No Gains, No Pay Raises: LAUSD Board Gets It Now

Accountability, a buzzword in public education circles, has rarely visited the classrooms, the campuses or the downtown headquarters of the Los Angeles Unified School District. During the recent controversy over pay raises for district executives, Supt. Ruben Zacarias chose to voluntarily postpone his salary hike and link it to measurable improvement in student achievement and other goals. But he didn’t have to. When he took the superintendent’s job in July, the board approved a contract for him that failed to tie his pay to his performance.

On the issue of pay for performance, the school board should be leading, not following. A majority on the board was ready earlier this month to approve a big hike for the superintendent and his deputies, barely four months into their new jobs; that raise would have matched the percentage of pay increase negotiated by the teachers union. A public outcry forced the board to do what should have been done in the first place--to link pay to achievement, not to teachers’ raises.

The superintendent has asked that he and his deputies be judged on the following: test scores, student and staff attendance, the pass rates for college prep classes, the percentage of third-graders who read at grade level, the dropout rate, the percentage of limited-English-speaking students who transition from bilingual education to mainstream classes and the number of advanced placement classes offered to high school students. If the district makes progress in four of these categories by June, Zacarias and three deputy superintendents will get more pay. This sort of measurable improvement should be the standard for all district employees, not just for the top executives.

In a welcome embrace of accountability, the school board unanimously approved the Zacarias plan on Monday. When the pay raise issue first came before the members, only board President Julie Korenstein, veteran David Tokofsky and newcomer Valerie Fields said no. They deserve credit for doing the right thing even before the pressure of adverse publicity came to bear.

Leaders must set the example, Supt. Zacarias told the school board. He has now set the proper example--for the unions’ leadership and for every LAUSD employee from principals to teachers to custodians. Pay raises should be earned, not awarded automatically. Everyone should be measured fairly and held accountable.