The school district in Chelsea, Massachusetts, has a novel idea for reducing its high teacher turnover rate: give its teachers a break on their income taxes. The cash-strapped, relative uncompetitive district has asked the Massachusetts legislature for help in holding onto its teachers by reducing their tax burden.

To our knowledge, this is the first time a district has sought to use the tax code for an incentive to retain teachers. Its appeal is straightforward: unlike a teacher pay raise, which would have required Chelsea to come up with cash it didn't have, teachers could instead pocket more cash from their salaries.

Chelsea is having to leave it up to the legislature to decide on the amount of the tax break it would confer. While there is no guarantee how far this proposal will go in the state level, Massachusetts State Representative Eugene O'Flaherty, of Chelsea, is hopeful that the idea can be implemented and replicated in other similar school districts.