Massachusetts Dangles Carrot for Teachers : Education: In effort to encourage better students to enter the profession, state offers loan-repayment program. New teachers who finish in the top quarter of their class are eligible for $1,800 annually for four years.

Massachusetts has one of the oldest corps of public school teachers in the country, and is one of the first states to deal with a bitter reality: The talent pool for future teachers is not all that talented.

Across the nation, high school students who said they want to pursue a career in education scored an average of 854 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test last year, well below the national SAT average for all students, 902.

SAT scores were similar in Massachusetts, where the need for bright young teachers is dire: 41.7% of the state’s teachers have been at it for more than 20 years, and are approaching retirement.

That’s the third-longest tenured teaching corps in the country, behind Michigan at 43.3% and the District of Columbia at 43.1%, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

“We need a constant stream of new blood,” Berta Axelrad, a 22-year veteran math teacher, said as she left Brookline High School recently.

The state hopes to recruit top prospects by repaying some of their college loans through a small pilot program. New teachers who finished in the top quarter of their classes will be eligible for $1,800 annually for four years.

“We’re trying to provide that little extra carrot that would convince a good student to choose teaching when they might want to do something else,” said Ted Frier, spokesman for the state education secretary.

The program was supposed to be part of the state’s landmark education reform act of 1993, but went unfunded until the Legislature approved $150,000 for loan repayments this year.

If all the teachers who apply were to receive the maximum repayment, the money would cover 83 people this year.

Some veteran teachers wished the program well, but said higher starting salaries would be a bigger lure.

“I can’t imagine how $1,800 [a year] in a one-shot deal would entice someone to enter the profession,” said Steven Barrasso, assistant headmaster at Brookline High School and a teacher for 28 years.

In the 1993-94 academic year, the average teacher’s salary was $35,723, National Education Assn. spokesman Nelson Canton said.

Bob Murphy, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Assn. and a 26-year veteran, said the incentive money wouldn’t begin to pay off the debts of most college students today.

“Students are coming out of higher education, even from public institutions, with a debt load that is stunning in comparison to us,” Murphy said.

Still, Axelrad said, the program is long overdue.

And while other states and the federal government have loan repayment programs, Massachusetts is wise to restrict it to the top 25%, said Melinda Anderson, a spokeswoman for the National Education Assn.

“I think linking it to performance does help attract brighter individuals into the profession who might be more likely to go into some higher-paying professions if that incentive wasn’t there,” she said.