Who among us doesn’t have an anecdote about a teacher who made a difference, a “Mr. Chips” sort of person who turned out Latin poets (or engineers, entrepreneurs, scientists, doctors, architects or any of dozens of professions that are more avocation than vocation) and helped their students fall in love with learning?

In our hearts, we Iowans revere those special teachers. We give them awards shaped like apples, include them on our “most influential people” lists and pay sentimental homage to them in countless ways. However, when it comes to paying them competitively, the glowing rhetoric loses some of its luster, as last week’s report from the National Education Association clearly illustrates. The average salary paid Iowa teachers slipped to 41st in the nation, the state’s lowest ranking ever in the annual comparison.

The risks of maintaining the status quo are significant. Good teachers aren’t attracted to the profession strictly for financial gain, but they shouldn’t be expected to suffer economically or be forced to take second jobs because of it, either. It’s hard to deny that low pay limits the hiring pool for Iowa school districts, which are competing with school systems nationwide to fill hundreds of thousands of positions that are opening as Baby Boomers begin to retire. Even the tight-fisted state Legislature recognized in 2001 that Iowa’s anemic teacher pay isn’t acceptable and passed a measure that would funnel $300 million into raises for teachers. A fiscal crisis forced leaders to renege on that pledge, and Iowa’s average teacher pay has since slipped closer to the bottom of the trough. Legislators should make good on their promise and put a funding apparatus in place that can’t be tinkered with or tapped to support other priorities.

Gov. Tom Vilsack’s proposal for a five-year plan that would increase teacher pay by at least $30 million annually is bound to be politicized with a wide-open gubernatorial race and legislative contests looming. That’s bad for teachers. who may be lured to more financially lucrative jobs in the private sector; for the students they might inspire; and for the businesses dependent on a highly trained workforce.

Iowans like to tout the state as one that values and epitomizes excellence in education. The NEA salary comparison says otherwise. It’s time to reverse the trend.