DATE: Sunday, August 3, 1997                TAG: 9708010045

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J5   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Opinion

SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   87 lines

ALL QUID, NO QUO BEYER OFFERS SCHOOLS HALF A LOAF

Democrat Donald S. Beyer has offered half an education plan for Virginia's public schools. It's the part where teachers get their salaries hiked to the national average.

Let's hope a second half - the part that calls for a parallel effort to upgrade credentials and reward merit - is outlined in full before the November election, in which Beyer is running for governor.

Otherwise, the candidate is vulnerable to the charge that he's fashioned his education platform primarily to suit the agenda of the state's major teacher lobby, the Virginia Education Association.

While the VEA has a host of priorities aimed at improving education, none stands higher than teacher wages.

I agree that no one deserves more reward than a good teacher. But I also think (and the VEA certainly concurs) that a lot more than wages goes into making a superior educator.

It's the absence of a highly visible ``quo'' to accompany the ``quid'' in Beyer's plan that raises warning flags. Beyer has endorsed creation of a professional oversight board, which in theory might adopt tougher standards.

But a lot more needs to be said about how that board would work. Nor is the idea as far-reaching as reforms occurring elsewhere. Performance and reward should be more clearly linked.

In fact, Beyer has yet to make the case that teacher salaries should be the state's highest spending priority in K-12 over the next four years.

Common sense dictates that higher pay attracts a higher calibre employee. But it's not easy to draw a direct correlation between what has happened on the teacher wage scale over the last decade and the performance of Virginia students.

Nor is it clear that investing an estimated $400 million more in teacher salaries would have a dramatic impact on learning, particularly since Virginia already is not far from matching the national salary average.

During the 1980s, Virginia pushed mightily to reach the magical ``national average'' threshold on teacher salaries. Since then, we've regressed - though the slippage looks less significant if you take out a couple of high-wage states.

The average Virginia teacher's salary of $35,037 in 1995-96 is $2,648 below the national average. But it ranks us 26th among the states. Take out Washington, D.C., and we're 25th, right in the middle.

Given our relative wealth, Virginia should be higher. But to me, raising that ranking a few notches is less likely to impact students than taking concrete steps to upgrade teacher training, expand classroom support and link pay to demonstrable achievements.

Beyer wouldn't have to look far to find a model of a full-fledged plan for elevating the teaching profession. To much fanfare, North Carolina has just adopted one.

Step 1 in the Excellent Schools Act is the same as Beyer's: Raise teacher salaries to the national average. In North Carolina, where the average salary of $30,411 ranks 43rd nationally, that's more imperative than in Virginia.

But North Carolina's education reform plan doesn't end there. Not even close.

It goes on to such steps as setting more rigorous standards for beginning teachers and offering more hands-on support during the first years of teaching; raising standards for getting a continuing license, a license renewal or tenure; streamlining the process for getting rid of bad teachers; and offering substantial raises for such achievements as getting a master's degree or professional certification.

Among other provisions:

Teachers at high-performance schools will get bonuses of up to $1,500 a year; those at low-performance ones may have to pass competency tests.

A master's degree will earn a 10 percent raise; a 12 percent raise will accompany certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

Nontenured teachers must be observed four times a year, including once by a teacher, and be evaluated annually by a school administrator.

Some such steps are applicable in Virginia; others aren't because of differences in the way our schools are structured. Some of the North Carolina ``innovations'' already are in place here.

But, without question, there are concrete steps that could be taken to improve the quality of the teaching profession in Virginia beyond just raising salaries.

Beyer's companion proposal for a professional oversight board - presumably composed largely of teachers - to set licensing and other standards may be fine. North Carolina has just launched such a board. But that's ``in-addition-to'' all its other reforms.

Don Beyer is known as a man of ideas. So far, his education agenda is one that's half finished. We await its completion, hopefully before November. MEMO: Ms. Edds is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot.

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