The Legislature has had merit pay and “accountability” for Utah teachers on its radar for a while, now.  And this year, they were able to push the issue farther than they ever have. 

 The State Board of Education has adopted a new set of rules to implement merit-based pay raises for the current fiscal year to dole out the $20M the Legislature approved late in the session under pressure from Utah voters.  The Board has also created a task force (yes, another one of those!) to study creating state-wide criteria for merit-based pay.

 Meanwhile, back at the ranch…the Legislature has also created a task force (well…they are studying it in interim) to create “performance-based” criteria for teacher compensation. 

 So the story here is that the school districts are working up a plan, the Board has worked up a temporary set of criteria, and now the Legislature is setting about to create their own standards for teacher pay.  The Board and districts have asked the Education Interim Committee to let them participate in their discussions, but my guess is that the GOP members on the Hill have their own rigid ideas of how teacher pay should work to create “accountability.”

 Frankly, it sounds like a solution looking for a problem, and a ship with many captains but the deckmate is at the wheel.