The Washington Education Association plans to ask its members at a meeting Saturday whether it should push for a special housing allowance to help teachers in pricey urban areas. The union not only might push for a change in state law to allow teachers to receive housing allowances, but also for state money to pay for them.
Teachers ought to give the association a short leash to pursue the allowances.
A change in state law is warranted - but only to the extent that it allows local school districts to offer and pay for such incentives. This is no time for the state's teachers to go begging for more money from Olympia. Yes, teachers are underpaid for the invaluable job they do. And it's true school districts increasingly have to compete against higher salaries in other states to recruit and keep good teachers. But the state's track record on teachers' pay has, as of late, been a good one.