Thanks for Peoria’s Merle Widmer, who writes “Merle Widmer’s Peoria Watch” for posting an article entitled,

One of his reader’s wives taught in Great Briton for forty years. The reader, Ed Barbeau, relates the pay system over there:

“When my wife taught in the UK now over forty years ago, they had what was called the Burnham scale. In this, teachers were guaranteed an annual career increase in salary for a limited number of years, I think it was about five, and then reached what was called a bar, where their pay was essentially frozen (except for cost-of-living increases). To surpass the bar and get to the next rung, they had to exhibit merit in some way. After a few years, another bar was reached, with the same situation.

“This might be a nice model to discuss. It allows the performance of a teacher to be measured over a period of time with different perspectives, before a decision has to be made about a reward, and I think prevents quick decisions that might be impulsive and not in the interests of justice.”

There is more, of course.

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The photo is from last year’s Huntley Teachers Association strike.