On Feb. 13, the San Francisco Board of Education voted unanimously to include the Quality Teacher and Education Act on the June 2008 ballot. The measure’s aim is to create a competitive package to recruit new teachers to the district and retain the ones already here, according to union building representative Ken Tray.

 “It’s to ensure that every student in the student has a good teacher,” he said.

The initiative would levy a $198 tax per parcel and raise about $28 million each year, according to Tray. About 71.6 percent of the money raised, or about $20.4 million, will go to teacher compensation. The remaining money will be used to fund technological improvements and other school-related expenses.

“We need it because teachers in surrounding districts make many more thousands of dollars,” he said. “You can literally hop in a car, drive 10 minutes and be in another district that pays $10,000 more.”

English department head Svein Arber said that the city’s comparatively low salaries are an obstacle to hiring new teachers.

“It’s not competitive with the other cities in the Bay Area,” Arber said. “What inevitably happens is that you take a pretty darn good school, but if it’s in one of the most expensive cities to live in, it’s very hard to attract teachers if they don’t offer a living wage.”

The measure also calls for an increase in Peer Assistance and Review coaches, according to Tray. “If teachers get two evaluations of ‘needs improvement,’ they will need a PARS coach,” Tray said. “You used to need two evaluations of ‘unsatisfactory’ before a PARS coach was required, but now it’s just ‘needs improvement.’” Tray said the change would have a “rather minimal and even negligible impact.”

Originally named the Recruit and Retain Act, the proposal also sets aside funds for bonuses during a teacher’s fourth and eighth years teaching, according to Tray.

“We worked with the district to try and figure out when the most likely time for teachers to leave the district is and to give them a modest incentive to stay,” Tray said.

The fact that the measure is a tax may make passing it a challenge. “We need a two-thirds yes-vote in order for it to pass,” Tray said. “We need every member of the school community working with supporters until the June election in order to get this measure to pass.”

AP U.S. Government and Politics teacher Alex Schwarz believes the city’s demographics could be the measure’s biggest obstacle. “We have the smallest proportion of school age people,” he said. “There are a lot of single and wealthy people without a directly vested interest in the school system who need to be convinced.”

The current economic situation could also prove an obstacle. “Tax burdens are tough, especially in these slow economic times,” he said. “Also, they are putting it on the ballot without the general election, and not as part of the primary, so low voter turnout will be an issue. Lower turnouts often favor conservatives.”

Arber said he believes the vote could be close. “We hope that there are enough enlightened property owners to help the situation in the school district,” he said.