AUGUSTA (AP) – Independent gubernatorial candidate Barbara Merrill is stepping up her call for merit pay for teachers, tying the financing of it to reordered state spending priorities and noting that her position on the issue has been in plain view for months.

“Maine must move to a pay system for teachers and school administrators that takes into account outstanding performance,” Merrill, a state representative from Appleton, said in a statement this week.

“I know the teachers’ unions are generally opposed to the idea, and I will work with them to make sure the system is fair, but no first-rate business would create a pay system which doesn’t take account of commitment and competence, and nothing is more important to Maine’s future than education,” Merrill said.

The Maine Education Association announced its endorsement of Gov. John Baldacci for re-election on Aug. 2.

The teachers’ union, which says it represents 25,000 teachers, retired educators and others, said it reached its decision after reviewing all of the candidates and conducting interviews with Baldacci, Merrill and Green Independent Party candidate Pat LaMarche.

The MEA said Republican state Sen. Chandler Woodcock, a former teacher who is the GOP gubernatorial nominee, declined an invitation to meet with representatives of the organization.

Merrill, who distributed a statement on the issue Tuesday, broached the subject of merit pay for teachers in her pre-campaign “Setting the Maine Course” book.

She did not raise it subsequently with the MEA, union government relations director Steve Crouse said.

“She did not bring that issue up at all in our interview process in June,” Crouse said Wednesday.

Merrill said Wednesday, in response, “that wasn’t one of their questions.” She also said she handed out copies of her book during the MEA interview process.

“I wasn’t hiding it in any way, shape or form,” Merrill added.

“Maine can already be proud of having very good public schools and that is due to a commitment by Maine taxpayers and because of having by and large very able teachers,” Merrill said in her statement Tuesday.

“However, in light of how important education is to our future, Maine’s goal should be to have the best schools in America. That would attract the best kind of enterprises to Maine. The taxpayers have given us the support, now we need political leadership with the courage to take that money and make every dollar count. We won’t achieve excellence until we reward excellence.”

Merrill added: “I hope in the end the representatives of teachers and administrators would help develop and possibly even sponsor programs to help improve performance. I will be flexible in design, but we will not waver from our determination to reward merit as one of the factors in determining compensation for educators. We’ll not be able to attract the best people into education unless they know they will be rewarded for their skill and initiative.”

In her book, Merrill suggested that “the extra compensation based on performance will be new money not pulled out of the current teacher compensation.”

Merrill said Wednesday, when asked about paying for merit increases, that a theme of her campaign has been “we are going to have to tame the beast of state government … state spending.”

AP-ES-09-20-06 1341EDT