MADISON - A bill passed by the state Assembly early Friday morning allows teachers to be evaluated based on their students' performances on state tests.

Gov. Jim Doyle is expected to sign the bill, which also passed the state Senate Thursday, and is intended to make Wisconsin eligible for more than $4 billion in special education stimulus funds. But local lawmakers disagree on whether or not the bill will make a difference when the time comes to hand out the money.

That's why Rep. Robin Vos, R-Caledonia, voted against the bill Friday morning on the final day of the legislature's fall session.

"Because the proposal is so weak, there's a reasonable possibility we would not even qualify for federal money because we're doing the bare minimum," Vos said.

That's because the passed bill says administrators cannot use test data to fire a teacher whose students perform badly, Vos said, adding that the bill also does not instantly give school districts the option of evaluating teachers based on student performance. Instead, the bill says performance-based evaluations can be included as part of future contract negotiations between school districts and teachers' unions.

"It means if a school district decides to implement (data-drive evaluations) they will have to give some sort of financial incentive for teachers to accept it," Vos said. "Knowing how tight budgets are, if they have to give huge financial incentives, I am not very optimistic that this will go very far."

Racine Unified and the Racine Education Association teachers' union would not comment on how this change might impact teaching and contract negotiations locally because the two groups are involved in current contract negotiations.

Vos said he and other Republicans proposed amendments to the bill that would have made the teacher evaluations possible immediately and would have rewarded teachers whose students perform well with salary bonuses. But those amendments were voted down.

"The version passed does not do enough," Vos said. But some Democrats and the local teachers' union disagree.

REA President Pete Knotek said he would not have supported a bill that tied student performance to teacher salary because there are so many factors that can determine how students do on state tests. But he did support the passed bill.

"Wisconsin teachers understand the need for this legislation and I applaud the legislature for recognizing the collective bargaining rights of teachers in regard to teacher evaluations," Knotek said.

Sen. John Lehman, D-Racine, helped introduce the bill as chair of the Senate Education Committee. He said the bill is "a real step forward" that will allow data collection that shows what colleges turn out the best teachers and what third-graders in the state do the best in reading.

"It's been an exciting week because President (Barack) Obama came to Madison (Wednesday) and he recognized the effort we have been making," Lehman said.