Oregon Public Broadcasting

Longer school days. Merit pay for teachers. And billions more for classrooms. Those are some of the top-level recommendations from a taskforce on public education in Washington State.

Its final report is due December 1st. Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins has details.

The Washington legislature created the Basic Education Finance Joint Task Force in 2007.

Its mandate is to redefine what constitutes a basic education and propose new funding formulas for K through 12 schools in Washington State.

Members of the task force have submitted five proposals and will meet this week to work on a final report.

Dan Grimm, a former lawmaker and state treasurer, chairs the task force. He’d like to reward teachers for good results in the classroom.

Dan Grimm: “It’s called merit pay. And that is anathema generally to the Washington Education Association. But that’s an initiative that I think is really crucial to long term improvement of student performance.”

The WEA is the teacher’s union. It opposes tying test scores to pay.

The big question is whether Washington’s budget crunch will keep the Democratic legislature from acting on any major public education reforms.