Editorial: Deal's proposal on reading skills won't work

Gov. Nathan Deal appears to be doubling down on the nearly meaningless work, thus far, of a legislatively created committee tasked with looking at public education funding in Georgia.

Mere days after the panel released a set of milquetoast recommendations including restoration of funding for school nurses, increased funding for books and technology, more money for continuing education for teachers and elimination of a requirement that at least 65 percent of every dollar spent on education go to classroom instruction, the governor is recommending that top teachers of reading in pre-kindergarten through third grade classrooms receive extra compensation.

According to a Monday story from The Associated Press, Deal "told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ... that he's still working on the specifics of his plan, but expects the recommendations to mesh with the work of a committee investigating whether the state school funding formula needs an overhaul."

Deal's plan certainly does need more work. As Tim Callahan of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators noted in the AP story, "in the early grades, every teacher is a reading teacher, regardless of subject area."

So, right away, Deal's plan runs smack into the touchy area of deciding which pre-k through third-grade teachers should be eligible for any pay differential.

Should those extra dollars go to teachers who boost reading skills in schools where student demographics and local funding make it easy to improve those skills, or should they be reserved for teachers in more challenging circumstances?

Should teachers get credit for boosting initially underperforming students' reading skills even if those students don't reach

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