Written by: Jim Hansen
Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The Senate Education Committee is supposed to vote on two competing proposals to create alternative compensation for teachers as an incentive to go above and beyond the call of duty to increase their skills and to improve student achievement. But, so far, the committee has not scheduled a vote. State Superintendent Tom Luna's bill (Senate Bill 1310 called iSTARS) drew overwhelming criticism last week because it would require teachers to give up their continuing contract rights in exchange for better pay and it relies on standardized test (ISAT) results to evaluate teachers rather than tests plus other performance indicators.

Classroom teachers worked for months to come up with a much better alternative (Senate Bill 1290 called We Teach) which provides a more workable incentive to improve teacher practice. To work, both bills require an investment of public funds but the We Teach proposal is more flexible and can begin at any funding level. Lawmakers knew all along that to improve the system requires an investment of public money. Yet, Idaho continues to slip behind the rest of the nation in this critical component of strong communities.

Unfortunately, most of the legislators on the budget committee and all of members of the revenue & tax committee do no serve on the education committees. Talk in the Statehouse is that no major new investment in education will come out of this session (just as it has not for well over a decade).

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