DENVER • A bipartisan group of state senators announced Monday that they are working to create a $1 billion fund to remake the state’s education system by rewarding student and teacher performance.

Supporters said the legislative package would put Colorado in a position to receive half-a-billion dollars from the Obama administration’s “Race to the Top” campaign to raise the performance of America’s public schools.

Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, the prime mover, said an equal amount would come from education foundations that have expressed a willingness to kick in matching dollars.

The federal program is planning to disburse more than $4 billion to eight to 10 states it judges to have the most innovative education programs.

The package could cost Colorado taxpayers. It would lift the cap that restricts tax increases in the state’s 178 school districts and would allow districts to spend the 3 percent cash reserve they are required to maintain under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.

But supporters said Monday that they think voters in many districts, given the chance to compete for their own slice of Colorado’s “Race to the Top” grant, would embrace the opportunity to achieve meaningful education reform – “a once-in-a-lifetime chance,” according to Romer, the vice chairman of the Senate Education Committee.

Pay for performance has been a thorny issue in education for decades, with teachers unions leading the opposition. The Obama administration has come down on the side of educators who believe P4P incentives are the right way to go.

In the Colorado plan, merit pay would also be applied to students.

Incentives for students from families with low income or other disadvantages would be tied to their academic achievement, not just their socioeconomic position.

“It’ll be the first time in school finance we pay not for inputs but for an output,” Romer said.

The Colorado “Race to the Top” bill, being hammered out with Gov. Bill Ritter and leaders in the House of Representatives, envisions higher academic standards that would bootstrap the state into the international competition for educational excellence.

Yardsticks for achievement would include a new Colorado Regents Exam, given to high school students, in which high scorers would receive scholarships to pay for at least half their tuition at a public college or university in the state. Students designated as “at risk” would receive full scholarships.

The education package is notable for being the first major legislative initiative this session with broad bipartisan support.

It is being spearheaded by Romer and Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial, and Monday’s news conference was attended by both parties’ state Senate leaders – Senate President Peter Groff and the minority leader, Josh Penry.

Also on hand were Sens. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs, and Mark Scheffel, R-Castle Rock, whose district includes Teller County.

King described performance-based funding as a “sea change” in the state’s education system and said he thinks voters would welcome it.

“It’s a little disappointing,” Spence said, “that we have to think about putting a billion or more dollars into education reform when my party has always said, ‘Why do we want to throw more money at it? That’s not going to change things.'”

But she said the opportunity to achieve meaningful reform was too good to pass up.

“Colorado’s children are clearly going to be the winners,” she said.

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