Bonus pay unmerited

Wall Street executives raked in millions in bonus pay while their companies went under. Coming up with objective standards for bonuses is extremely difficult in business. It is nearly impossible in education. That is why you should fear “merit pay” for teachers.

Education Week magazine recently did an analysis of the criteria being used by the federal government for states to receive the Race to the Top dollars and concluded that merit pay simply has no credible research to support it.

Denver is the latest school district to try a merit pay system. Perhaps they will succeed where others have failed, but I am skeptical. 

Pay too much to teachers or make it too easy to get the merit pay, and taxpayers scream about the costs. Pay too little or make it too hard to get it, and teachers mock the system. Try to strike a balance, and both sides are likely to reject the idea.

Research shows that teachers, despite what they ask for in union negotiations, aren’t particularly motivated by higher pay once they make an adequate wage. This is true for other service occupations such as nurses, social workers, and counselors. Job satisfaction and the pressures of the job are likely to keep people in these professions or drive them out.

Of course the present system-additional pay for years of service or advanced college degrees-doesn’t work particularly well either.

Dollars are better spent on teacher training, mentoring, or counseling out poor teachers, if not outright firing them. Should we spend untold hours trying to come up with a workable merit pay system? If some teachers never make the criteria for merit pay, is it really okay if they stay in the profession as long as they are paid less? Do you want a lower paid teacher for your child?

Teachers leave the profession, not because they go broke, but rather are broken by the pressures of the job. Paying teachers more will attract some to the profession. But no amount of money can or should keep them teaching if they can’t be successful.

Terry Falk is the Milwaukee Public Schools Director for the Eighth District, which includes Bay View. He can be reached at (414) 510-9173 or falktf@milwaukee.k12.wi.us.