Dying in a desk drawer of the state Senate Education Committee is a solution to taxpayer-vexing situations like the one that hit Pittsburgh this week.

The city school board paid $213,000, in effect, for the resignation of Deputy Superintendent Lynn Spampinato. The deal calls for her to be available as a consultant to the district, but the school solicitor said she'll be paid regardless of "the level of utilization of her services."

The withering legislation would strictly limit the amount a school board could pay in such a situation and, just as important, it would require boards to report publicly why they agreed to the deal.

State Rep. Tom Stevenson, R-Mt. Lebanon, offered the bill in October 2005 in response to public outrage over the Mt. Lebanon School Board buying out then Superintendent Margery Sable's contract for $500,000.

Outraged residents demanded to know why the board removed Ms. Sable and why it cost so much. They got no satisfaction from the school board, which contended that personnel matters are secret, even when they require half a million taxpayer dollars.

Rep. Stevenson got his bill passed by the House, and it went to the Senate Education Committee in June. There it languishes. The Senate is scheduled to meet only two more days this year, Monday and Tuesday, when it will elect new officers. If it doesn't vote to pass the bill by the end of Tuesday -- which would require approval in committee first -- Rep. Stevenson's attempt at reform will become recycling fodder.

It's not the Legislature's fault, however, that Pittsburgh Superintendent Mark Roosevelt recommended the hiring of a woman with an employment track record that includes leaving a job as chief academic officer after 16 months and taking a $211,000 buyout of her superintendent's contract after only eight months in 2004.

Even if the Senate had adopted Rep. Stevenson's legislation and the governor signed it, the school board would have been stuck paying Ms. Spampinato because the law would not be retroactive to her hiring date. But, as it is, no district in the state has the protection the legislation would provide.

The bill should be reintroduced and quickly passed by both houses in January. Rep. Stevenson can't do it because he won't be returning to Harrisburg. Whoever does it should add a provision eliminating the state school code's requirement that districts sign contracts with superintendents and their assistants that are at least three years long.

When the state pays only about 36 percent of school district costs, it shouldn't be ordering school boards to commit their districts to contracts of specific lengths. One-year agreements would cost less to buy out than three-year deals.

Mr. Roosevelt has been chastened by this experience. It would be nice if the Legislature learned something as well.