North Dakota teacher salaries - over a long period of time - lagged significantly behind their counterparts. To the point that the state began to lose teachers and the quality of education provided by the state's primary and secondary schools was put at risk. The circumstances forced the governor and the Legislature to push an influx of cash into the state's education system.

The Legislature has done what many school boards could not:Find a way to beef up teacher salaries.

It was, in part, a matter of political will.

And now, the North Dakota School Boards Association has passed a resolution recommending that compensation be taken off the table in teacher contract negotiations, because the Legislature has established a minimum salary and mandated 70 percent of the districts' increase in state aid go to salaries. The association feels it has lost authority and a degree of control.

Apparently the association wants a statewide contract for teachers

Really? Let that thought settle for a moment.

Would all third-grade teachers get the same salary? No matter how many students in their classrooms or the size of districts? How would that affect the relationship between the local school boards and their administrators and teachers? What would happen to local control on other issues? Would the same go for the basketball coach and the choir director? Who would decide what kind of science teachers schools would get?

It might be a cliche, but it fits: We're talking about opening a big-time "can of worms."

One of the root causes behind lower teacher salaries was and continues to be the high property tax burden faced by homeowners across North Dakota. That hasn't changed much. So pumping up teacher salaries with funds from other tax sources makes a good deal of sense.

Did school boards feel that they should have been given additional funds to be spent only at their discretion?

Clearly, from the association's resolution, the increases in state funds for local schools approved by the Legislature in the past two sessions might have been spent on all manner of things and teacher salaries would have continued to languish.

Compensation should remain on the table between school boards and teachers. The Legislature should continue to presume some control of how state tax revenues are spent, even if they are spent by school boards. And school boards should continue to labor for quality education, including appropriate wages and benefits for their employees.