reforms have been made available to all states under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. We hope that the money will be used to undertake strategic reforms—not plug budget holes and prop up the status quo. Now is the time to ask the tough questions about what’s really working and what’s broken in our schools.

It’s also important to recognize that the way we spend money in schools is quite often rife with inefficiency. You see this in news stories about teacher layoffs, for example. In many communities, collective bargaining agreements that value seniority over effectiveness mean that energetic, successful teachers who are newer to the classroom are the first to be let go—even if they’re getting better results with students. This doesn’t make sense.

Sometimes enacting reform is about money—but often it’s simply about doing things differently.

3. Now, what about lengthening the school day or school year. The President has questioned the 180 day school year. Your thoughts?

To date, the Commission has not taken a position on lengthening the school day or school year. Our efforts continue to be focused on building effective accountability and support structures, strengthening teacher effectiveness and school leadership, and ensuring that students graduate prepared to succeed in college or the workplace. We will certainly consider any information we receive regarding extended learning time throughout our research and outreach process.

4. Many say the biggest problem is special education—the increasing number of children with autism, increasing numbers of kids with specific learning disabilities and disorders, and children with health needs. How will you address these groups?

I guess it depends on how you define “problem.” Public schools must educate all students—even those who learn differently or have special challenges—and we must continue to hold them accountable for doing so, even if it makes adults uncomfortable.

Let’s remember, NCLB has changed the game for students with disabilities. They’re no longer invisible in state accountability systems—which means they are finally getting more of the attention they deserve.

As in our initial report, the Commission will consider implications for students with disabilities across the topics we cover, including appropriate accountability systems, teacher and principal effectiveness, and others.

5. It seems that the President wants to increase graduation rates, while at the same time making it more difficult for those below average in intelligence to graduate. What’s up with these conflicting perspectives?

Contrary to what most people think, the majority of students who drop out of school don’t leave because they can’t do the work. Instead, dropouts reported in focus groups for “The Silent Epidemic” report that the major reason they chose to drop out was that classes were not interesting. Two-thirds say they would have worked harder if expectations were higher. Almost 70% of respondents said they did not feel motivated or inspired to work hard.

It’s clear we need to raise our expectations for students, make school more challenging and interesting, and help kids understand what’s at stake if they drop out or don’t take school seriously. Their quality of their lives—and our nation’s economic competitiveness—depend on it. We also need to ensure that educators and policymakers stay focused on ensuring students graduate ready for the demands of college and the workplace—and hold schools accountable for doing so.

6. I would have to say that across the United States, the one comment is that there is too much testing. Will the Commission listen to or respond to this outcry?

The Commission heard that sentiment often in its earlier public outreach several years ago, and it hasn’t diminished. We agree with those who say that the tests in use now need to be improved—but we don’t agree with those who would abolish testing. Tests are the only objective measure we have for determining how students are performing and growing over time, which schools are succeeding, and which need help.

We will continue to advocate for improvements in assessment quality, better tests for students with disabilities and English language learners, and stronger linkages between assessment and instruction, among other priorities. We also believe that the development and implementation of high-quality common standards and assessments would do much to alleviate some of the concerns now being voiced. But we would be foolish to diminish or remove from our arsenal one of the most powerful tools we have—the abundant data we receive from assessments. Instead, we should better communicate the value of this information to everyone—including students, parents, and the public.

7. Who are some of the other people involved in the Commission and can interested citizens like myself send them or you an e-mail? And if so, where should it be sent?

We have a great team of knowledgeable commissioners who are implementing or conducting research on the law, and showing the way on aggressive reforms aligned to the Commission’s vision. Our commissioners include current teachers, principals, superintendents, research and policy experts, business representatives, and other leaders from around the country. You can read about them on the Commission’s website, and you can reach them by emailing the Commission at nclb.commission@aspeninstitute.org.

8. Many teachers feel they are quite effective for normal, average children, but less effective for students with exceptionalities and disabilities. How will the Commission address this area of concern?

Well, first of all, we need to do better than “feeling” we’re effective. But we rarely take a close look at teachers’ performance and how it correlates to their students’ achievement. In most cases, teacher evaluation is not used as a tool for improvement or feedback. Seventy-three percent of teachers who responded to an independent survey several years ago said their most recent evaluation was either a formality or not particularly helpful. More recently, The New Teacher Project found that nearly all teachers are rated satisfactory—which means that excellence goes unrecognized, professional development needs go unmet, and poor performance goes unaddressed.

This is unfair, unrealistic, and needs to change. The Commission believes teachers should be evaluated in large part by their students’ achievement gains, together with principal or peer evaluations, so that we identify, support and reward effective teachers and remove those who do not improve from the classroom. But we also know there are lots of other places in the pipeline that need improvement to ensure teachers are prepared to teach all kinds of learners, including children with disabilities. Teacher preparation needs to be strengthened. Professional development needs to be targeted based on teachers’ needs—especially as illuminated by assessment data. And the list doesn’t end there. We’ll be looking at all of these issues.