Debate
Should districts offer signing bonuses to attract new teachers?

YES
Virginia Hoover is a school social worker with 11 years in the Guilford, North Carolina schools. She was the state's School Social Worker of the Year in 1997-98 and the Student Services Support of the Year in 1999.

Yes, I believe school systems should offer a sign-on bonus to staff. A bonus would definitely be an added attraction to new employees, whether they are graduating from college or just trying to get into education.

For new graduates, a bonus would help offset the expense of preparing their first classroom. Buying the materials and supplies needed to make classrooms inviting and exciting places for students can take a lot of money.

If a new teacher has to relocate to take the job, that's another expense. A bonus could relieve the stress of moving and help make the transition a more pleasant experience.

For the more seasoned staff person, a sign-on bonus would be a great help in meeting the expenses that come with taking a new job.

Many times, when a staff person accepts a new position in another system, the person ends up missing time from work. That time lost means less income. A bonus could help save a staff person from having to go deeper into debt after a job change.

What a relief it could be to have this extra money. I have a friend who recently accepted a position in another state. She and I discussed the burden that would have been lifted if the system had offered her a sign-on bonus. Moving expenses can be very taxing, especially if you're not in a superintendent's position.

The gesture of offering a bonus would also benefit the school system that makes the offer. It's a win-win situation. A bonus, once accepted by the new staff person, serves as a commitment to work for the school system--and helps prevent a staff person from going out the backdoor to accept a position with another system.

With a bonus in the balance, a school system wouldn't have to worry about whether a newly hired staff person is going to show.

On the other side, a staff person is going to think long and hard about leaving a school system that helped when help was most needed. Bonuses would help retain good and experienced staff.

A sign-on bonus would keep school systems from having to scramble in August to fill vacant positions. Scrambling school systems often just accept whoever is available at the last minute. With the sign-on bonus as an attraction, a system could have the best upon finding the best.

Staff, meanwhile, are seeking systems that are willing to offer something extra. A sign-on bonus would be an added recruiting incentive.

We need that incentive. With so much competition for graduating college students, districts need some added attraction to help fill the positions being vacated by our retiring educators.

As for me personally, I have no problem with systems offering such a sign-on bonus perk to attract capable people to education. I'm concerned about who will fill my role as social worker when I retire.

I won't be offended if my system begins offering a sign-on bonus to new staff. Those of us who are working hard pulling the load until vacant positions are filled would welcome the sight of quality applicants swarming to get those vacant jobs.

NO
Bob Kaplan teaches eighth grade social studies at Jane Addams Junior High in Schaumburg, Illinois. He has taught for 23 years and served four times on bargaining teams, once as chairman, and most recently last spring.

Signing bonuses. What a great idea! What's next, no-cut contracts? Free agency? The traditional teacher pay scale may not be ideal, but it's fairer than having a rookie make more than a three-year veteran because the rookie teaches bilingual classes and the other teaches a multi-age elementary class.

If we were to have signing bonuses, who's going to determine what's more important for a bonus? Who's going to figure out how much of a bonus is deserved? Whatever happened to collective bargaining?

I can easily see a personnel director paying the extra dollars to fill a position. I can also foresee the same personnel director using these extra dollars as a backdoor to merit pay.

Our Association need to represent all members. These first-year teachers aren't even members yet. How, as a labor organization, can we explain to our members in their second or third year, "Gee, sorry you were too late for a bonus, but remember to keep paying your dues dollars!"

Instead of offering signing bonuses, let's try to solve the underlying problem. If there are positions that are tough to fill, let's build the supply. How? Through academic advising in colleges and government financial support for students going into high-demand fields.

These steps, along with increased teacher pay throughout the salary schedule, would help increase the supply of new teachers. If more money will get better new teachers, then more money throughout the scale will serve as a motivator for all teachers.

Collective bargaining has brought us dramatically increased salaries, and we should stand by it. Any measure that would give special treatment to any segment of our members ought to be analyzed very closely.

I realize signing bonuses have been around for a long time in business and sports. But products in these fields are more measurable. I'm a much better teacher now than I was 23 years ago. Why don't we give me a bonus for that?

New teachers who have yet to step into the classroom are a risky investment. What is their average length of employment? What if these new teachers have difficulty and are released?

I guess we shouldn't worry. We'll just sign up some other untested new teacher with a signing bonus.

One final point: We already have huge salary discrepancies between school districts. Signing bonuses would increase those discrepancies. Wealthy districts would have much more money to dole out for bonuses than less affluent districts.

If signing bonuses become the rule, the rich will get richer, the poor will be stuck with vacancies. This isn't what public education should be all about.

Signing bonuses, on the surface, sound good. Administrators would love to fill tough positions by throwing money to a few.

But before we should even consider signing bonuses, we need standards and an effort to increase the supply for hard-to-fill positions. Let's use all this bonus money to reward teachers who have made and will continue to make a positive difference.