We need new formula for teacher raises
Wednesday, January 10, 2007 7:22 AM PST
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E-mail this articleA University of Washington researcher's analysis of how public education dollars are spent should be required reading for state lawmakers. Marguerite Roza's central conclusion -- that money now spent on seniority pay increases, personal days and teacher's aides could be better spent elsewhere -- should prove helpful in this budget-writing session.
The analysis, conducted for the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Education Sector and released Monday, found that salary increases based on years of experience and spending on a number of other measures typically negotiated in teacher union contracts had little impact on student learning. Roza suggests that the money could be spent more effectively on raising starting teacher salaries and hiring teachers to tutor students after school.
This suggestion -- particularly the part about spending more to raise minimum salaries and less on seniority pay increases -- isn't likely to be seconded by the Washington Education Association. The union traditionally has resisted legislative attempt to give bigger raises to teachers at the bottom of the pay scale.
The WEA generally has backed across-the-board raises in which the pay of beginning teachers and the most senior teachers rises at the same percentage rate. Education Initiative 732, approved six years ago with WEA backing, mandates annual across-the-board cost-of-living raises for all school employees. This means that, with rare exceptions, the biggest dollar raises will be at the top of the pay scale.
Initiative 732's mandate and the WEA's traditional insistence on across-the-board pay increases would seem to run counter to union rhetoric. The WEA lists low pay for beginning teachers as a top concern. Union officials maintain that low starting pay makes it difficult to attract the best and the brightest in the state to teaching. It often is, no doubt. But insisting on the same percentage increases at the top of the pay scale as at the bottom makes it next to impossible to significantly improve pay for beginning teachers.
All good teachers may deserve a raise. However, it's only sensible to direct more of the available education dollars where the need is greatest. That case has been made by various legislators in years past, though with little result. This new analysis should help proponents make it again this session.
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