LANSING - Despite vehement opposition from both K-12 and higher education administrators and teachers, a House bill tying teacher salaries to student performance was approved by the House Education Committee along party lines.

The measure, House Bill 4625, amends state education law to require school districts to make student performance a primary factor in determining teacher salaries. Secondary school teachers would be eligible for raises for earning advanced degrees when those degrees are in curriculum subjects they teach, while elementary educators would be eligible for raises for earning advanced degrees in elementary education. Only teachers hired after the adoption of the bill would be affected.

Under the present model, student performance is one of several factors used in determining salaries, along with a teacher's education and experience.

A standing-room only crowd - mostly school administrators, higher education officials and K-12 teachers who opposed the bill - filled a hearing room at the House Office Building.

Much of the opposition was centered on the fact that the Michigan Council on Educator Effectiveness, tasked with developing objective standards for evaluating teacher performance, has yet to make its recommendations on how educators should be assessed.

Rep. Theresa Abed, D-Grand Ledge, said taking action on the bill before the MCEE's recommendations was "putting the cart before the horse."

Some of the most strident opposition to the bill came from Gary Murrell, an educator with Garden City Public Schools, who told the panel that merit pay is not effective in increasing student achievement.

"Most research suggests merit pay does little to nothing to improve student performance," Murrell told legislators.

Dr. James Powell, director of the Ferris State University School of Education, told the committee he was neutral on the legislation, but the bill's focus on rewarding teachers only for obtaining advanced degrees in content areas would have a negative impact on graduate-level programs his university offers in special education, career and technical education and educational leadership.

Rep. Bob Genetski, R-Allegan, a co-sponsor of the bill, said the bill is intended to encourage educators to pursue "teachable majors," and as such the special education and career and technical education degrees should not be affected.

Donald Heller, dean of Michigan State University's College of Education, attacked the bill as being bad for students.

"This bill does little to ensure that we will have the best people teaching our students in the state of Michigan," Heller told the panel before citing studies showing teacher performance increases with experience.

Eaton ISD superintendent Dr. Christine Beardsley said she reached an agreement on merit pay with her district's teachers through negotiation and was concerned her efforts would be affected by the bill.

"One cookie-cutter, fit-all model just can’t happen. This bill will derail what I’ve worked collaboratively to make happen," Beardsley said. "We are working hard. Give us the chance."

Ellen Hoekstra, a lobbyist representing AFT Michigan, spoke briefly at the end of the hearing to indicate AFT's opposition to the bill before committee chair Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons ended the witness testimony portion of the hearing citing time constraints.

AFT Michigan President David Hecker later issued a statement attacking the committee's decision to approve the bill.

"This bill disregards an educators experience and level of education for determining compensation. These things do matter," Hecker said in the statement. "I don’t know of a parent who does not want a well-educated and experienced teacher teaching their child. What is also amazing is that we have not yet implemented, let alone decided upon, the evaluative system and process that will drive this approach to compensation."

Support for the legislation among the witnesses came primarily from Todd Beard, a teacher at International Academy of Flint and a StudentsFirst teacher fellow.

Beard said half of his performance evaluations are based on student performance as assessed through multiple exams - prompting Rep. Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, to comment that the bill "sounds great for the testing industry."

The bill now returns to the House floor for a second reading.

Brian Smith is the statewide education and courts reporter for MLive. You can email him at bsmith11@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter.