Published the week of 10/17/04

Ann, Joan and Cathy came to mind as I read comments last week about changing the way that Minnesota teachers are paid. Governor Pawlenty, former IBM chair Louis V. Gerstner. Jr., and officials of Education Minnesota, the state's major teacher union, all joined in.

I think of why three award-winning former teachers, Anne, Joan and Sharon and their students need this. Ann was a suburban Twin Cities journalist and English teacher. About 15 years ago she was named "National Journalism Teacher of the Year." Her students had won several awards for their outstanding newspapers. The national organization of journalism teachers decided it was time to honor their teacher.

Within a month of receiving this honor, Ann was laid off. I interviewed a board member and district administrator who noted that with declining enrollment, they did not need as many English teachers. Contractual arrangements specifying last hired, first fired meant they had to cut the one with the lowest seniority. That was Ann. No one argued about whether it was best for students. That was how it was, and still is, done. In a different, rural Central Minnesota district, Joan, an award-winning elementary teacher, was not laid off. Joan developed an outstanding school within a school, something like old one-room schoolhouses in which students ages 5-8 helped each other learn, along with the teacher. The district offered this to families as an option, along with single grade classrooms. So many families like Joan's approach that a second teacher was added to her program.

Joan lived about 30 miles from where she taught. Her local board wanted to offer Joan's program as an option. Joan and the superintendent invited me to help negotiate details. We hit a big problem in pay. Joan had been teaching for 16 years, but the local board/union contract allowed teachers to use only 10 years outside experience, when calculating pay. (I checked and found many Minnesota districts have similar provisions.)

The superintendent agreed this did not make sense. He said the union wanted this provision as a way to reward loyalty. Couldn't exceptions be made when teachers brought in unusual ideas? No.

He had been able to get only one exception. When a high school principal wanted to hire a new football coach, the union had agreed to allow all his experience for salary reasons. But according to the superintendent, that was the only acceptable exception.

So Joan didn't move. Frustrated, a few years later, she left teaching. So did Cathy. One year she was named Minnesota Teacher of the Year. That same year, she was laid off because of low seniority. A Center for School Change study some years ago found that she was not alone. At the time of the study, three of the last 20 Minnesota teachers of the year had been laid off for the same reason.

Is it time to rethink teacher evaluation and pay? Oh yes. It's been time for many, many years.