La. gets $85.7 million to create merit pay programs for educators

The Louisiana Department of Education and school groups in Baton Rouge, Iberville Parish and New Orleans have received $85.7 million from the U.S. Department of Education to create merit pay programs for teachers and principals. The Teacher Incentive Fund is aimed at attracting and rewarding quality educators and encouraging them to work in the country’s highest-need schools. The programs will create performance pay systems based on evaluations of educators, among other incentives. This is the first phase of the larger teacher incentive program, which will appropriate $1.2 billion over the next five years. Of the total funds Louisiana received this year, the biggest share, $49 million, is going to the state Department of Education. The National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, which is working with charter school operator Advance Baton Rouge, will get $13.3 million. Iberville Parish Schools, which is working with Advance Innovative Education of Baton Rouge, will receive $9.4 million. New Schools for New Orleans is slated to get $14 million.