Oregon Public Broadcasting

One of the most hotly contested ideas in education is to pay teachers based on classroom performance, rather than rewarding their years in the classroom.  Earlier this month, on March 10, President Obama reiterated his support for the idea of “merit pay” – as it’s often called. But in Washington State, the teachers’ union has already smacked it down. Correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

There would be three levels of teacher: resident, professional and master. It would have only applied to new teachers, but Mary Lindquist, President of the WEA, sees no reason to change the current system.   Mary Lindquist: “There’s some good reasons for our existing salary schedule. I think it’s one that has stood the test of time. It’s a clear, transparent, predictable way of paying school employees and I think by and large they’re pretty receptive to the current system. I don’t see a lot of need from inside the education community to change that.” Lindquist adds that if there’s going to be change it should happen at the local level – not by state mandate. Her broader message is the focus now needs to be on protecting education funding in the midst of an eight billion dollar budget shortfall. Mary Lindquist: “This is not the time to create more uncertainty and to go off and try to do some restructuring when we have some core, fundamental issues that have to be addressed.” But by not embracing merit pay, Washington may forgo some federal stimulus dollars earmarked for states to pilot pay-for-performance programs.

Watching this debate from the sidelines is former Democratic State Treasurer and lawmaker Dan Grimm.

Last year he chaired a highly-touted task force whose work led to the bill that was shot down by the WEA. Grimm isn’t surprised lawmakers backed down because he says they’re not hearing a countervailing message from the public.  Dan Grimm: “There’s no motivation for legislators to act boldly because there’s no perceived need by the general population for bold reforms of the public school system. Then you throw in the fact the legislature is a creature of the status quo. It avoids controversy if at all possible and if it’s unavoidable they minimize or try to minimize the controversy.” Though pay-for-performance is dead for this year, lawmakers are moving ahead with some education reforms.

Those bills would redefine basic education and change the formula for how state dollars are distributed to schools. The thorny issue of teacher compensation is left to a work group that will meet after the legislature goes home.

Grimm is disappointed by that go-slow approach to an idea whose time he thinks has come. Dan Grimm: “We can in fact identify the teachers who are helping students improve their performance and also identify those who are not.” Teacher unions across the country argue merit pay is unfair because it links teacher earnings to student test scores.

The WEA remains unapologetic about its hard line stance.

The union has even penned a Dr. Seuss-like poem that goes like this: “Would we change evaluation? Would we change our compensation? Not right now. No way, no how.”