North Carolina officials are now mulling over a new teacher incentive program—less than three months after the state legislature yanked funds set aside for a bonus program with a similar goal of paying shortage-area teachers more to teach in low-performing schools (TQB Archives). State education officials have headed back to the drawing board, but so far the only obvious difference between the program they canned for lack of interest on the part of teachers and the program they are now considering is a nominal increase in the bonus, from $1800 a year to roughly $2300.
One thing is clear if NCLB mandates are going to be met by 2006: states had better come up with workable bonus programs that teachers find attractive and stick with them for more than a few budget cycles, not casting them off the second they feel some budget heat. A salary increase of a few thousand bucks after taxes is probably not sufficient for keeping teachers in dysfunctional school environments, not that the answer can ever be all about money. But even the most conservative thinkers on this issue concede that money must be a part of the solution.