Calling for major “structural change” in Indiana’s K-12 schools, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett laid out a legislative agenda Wednesday that calls for an end to teacher tenure, merit pay for teachers, more school choice for parents and swifter intervention with failing schools.

At a meeting of the Indiana Education Roundtable, Bennett unveiled a sweeping set of goals he and Gov. Mitch Daniels want to see transformed into legislation by the next General Assembly.

Bennett described it as a “bold, intense and student-centered legislative agenda” that would upend the state’s public school system. He and Daniels have described Indiana’s public schools as woefully inadequate for achieving the ultimate goal: Making every Indiana student career- or college-ready by graduation.

Bennett said recent legislative changes have put Indiana on that track, but said much more was needed.

“We need to put our foot on the accelerator and step on it,” Bennett said.

Among the key items on the legislative agenda: Eliminating the current collective bargaining contracts that tie teacher pay to seniority. In its place would be performance-based pay for teachers and administrators, based on evaluation standards set by the state and implemented on a local level.

Bennett described it as an effort to “recognize and reward the best teachers.”

Also on the list: Removing the current cap on charter schools and creating a “parent trigger” that would allow the state to step in more quickly to take over a failing school if 51 percent of the school’s parents voted to do so.

The Daniels’ plan also calls for legislation that would allow students who complete the state’s high school diploma requirements by the end of their junior year to skip their senior year. Those students could take money that would have been spent by the state on their last year of high school and use it to pay for college or other post-secondary education. Members of the Education Roundtable, which includes business, community and education leaders, endorsed the early-graduation proposal, along with a performance-based evaluation and pay system for teachers and administrators.

Under the proposed new system, school districts would be required to implement an evaluation and compensation plan based on measures of content knowledge, instructional skill, classroom management, student academic achievement and leadership effectiveness. Among the roundtable members voting to endorse the latter proposal were some traditional opponents of education reform measures floated by Daniels and Bennett in the past.

They included Nate Schnellenberger, president of the Indiana State Teachers Association, who previously had described merit pay for teachers as a “slap in the face” to educators.

Also voting to support it was Patrick O’Rourke, president of the Hammond Federation of Teachers, who called the reform package “long overdue.”

Also supporting it was Democratic State Sen. Earline Rogers, a Gary school teacher and the ranking minority member on the state Senate’s education committee.

Roundtable members did raise some concerns about the legislative plan, though, and pressed Daniels and Bennett for more details on what the legislation might look like.

In response to a question about collective bargaining contracts currently in place for teachers that link pay to seniority and degree attainment, Bennett said he didn’t know whether those contracts could be voided. Instead, any changes to teacher pay might have to occur after current contracts expire.

Several members claimed that there were school districts “cherry-picking” students who are allowed by a state law passed last year to transfer from one school into another. Students who are athletically or academically gifted are allowed in, they said, while others aren’t.

They want that issue addressed by the General Assembly. They also raised questions about how school districts would be impacted by the potential loss of funding that would result from the early graduation proposal.

They asked that a transcript of their meeting be sent on to chairmen of the House and Senate education committees, which is where much of the legislation is expected to emerge in detail once the General Assembly convenes in January.

• Maureen Hayden is statehouse bureau chief for CNHI’s Indiana newspapers. She can be reached at maureen.hayden@indianamediagroup.com.