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A Republican lawmaker plans to rework a bill intended to make it easier to fire ineffective teachers after hearing from educators Friday who feared it would unfairly penalize those who teach in poor areas.

Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, presented SB73 to the Senate Education Committee on Friday, saying it would help get rid of the "small percentage of teachers who are not measuring up." The bill, as it is written, would suspend career status for teachers with the bottom performing 5 percent of students in the state, as measured by achievement or academic growth on state tests.

Now, Utah teachers are on provisional status for their first three to five years in the classroom, meaning they can be fired at the end of the school year for any reason without explanation. After the three to five years, administrators decide whether to let them go or grant them career status, meaning they can be fired only after a much more extensive due process.

"It would not fire those teachers," Stephenson said. "It would simply say you need to re-earn your career status by showing higher performance."

Stephenson's bill would also prohibit schools from using last-hired, first-fired policies when laying off staff and require the state school board to create an evaluation system for measuring teacher performance.

Concerned educators packed the committee room Friday to oppose the bill.

Utah Education Association (UEA) President Sharon Gallagher-Fishbaugh said the bill would create a "mass exodus" of teachers from Title I schools, which are schools that receive federal funding for teaching high percentages of kids from low-income families.

"I love teaching at Granger High School with these kids who need good teachers, and I'm sorry to say I will never have outstanding test scores. That's not my fault," said Adelle Curtis, a math teacher at Granger High, where many students are learning English and qualify for free and reduced price meals. "It scares me to think that I as a teacher will be judged on their test scores. ... I want to be a teacher, but I don't want to be if I can't be recognized for being a good teacher."

Jennifer Baker, a history teacher in Davis district, pointed out that not all teachers teach subjects that fall under state testing. And Michael McDonough, a resource teacher at Woodstock Elementary, worried that teachers who work primarily with struggling students would be penalized. Several others said the current system already allows schools to fire poorly performing teachers.

Only one member of the audience, Davis School Board member Peter Cannon, volunteered to speak in favor of the bill.

"People want their teachers to be accountable," said Cannon, who spoke as an individual, not on behalf of the board. "They want them to lose their job if they do poorly, and this simply makes that a simpler process if that needs to happen. ... No child should be sentenced to a term of a whole year in a classroom with a teacher who's doing a really bad job."

A recent Salt Lake Tribune poll found that 69 percent of 625 registered Utah voters surveyed said they would support changing state law to make it easier to fire teachers whose students consistently fail to make adequate academic progress.

After hearing the speakers, Stephenson said he recognizes the bill, in its current form, includes "some unintended consequences."

"We don't want to create a fear of a teacher wanting to go and serve in a Title I school," Stephenson said. "I get that and I realize that needs to be amended if this is going to go forward."

He asked the committee to hold the bill until he can amend it, though he said he still plans to move forward with it in some form.

"I think there is a need to make it easier to get rid of low-performing teachers, but we need to do [it] right," Stephenson said.