D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty (D) unveiled his proposed budget for fiscal year 2011 to the D.C. Council on April 1 amid a re-election campaign and waning popularity shown by a January Washington Post poll. The total money to be spent on education in 2011 will decrease from $779.5 million to $757.5 million due to declining tax revenues and the end of federal economic stimulus funding that provided District schools with roughly $70 million in 2009.

With state budgets in crisis everywhere, education is on the chopping block across the country. However, Fenty’s $8.9 billion proposed budget allots for $563.5 million in formula funds, which are based on the previous’ year’s budget, for D.C. public schools and $349 million for D.C. public charter schools.

During his presentation to the council, Fenty affirmed his dedication to maintaining education subsidies despite the overall decline in funds. Fenty highlighted an increase of $175 in funding per student to both traditional and charter schools as well as an additional $2.7 million for summer camps and facility improvements to recreation centers.

Despite these funding increases, Fenty’s proposed budget may be problematic for individual schools and teachers, as annual cost increases could potentially force administrators to cut salaries and benefits for teachers.

This threat to teachers’ job security occurs at the conclusion of a debate regarding performance-based pay. After more than two years of debate, D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and the Washington Teachers’ Union have reached a tentative agreement on a contract that could tie teacher pay to student performance, as reported by National Public Radio.

The proposed pact, which must be ratified by union members and approved by the D.C. Council, involves a voluntary pay-for-performance plan in which teachers could earn up to $20,000 in bonuses for raising students’ performance and test scores. Rhee said that this system will be part of a new pay structure based not on credentials or the number of years a teacher has been working, but on whether or not students are making progress.

“For the amazing teachers in this district who come in to work every day and do heroic things for children, their work will be recognized and rewarded in a wholly different way,” Rhee said in a press conference on Tuesday. “