What they do know is that many taxpayers consider it a tough, fair strategy for improving education. In other words, merit pay looks like a cheap way of satisfying the public and making headlines. But when teachers start qualifying and merit pay gets expensive, you don't hear parents or other taxpayers applauding any more. And when a budget squeeze comes and people have to figure out what to get rid of, merit pay turns out to be a prime candidate for the axe. Basically, what you get from merit pay is a lot of serious morale problems.
Some teachers are opposed to it from start to finish.
Others are afraid when merit pay is first put in, and many are resentful because they feel they deserve merit pay and don't get it. Then, there is a buildup to great satisfaction as many teachers work hard to get merit pay and either succeed or believe that they will in the near future. If any of them had come to pass, you can be sure we'd be hearing about it from Texas or Florida or Lamar Alexander's Tennessee. Since nobody is telling stories about all the wonderful things merit pay has accomplished, it's safe to assume that merit pay is another one of these educational experiments that was doomed to succeed and is now quietly dying. All rights reserved.