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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

It’s about students

The Spokesman-Review

When the National Math and Science Initiative awarded a $13.2 million grant to seven Washington state high schools, you’d think it would’ve touched off a celebration. After all, education dollars are tight. Instead, the teachers unions treated the benefactor like a student caught with candy: “Did you bring enough for everyone?”

When the answer was no, the grant was rejected. The announcement came last week.

An official with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which kicked in $10 million toward the effort, told the Seattle Times, “Honestly, I can’t figure out why they couldn’t solve this.” He noted that other states with unions worked it out.

The chief hang-up is that the grant would’ve paid teachers directly for the extra training required to teach advanced placement math and science classes and for improved test scores. The Washington Education Association couldn’t countenance a lack of control over pay and it didn’t want to endorse any sort of dreaded merit pay. About 22 percent of the money would’ve gone to the teachers.

Three Spokane-area high schools – Ferris, North Central and University – will be among those forgoing millions of dollars to promote participation in advanced placement courses.

In March, Maureen Ramos, president of the Spokane Education Association, said: “One of the tenets of collective bargaining is that salary and benefits are negotiated. Pay for performance is not one of the tenets.”

It’s certainly true that legislators have crafted state laws that require collective bargaining, but they’ve done so at the behest of powerful teachers unions. Pay for performance could be one of the tenets, or at least that option could be made available when grants like this come along. It’s up to the unions.

Ramos called this an equity issue, because not all schools would benefit, adding that “pitting one teacher against another” is a union no-no.

But the public, which pays the bills, is right to ask, “What about the students? If they benefit, as surely some would, isn’t that better than nothing? Isn’t that more important than union politics?

The NMSI program is based on a successful model from Texas. A 2007 Cornell University study shows that it is beneficial to students and the general public. In part, it concluded:

“Adoption of the AP incentive program is associated with a 30 percent increase in the number of students scoring above 1100 on the SAT or 24 on the ACT, and an 8 percent increase in the number of students who matriculate in college in Texas.”

If a merit-based program works, unions need to find a way to get on board. Otherwise, teachers – all of them – risk losing public support.