Idahoans for Choice in Education

Expanding Educational Choice for Idaho Families

ISTARS

Recently in newspapers around the State of Idaho, Sheri Wood, President of the IEA (Idaho Teacher's Union) provided a guest opinion  where she criticized State Superintendents of Schools Tom Luna's teacher compensation plan.  (ISTARS) Also, as expected, former State Superintendent candidate and State Representative jumped on the IEA " bandwagon."  My first reaction was, "there they go again," as it reminded me of their efforts a year ago to "sell" to the Idaho Taxpayers a fatally flawed Proposition 1.  Last year the IEA squandered over a million dollars of Idaho teacher's money for a high profile media campaign, to convince Idaho taxpayers to fork over millions of dollars to raise teacher salaries.  It was not described to the voters that way but that was the truth of the matter.

The IEA "sales pitch" did not work last year and it won't work this year either.  Idaho voters and Idaho Legislators are too savvy to fall for the union line, "just give us more money and all things will be better."  President Wood and many mainstream educators suggest that Luna's plan will neither pay nor treat teachers fairly; nothing could be further from the truth.   The lack of fairness is in the present system!   currently, great teachers are not compensated for their performance and poor teachers are allowed to stay in the classroom and cheat kids to one degree or another.  That is exactly what we have in our Idaho Schools today.  Most Idaho taxpayers and certainly parents know that what we have is a flawed system and that it must be changed.  Parents and kids have known all along that it does matter whether students are assigned to Mrs. Smith or Mr. Jones.    (A great teacher or a mediocre one)

Superintendent Luna wants to change the compensation system.  It is recognized that this will be difficult.  But failing to do so will continue to result in serious consequences for students.  The union would like all of the money appropriated to public schools to land on the bargaining table where it would be distributed, as it has been for the past 50 years for so, to all teachers based on an out dated model.  Study after study has shown that teachers with Master's degrees in education are no better than those without and that time in service only matters in the first few years.  A teacher with 5 years of experience can be just as effective as one with 15 or 20 years, yet who gets paid the most?    The current single salary schedule, where seniority and training are the sole determiners of salary is a toxic combination that tends to lower, rather than increase teacher performance.  Is it really a revolutionary idea to evaluate and compensate teachers based upon what they are supposed to be doing?

While Superintendent Luna's plan may not be the "silver bullet," it is a start and an important one.  It recognizes  one of the most significant problems in public education today and proposes a solution.  It is hard to argue with that!    Our legislators must work with their education leader, Superintendent Luna, to come up with a plan that will adequately compensate those teachers who produce high results with their students, attract highly qualified people into the teaching ranks and yes, sort the "wheat" from the " chaff!"  The students, parents, and taxpayers deserve no less!

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ICE-PAC

P.O. Box 933

Boise, ID 83701