Don’t Rush to Raise Teacher Pay

The decision on another pay raise for Los Angeles teachers--prospectively their second this year --should be postponed until Gov.-elect Gray Davis, long a friend of teachers, can hold his January special legislative session on the schools and set his priorities on public education. After Sacramento develops the big picture, local school districts may be able to commit to bigger paychecks without sacrificing student needs.

In exchange for its members’ strong support for Davis during his campaign, the California Teachers Assn. is already counting on a pay raise. Teachers do deserve higher salaries. They also should be held accountable for results in the classroom.

United Teachers-Los Angeles calculates that the district could fund a raise now from additional money flowing from Sacramento as the economy improves. They remind anyone who will listen that teachers took a 10% pay cut during California’s hard times and, though it has since been made up, that they should be rewarded during good times.

What is the teachers union willing to trade in return? Unlike corporate employees, teachers need not worry about surprise layoffs. They enjoy a security blanket of job protections, excellent benefits and paid vacations that many private-sector employees envy.

Supt. Ruben Zacarias would prefer to spend the new money on a long list of worthwhile improvements, from more counselors to better in-service training for teachers and principals. But political realities favor a raise, which would go to all district employees.

The teachers union ought to at least agree to the standards applied to the superintendent and his top deputies. They get raises only if the district as a whole shows improvement in four out of seven categories: test scores, attendance, parent involvement, students’ English-language capability, the number of students who take college prep classes and increased offers of advanced placement courses. Districtwide raises for teachers should be awarded on the same basis.

Any deal should also require the implementation of intervention teams intended to help struggling teachers and principals and lead to the removal of those who do not improve. The teams were agreed to more than two years ago, and the teachers union says it is ready and eager to proceed. What, then, is the holdup? The superintendent needs to untangle this mess and get the intervention program going.

What is fair for the gifted veteran teacher who performs miracles in the classroom is quite different from what is fair for a poor-performing teacher who may not even show up regularly for work. Any additional raises should be tied to individual and collective performance.