OMAHA, Neb. – Automatic, annual step raises for most teachers have become a standard headache for school districts throughout the United States.

Teachers unions negotiate salary scales with local school boards, guaranteeing teachers an annual boost in salary every year until they reach the top of the scale, which usually takes about 20 years.

These annual raises are based only on remaining employed from year-to-year, with an extra boost for those teachers who complete graduate-level college classes on their own time.

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Teacher performance is not a factor in step raises. A lot of concerned citizens wonder if it should be. Most private sector employees receive raises based on achievement, which serves as an incentive for good performance. Wouldn’t it be smart to use that same type of incentive for the people who are preparing the next generation to face the world?

EAGnews recently obtained 2013-14 step raise figures from four school districts in the Omaha, Nebraska area, then looked up their students’ scores on the Nebraska Performance Accountability exam (NePAS).

The scores in two of those districts were not very good, which raises a fundamental question – did the teachers in those districts all deserve their annual raise?

The Bellevue district spent just short of $1.2 million on step raises for teachers in the 2013-14 school year.

But its district-wide score in reading was 116.88 while the state average was 117.58. The district also fell short of the state average in math (105.98/108.45) and science (103.92/104.97).

Bellevue ranked 127th out of 249 districts across the state in reading, the best ranking in the three categories. It ranked 168^th in math and 174th in science.

At the elementary level, Bellevue students fell short of the state average score in reading, math and science. Middle school students did much better, beating the state average in reading and science, but falling short in math.

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But there was more bad news at the high school level, where Bellevue students fell short of the state average in all three categories – reading (109.73/110.19), math (98.33/102.09) and science (101.41/103.13).

Even if the district had better academic scores, the wisdom of spending so much money on step raises would be questionable, considering its financial condition. Bellevue will have to cut expenditures by about $4.5 million in 2015-16, according to a recent news report. The school board is considering an increased teacher/student ratio to help address the issue.

Teachers in the Ralston school district received a base raise and better health insurance benefits in 2013-14, which cost the district about $402,868. They also received step raises, which cost an additional $327,725.

Did they collectively earn all of that?

District-wide results on the NePAS were not encouraging in 2013-14. Students fell short of the state average in reading (116.12/117.58) and ranked 137th out of 249 districts. The same was true for math (102.91/108.45, ranked 193rd) and science (100.19/104.97, ranked 205th).

The news was no better when considered by grade level. Elementary, middle and high school students all fell short of state averages in reading, math and science. High school students ranked 199th out of 230 schools in math and 202nd out of 230 in science.

Like the Belleview district, Ralston also has serious financial issues.

Going into the 2013-14 school year, the Ralston school board was preparing a budget that eliminated a number of school psychologist positions in an effort to come up with $2.7 million in savings, according to news reports.

There were fears of teacher layoffs, but “administrators said enhanced buyouts for long-serving teachers helped open positions and save money, which meant fewer layoffs,” the news report said.

Yet the district was handing out big raises?

Two of the four Omaha-area districts had good results on the state test.

The Gretna district, which paid $182,436 in step raises, ranked 32nd out of 249 schools in reading, 93rd in math and 89th in science.

The Papillon-La Vista district ranked 24th in the state in reading, 37th in math and 56th in science. The district paid out $936,162 for teacher step raises.