Most likely you have already seen the statistics. A U.S. citizen who fails to graduate high school, even in a strong economy, will likely earn less than $20,000 per year. A bachelor’s degree, at least $40,000, a master’s $50,000-plus, a doctorate $70,000.

The job creators seem to value the educated, or at least their skills. Yet society (at least ours) fails to under-value the people charged with doing the teaching.

We love to compare our children with those from other countries, especially countries where the students are supposedly outperforming ours. As we hear about how students from Hong Kong, Canada, Taiwan, Estonia, Japan and Korea are testing better than our kids, conveniently left out of the discussion is a key factor: In these countries, teachers are near the top of the professional food chain. They are highly educated (most require teachers to have at least a masters degree) and they are compensated very well.

This fall teachers at 18 schools in five Maine school districts (including parts of Lewiston) are participating in a project the Maine Department of Education is calls “focused and integrated professional development, and developing new evaluation and performance-based pay systems”.

Educators, business leaders, parents, most of the air-consuming world, believe a quality education is vital. If we decide we want all our students to have certain skills before moving on to the next grade, phase of their education or graduate high school, I propose a radical idea.

Forget about bonuses and performance-based pay scales. Let’s raise the status of America’s most under-valued commodity. As a former school board member, parent of two children in primary school, and having come from a family of educators, I am amazed at how little we support something we supposedly cherish so deeply. We place great value on the product they help produce (educated children), yet we don’t value them. It is time to increase their base salary, compensate them at a level that represents the value we place on what they do. However, my proposal comes with a catch.

While I support the collective bargaining rights of teachers, unions have made it extremely difficult to remove bad teachers. Teachers, parents, administrators, all know this. There are individuals in the teaching profession that are failing our children. Too many students finish a school year having gained very little from the experience. The days of unions protecting bad teachers has to end. Administrators and school boards have to work with school unions to break down the walls that allow school unions to protect bad teachers.

Many countries (and some states) have seen success, increasing student performance, by recruiting and retaining highly qualified and motivated educators. Gov. Lepage seems to agree, he has said the No. 1 factor in determining student success is the quality of the educator.

The budget hawks will no doubt say we can’t afford to raise salaries. How can we afford to not do something different? To off set the salary increase, we should consider increasing classroom sizes (teacher-to-student ratios), address the issue of long-term pension debt, embrace technology, and do a better job of gaining community buy-in.

School boards and administrators have to gain back the public’s trust that teachers will be held accountable, students will be taught, and gain the skills necessary to be good citizens and contribute to society.

Of course what makes a good teacher is difficult to measure. What are the intangibles that make a great teacher? Gov. Lepage says he wants to find out. He intends he to bring together winners of Maine’s “Teacher of the Year” (and those nominated for the honor) and see what we can learn from them. What is their common denominator?

How do we measure if an educator is successful? One of the obstacles is that the “education end game” is different for each student. Some will go on to college and medical school — destined to be surgeons; others might want to become teachers and strive for masters degrees. Many students will enter the trades,  after high school, they may search for an apprenticeship or seek a professional certificate. The one commonality is completion of high school, making sure each student masters a certain set of skills and gains  the knowledge to successfully go on to the next phase of his or her life.

While much needs to be worked out, Maine’s Common Core State Standards provide an opportunity to measure a school’s success and to help identify deficiencies. Flexibility in these standards allows schools and school districts the ability to respond to local needs and alter delivery of services to meet local needs.

Note that I speak of educators and schools, not just teachers.  Gone are the days of one-room schoolhouses. Even in the earliest grades, children are spending part of their day with a myriad educators. Holding a single teacher accountable, especially in the early grades, for the success of students is foolish and nearsighted. From the support staff, all the way up to the superintendent, each member of the school community should be held be accountable for deficiencies and should share equally i,n and celebrate their successes.

We tinker and toy with gimmicks, while ignoring proven approaches. It is time to get real, the best education reform is teacher reform, which begins with better compensation and accountability.