The Star Jason Harris works at the Coyote Grill in Mission to supplement his salary as a teacher at Shawnee Mission North. ''I could baby-sit full time and make more than I do as a teacher,'' he said. Now the two issues may become interlocked. More school districts are exploring the idea of paying teachers on how well they teach, not just on how long they've taught. And America's largest teachers' union, while far from endorsing merit pay, took a step closer Wednesday to ending its longstanding resistance to the concept.
Teachers are terribly underpaid.
People are seeking any way teacher compensation can be improved. After an emotional debate, the NEA, meeting in Chicago, refused to embrace a proposal to base merit pay on student test results. Nor did it accept a wholesale abandonment of pay scales based on seniority. But it adopted a resolution saying the national organization will give technical assistance to locals that have bonus plans imposed on them. A local would not be precluded from agreeing to such a plan on its own.