t’s a simple concept: Pay Oregon teachers based their job performance, not seniority. But the proposed law – to be voted on as Measure 60 this November – has many teachers uneasy.

“It’s kind of like, why fix something that isn’t broken?” said Hermiston School District board member Karen Sherman, herself a former teacher of 31 years in Hermiston.

Measure 60 would require pay raises for teachers be determined by “classroom performance,” not how long they’ve taught, which now factors at least partially into most districts’ pay scale. Performance qualifications would determine retention if layoffs were necessary, though the proposal does not specify how teacher performance would be evaluated.