Niles and Brandywine superintendents are cautiously supporting Gov. Rick Snyder’s plan for education reform, they said Thursday.

Snyder outlined his long-awaited initiatives in education reform Wednesday, addressing everything from early childhood development to college readiness, state funding incentives for student achievement and performance-based teaching.

“This plan is about moving away from the outdated model of the past and giving teachers and students the tools they need to succeed in the future,” Snyder said. “We have to start looking at students as individuals with different abilities that need to be taken into account but also as individuals with unlimited potential to achieve.

Educators reacted Thursday to the governor’s proposals, which included:

• Performance-based system of schools: Currently school districts receive a foundation allowance from the state per pupil. Snyder proposed a bonus for districts, essentially an incentive that would be tied to student achievement.

“This funding would be allocated to school districts for students who show an average of at least one year of growth per year of instruction,” Snyder said.

• Moving toward 80/20: How districts choose to handle insurance premiums vary. Within Brandywine Community Schools, for example, teachers pay only 5 percent of their insurance premiums, while the district picks up the remaining 95 percent. Administrators pay no costs at all, though Supt. John Jarpe pointed out they have also been under a raise freeze for the last three years. Snyder proposed that in 2013, a portion of the foundation allowance be allocated to districts that pay no more than 80 percent of insurance premiums.

“The state has put (the issue) on the table for everybody,” Niles Community Schools Supt. Richard Weigel said. Administrators within the Niles district have already agreed to pay 20 percent of their insurance premiums as a cost-saving measure.

• Mandatory Schools of Choice: The governor proposed a public school learning model he calls “Any Time, Any Place, Any Way, Any Pace.” The model would mean districts could no longer have the choice of turning students away if they have spots available and in the event of more students requesting enrollment than there is space, a random lottery would be held.

• Performance-based teaching: Possibly the most controversial of the governor’s proposed initiatives, Snyder took aim at the need for quality teachers in Michigan. Among several variables, the governor wants to see universities “transform” their teacher educator programs, change current laws to change what he called an “antiquated” tenure system and to recognize performance in matters of hiring and pay process. Snyder also said he would push Michigan legislators to end the practice widely known as “Last In First Out,” which bases layoffs on seniority.

“I am convinced that effectiveness in teaching should trump seniority in layoff and placement,” Snyder said.

Though Snyder was thorough, addressing virtually all areas of education, the how’s of reform remain uncertain, and both Jarpe and Weigel said Thursday: “the devil is in the details.”

The two addressed the governor’s initiatives with support and a degree of caution.

“I’m behind it,” Weigel said. “I think this is an excellent proposal. I think well done, he (Snyder) understands the problem and he’s willing to address it.”

Asked about the push to tie a bonus in funding to actual student growth to move beyond the level of basic proficiency, Weigel said Snyder’s proposal is essentially a “growth model, and it makes sense.”

It will also force a re-evaluation of measuring student achievement.

“That is a great piece,” he said, “because you need measurement and growth. It will also force a change in the MEAP (MIchigan Education Assessment Program).”

Calling the state administered test a “lousy assessment,” Weigel said the initiatives could mean a change in the test itself, making it a more useful and relevant tool for districts.

“It was visionary,” Jarpe said. “It did have, there’s no question, we need to improve our education system in Michigan. His statistics don’t lie.”

Statistics that included Snyder citing less than 50 percent of Michigan students are proficient in writing in grades 4, 7 and 11. Fourth-graders rank 39th in math and 34th in reading and only 16 percent of all students statewide are college-ready.

“To do all those things with less money becomes an even tougher challenge,” Jarpe said.

That was indeed one aspect Snyder did not touch on: as districts statewide wait anxiously to find out the final figures when it comes to reductions in state funding, Snyder didn’t mention just how much to expect at all.

Still, Weigel said his district is already working on its own way of meeting some of the initiatives Snyder touched on, including a focus on online learning. Niles has been working for about eight months on proposing a new program that would be an online-based learning program available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Where the proposals get particularly sensitive is in regard to teachers and teacher quality. Snyder alluded to the idea of performance-based pay for teachers, saying, “great teachers must be adequately rewarded and able to find satisfying careers in teaching and not be required to move into school administration to advance their careers.”

“That’s going to be a challenge,” Jarpe said. The recent Race to the Top law, he said, states, “we have to deal with the merit pay issue now.”

And though he agrees that teachers “deserve recognition and deserve pay for it,” Jarpe said the question remains, “how you work out a fair system and allocate that becomes a tough issue to deal with.”

Andy Roberts, president of the Niles District Education Association, agreed, and said the issue of pay goes hand in hand with a forward-thinking evaluation system.

“We’ve worked real hard over the past year and we still are on an evaluation system,” Roberts said. Still, he said, the idea of merit pay “is a tough thing to try and put together because the classes are so (different from each other).”

Robert said he supports merit-based pay.

“I believe so, yes, sure. I think that’s a system Indiana has put into place. I think good teachers should be rewarded; it’s a state law,” he said.

The idea of merit or performance-based pay “shouldn’t be controversial,” Weigel said. “Each person should always be judged by their performance. The question is how we measure it.”

He said that is another reason the MEAP needs to be improved as a measurement tool.

“We do know great teachers make the greatest difference for our kids and teachers should be rewarded according to their abilities and their skills,” Weigel said. “And the better your performance the higher it should be. I think what (Snyder) has done is he’s laid out a very bold vision for education in Michigan and there will be a combination of push and pull from a lot of different people to try to help make some of these things happen.”

There is still much to decipher from Snyder’s proposals and just how the legislature and educators across the state will react remains to be seen. Ultimately all eyes will be on the classroom to see whether or not the newly elected governor will move Michigan students toward higher achievement.

To read the entirety of Snyder’s special message to the state legislature on education reform, visit www.mi.gov and click on the “Education and Children” tab.