(Second in a series of articles on education issues in Tennessee. Next: teacher evaluations. We welcome comments via letters to the editor, postings on our Facebook page, or email. Please include your name)

There’s not much local support for the governor’s idea of dropping the salary scale for teachers, but some educators see possible value in providing salary flexibility for school districts.

Gov. Bill Haslam’s proposed legislation includes “eliminating the outdated requirement of state and local salary schedules based strictly on seniority and training, which will give districts flexibility to make decisions such as how to address hard to staff schools or subjects, along with rewarding teacher performance.”

While there could be no reduction in current salaries, there would no longer be a “step-up” for experience and additional degrees. The plan also calls for larger class sizes, with the resulting savings to go toward the new pay plan.

Counties would be able to maintain a salary scale if they prefer. The proposed law simply calls for each school district to annually submit a salary plan for licensed personnel which includes an established base salary per school year consisting of 200 days.

The plan may not result in the reduction of the salary for a teacher employed at the time of the adoption of the salary plan. The state would provide funding based on the larger class sizes, with the payment to be $42,250 per instructional position. The current BEP payment for instructional personnel is $38,700. The proposal states that school districts will not receive a smaller payment for salaries, benefits, and unit costs adjusted for any mandatory increases in these categories and adjusted for changes in enrollment.

The proposal eliminates current language calling for the state to annually develop a table of training and experience factors and a state salary schedule and also calling for each school district to establish a local salary schedule using the state scale as a minimum.

Dr. James Jones, Director of Schools, said it sometimes feels like the state is going a little bit backwards in education. He said he thinks teachers deserve a step up in pay as time passes and they pursue higher education.

On the idea of flexibility in salaries, Jones said it sounds like it would be good in theory “but we don’t have a lot of money.” He did not think the governor’s proposal would provide more money. He said he could handle the responsibility of flexibility as long as he can still be fair with it. He said there is a need to recruit upper level math teachers to raise the level of math courses, but it is hard to get people certified in those positions because they can earn so much more at places like TVA. Jones said he would be in favor of being able to offer them more according to the schools’ needs.

Jones also said it would be a priority to reward teachers who excel, especially in tested courses, adding the state has made that a priority. In an ideal world, he said, it would be appropriate if possible to reward teachers who excel in those test scores.

The Director said he knows it is frustrating and scary for educators right now, adding, “I’m trying to be positive, to keep my teachers positive about it and go from there.” He also said teaching is not as much fun, with the skill sets for students so defined by testing that there’s no time for projects we used to consider fun and memorable.

Arnold Hambright, president of PCEA, said teachers in Polk County find it very troubling that after being attacked by anti-education legislators less than a year ago, they are again being attacked. “This time it comes directly from the governor’s office and leaves us scrambling for answers,” he said. Hambright said the plan for larger class sizes will make it even more difficult to provide individualized instruction, adding it makes no sense to increase class size at the same that that standards are being raised.

Doing away with the state salary schedule, Hambright said, would permit systems to limit salary increases to only those who teach to the standardized tests.  “Such a test-based system leaves many students in classes that are no more than test mills where students are drilled on trivia and individual student differences are not tolerated.” He added, teachers are already encouraged to “teach to the test” rather than to teach each child.  “In a system where teacher salaries are based on test scores, teachers will be forced to spend more time on those students who have the highest chance to make gains on the test, while ignoring both the higher level students (who are already at the top and will not show gain) and the lower level students who will not test well enough to be proficient.”

Hambright pointed out that in wealthy school systems where local money can make up for state cuts, eliminating the state salary schedule and funding systems on higher class sizes may have little impact.  In rural systems where budgets are often tight, such a change will mean that teacher salaries will become stagnant, teachers will compete to teach those students who show the most promise, the majority of students will lose their best chance for a brighter future, and attracting and retaining good teachers into the rural areas will become even more difficult.

Deborah Williams, a former teacher who helped create PCEA and later served as school superintendent, said she is not in favor of dropping the pay scale. Getting rid of increases for experience and additional education takes away some of the incentive for additional coursework, she said, pointing out that teachers have to pay for those courses and would not be able to earn back some of that cost. “Everyone else rewards experience and education. I don’t know why we’d want to do away with it,” she said.

Williams said she was disturbed when she read that Haslam wanted school districts to be able to reward what they want to reward. If there is going to be flexibility, she said, there needs to be a basis for it, some guidelines from the state and input from teachers. She added the state showed that it doesn’t care about input when it replaced negotiations with collaborative conferencing but has not yet said how that is to work.

Williams said she knows there is talk of bonuses for test scores but pointed out that half the teachers don’t have test scores. “I wish there was a way to reward good teachers,” she said, but added, “I don’t think there is a system that could do a good job with a fairly high level of accuracy – so we’re back to education and experience.” She said figuring out a new salary plan and a way to reward teachers would be a lot of work for the school districts, noting some district offices are not capable of doing that for themselves without guidelines from the state.

Dr. Jared Bigham, principal at Copper Basin High School, said he is not in favor of decreasing the salary scale but he would be in favor of school districts having the ability to differentiate pay. He said he does not like the idea of giving bonuses because that causes strife, but he thinks teachers who are more accountable for their performance – those who are evaluated on test scores – deserve a little more incentive for the added responsibility. He would be in favor of an academic supplement for all those in a tested area rather than picking and choosing, adding it could get to the point where fewer teachers want to teach in tested areas because there is so much pressure. He said districts should look to the foundational grades, K-2, which are not tested but just as important. Bigham emphasized that he is very pro-teacher and wants them to be treated fairly. “They’re our most valuable resource overall,” he said.

Connie Dunn, principal at Chilhowee Middle school, also said teachers are concerned about having test scores become a part of salary. “Sometimes you have kids doing the best they can, but they can only do so much.” She added tests can be affected by things that have nothing to do with the teacher.

Jason Bell, principal at Polk County High School, said teachers don’t make enough as it is and he worries about them somehow making less. He said he can see plusses and minuses for flexibility. With rewarding performance, he said, he worries about putting too much emphasis on the finished product – the test . “We need to look at the race itself,” he said, not just the finish. He said the state seems to be moving toward test scores and “I would hate to put all my eggs in one basket.”

Pat Smith, principal at Copper Basin Elementary, said basing salary on test scores is a bad idea. “You are not going to have a good class every year,” she said, adding students may not be up to par when you get them. While they should make gains, she said, they may not be at the top. Smith said teaches are concerned about counties deciding who gets an increase.

Teacher Melissa Fugate said she does not think that eliminating the state salary scale while giving counties more flexibility in teacher compensation is a good idea. With counties like Polk County that are already financially limited, she said, it will be difficult to provide enough “compensation” to attract and retain the quality educators that our students deserve. She added, “I have to ask myself where this ‘compensation’ money would come from. I suppose it will come at the expense of the jobs of teachers and staff who could be let go because they were hired to reduce class sizes.” She said she would rather keep the current pay scale and have all the teachers in the system keep their jobs.