Pay plan merits look

State Superintendent of Schools Tom Luna has never been a big favorite of Idaho teachers, but they owe him – and themselves – a serious look at the pay plan he will submit to the Legislature in January.

By the same token, if Luna expects his proposal to realize its potential for improved educational performance, he needs to respect their concerns, too.

Luna’s proposal, which has the backing of Gov. Butch Otter, addresses a couple of serious issues right out of the chute. Recent rankings place Idaho 32nd among 50 states and the District of Columbia in teacher salaries and 45th in per-pupil spending. By sweetening the pot by $60 million, the state superintendent’s idea would immediately elevate Idaho somewhere above those embarrassing standings.

But it also would address the concerns of those who, like Luna, believe the teacher pay structure needs to do more to recognize excellence and to steer compensation in the direction of demonstrable improvement in student learning. This would add to, rather than replace, the legitimate role experience and continuing education play in the current pay structure.

Many of the details will remain unknown until the state Department of Education comes up with actual bill language. But we have a good idea of the broader objectives and strategies. Teachers would be rewarded if they teach in a school that scores high in the Idaho Standards Achievement Test or records exceptional improvement in those assessments. It would create incentives for acquiring skills and taking jobs that local districts deem hard to fill.

Teachers who swap the job protection of tenure for a multiyear contract could pile up even more salary increments by picking up expertise certificates and taking on leadership roles.

In fact, a teacher who took full advantage of the opportunities could increase his or her annual pay by more than $13,000. And that should sound good not only to teachers but also to those who hate to see excellent educators leave the classroom behind and move into administration positions because that’s the only way they can improve their earning power.

Still, there are legitimate reasons to regard this proposal with healthy skepticism. For starters, a pay plan that encourages teachers to seek positions in schools where they can achieve the best ISAT scores necessarily is an incentive for them to move away from other schools – possibly ones where top-drawer teachers are most needed.

Further, school systems are prone to bedazzlement by glitzy new theories that blind them to the merits of proven traditional methods. For Luna’s plan to succeed it will be necessary that it rewards honest instructional success rather than energetic allegiance to a fad.

At this point those are only questions, not fatal flaws. If Luna and his bill drafter can produce adequate answers, the opportunity to make Idaho’s teacher-pay and school-funding rankings more competitive with the rest of the nation is worth pushing for.