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ing extra money directly to our best teachers and phasing out teacher tenure," the governor said in a written statement.
• Secretary of State Jason Gant said his office will try to determine by July 1 whether the SDEA turned in the 15,855 valid signatures needed to put the education measure on the general election ballot. If the measure goes on the ballot, the law will be suspended from taking effect pending the outcome of the November election.
• The bill, which was modified by lawmakers to give school districts a bigger say in some programs, was one of Daugaard's key proposals during this year's legislative session. The Democratic minority opposed the Republican governor's bill, which passed by a narrow margin.
• The bill includes the governor's original plan to give $5,000 annual bonuses be

ginning in the 2014-2015 school year to the top 20 percent of teachers in each school district, based on a new evaluation system and measurements of student progress. But school districts could create their own teacher reward plans or not take part at all.
• The measure also would start a scholarship program in the 2013-2014 school year that would choose up to 100 college students a year to receive help with tuition and fees if they purse teaching degrees in critically needed subjects. They would have to agree to teach such a subject for at least five years in a South Dakota school.
• In addition, the bill would give $2,500 annual rewards to math and science teachers beginning in 2014.
• Tenure in state law would be eliminated in July 2016 for any teachers not already covered by the protection. Teachers who are tenured by then would keep it, but could still be fired for poor performance. School districts could choose to continue to grant tenure to their teachers.
• Bonnie Mehlbrech, SDEA treasurer and a special education teacher in Sioux Falls, said the proposed bonus for top teachers would create competition that would interfere with cooperation among teachers.
• "Anything that leads to division among staff is not good for students," Mehlbrech said after she helped turn in petitions Monday. "We have to work together or it's not going to work."
• Bob Hoffman, a retired teacher from Sioux Falls, said the new teacher evaluation system would throw out a system that has worked well in Sioux Falls for two decades.
• Arseneault said the governor's bill also has diverted attention away from the top

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