AUGUSTA (AP) – Gov. John Baldacci is calling for pay raises for Maine teachers and changes in the state’s school accountability program known as Learning Results, saying it is driving some teachers out of the profession.

“I recognize we’re getting to a critical point where we are going to lose a lot of good people,” Baldacci said, adding that his wife Karen, a teacher, has expressed her concerns to him.

The governor said Monday that the Legislature should consider raising teacher salaries during its 2006 session. Maine teachers now have the lowest salaries in northern New England and among the lowest in the country, according to a ranking by the American Federation of Teachers.

Baldacci is also calling for modifications to the state’s Learning Results system, which makes school districts develop ways to assess whether students meet state standards. The program involves curriculum design and testing to meet those standards.

Baldacci proposed modifications in the Learning Results law that give local school districts more time to meet new standards.

“Student learning is a direct result of interaction between teacher and students,” Baldacci said. “Students need to be given time to learn and teachers the time to teach.”

Another law intended to increase school accountability, the federal No Child Left Behind Act, will be the subject of a legislative hearing on Wednesday.

The law signed by President Bush in 2002 aims to ensure all minorities and poor children can read and do math at grade level by 2014.

The bill before the Committee on Education and Cultural calls on the federal government to pay its share the federal reform law’s implementation in Maine.

It also says Maine’s attorney general should sue the federal government if funding to help the state pay for the program is insufficient.

Senate Majority Leader Michael Brennan, D-Portland, is sponsoring the bill.