ATLANTA – State Rep. Billy Mitchell (D-Stone Mountain) [pictured left] announced plans to introduce legislation that would require educators guilty of CRCT cheating to return any bonuses or incentive pay that they received to their local school system.

"It is not uncommon for administrators or teachers to receive bonuses or other pay incentives based on their student’s achievement levels on the CRCT," said Mitchell. "This legislation simply calls for the return of any funds to the school system that were paid to any administrator or teacher who admits to or is found guilty of cheating or causing the cheating on any standardized test. By passing this legislation, Georgians will be able to rest assured that those relative few bad actors would not be unjustly enriched, while their students are placed in peril."

Mitchell's legislation would affect teachers and other certified professional personnel whose salary increase or bonus was based in whole, or in part, on an evaluation that included student assessment results or standardized test scores that were falsified.  "The legislation would apply to teachers and professionals who personally falsified information, as well as those that knew that the student assessment results or standardized test scores were falsified by others," Mitchell explained. Any teacher or certified professional falling under these categories would automatically forfeit his or her right to any promised salary increase or bonus. These individuals would also be liable for the repayment of any amounts previously paid to them that were based on the results of falsified student assessments or falsified test scores. 

The proposed legislation has already received support from educators.

"No one condones cheating," said Georgia Federation of Teachers (GFT) President Verdailia Turner. "The ill-gotten fruits of cheating should be returned to Georgia's children. This proposal is both a fair and common-sense approach."

"GAE wholeheartedly agrees with the principle behind Rep. Mitchell's proposed legislation, in that no one should profit from the harming of our children," added Calvine Rollins, president of the Georgia Association of Educators (GAE). "This proposed legislation would not affect honest educators, and would only apply to cases that have been fully vetted for the validity of the evidence. The current version protects educators' due process under Georgia’s Fair Dismissal Law, and we want to ensure that this protection remains in the legislation's final language."

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