• Increase the number of school days each year from 175 to 185 or even 190.  Japan has 220 school days each year.   Korea has 222.  Malaysia has 200.  Could this be a reason Asian students do so well in school?  Time on task is the number one variable that impacts on student learning.   Literally hundreds of newspaper articles quote teachers as being opposed to TAKS because preparation for TAKS takes all their time and they can’t teach the things they would like to teach.  What on earth would be wrong with giving them the time they need to teach their subject correctly?
  
  
• Give teachers additional pay for each of the 7 days of personal leave they don’t use.  Give bonuses to teachers who take no sick days within the first or second half of the school year.  When students have ten or more unexcused absences their parents are subject to criminal charges because time on task is considered vital to learning.  Yet when the teacher is absent all students suffer.  Teachers get sick and have emergencies like all of us.  But many conscientious teachers minimize sick days and don’t take personal leave.  They should be rewarded for their efforts.
  
  
• Increase the base pay for teachers in areas where there are teacher shortages such as in math, science and especially English as a Second Language (ESL).  Attempting to reduce teacher shortages by giving all teachers the same base salary increase makes no economic sense.  If there is a scarcity of electricians available for building homes, you increase the pay scale for electricians enough to get the talent required.  You don’t increase ever construction worker’s salary and then hope you will get more electricians.  In 1997 there were 9% more Anglo than Hispanic students   In 2003 there were 3% more Hispanic than Anglo students.  This has resulted in a great demand for certified ESL teachers, which can’t be met through our teacher colleges.
  
  
• Tie some teacher pay increases to performance.  Every other profession on the face of this earth, except maybe in communist countries that aren’t doing well, ties salaries to performance.  If teachers want to be considered as professionals they should allow their salaries to be tied to performance determined by comparing entry and exit test scores and through administrative evaluations.  Some University faculty are paid as much as 5 times other faculty.  Real professionals are judged every day by their clients.  In my profession, political consulting, if you don’t win you don’t eat.  I like to think that’s why I’m fat!  

Even Scott McCown, Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, who presided over the school finance cases from 1990-2002, agrees with me that more should be spent on things like  “lengthening the school year and providing performance-based pay for teachers.”  If you agree with these ideas talk to your legislators.