Reply #6: Did you know that Barack Obama is in favor of "merit pay"? [View All]

From the article by Jonathan Kozol:

"In efforts to retain the most effective teachers in our low-performing schools, Congress
should not make the error of believing that “merit-pay,” if determined primarily by
children's examination scores, will heighten the retention of the most inspiring teachers.
As I have discussed above, it will more often have the opposite effect since the best
young teachers will not be attracted, and more frequently will be repelled, by any form of mercenary competition that rewards those who are willing to subordinate instruction
to test-preparation. "

Those of us in the field know that "differentiated compensation" as Obama calls it, or "merit pay" as most of the republicans call it, is WRONG. When Obama gave a speech to about 10,000 teachers last summer, he said he supported it. Our teacher's union president wrote to him asking him to clarify, and he wrote back saying quite clearly that he supports differentiated compensation for teachers.

He just doesn't get it. I hope he doesn't get the nomination.