How will these merit raises and bonuses be paid for? Or will they? Will this become yet another unfunded mandate?
Or will anyone ever receive it?
My guess is that the money will come out of the school districts’ already thin salary schedules, keeping baseline teacher salaries too skimpy to attract and retain the highest caliber teachers in the neediest areas.
The bonuses will be based on a number of factors, not just student test scores. These factors will be based on highly subjective teacher evaluation schemes that are easily manipulated to ensure frugality. Or, with salary schedules cut to the bone, the bonuses will become retention incentives and be meaningless in terms of rewarding teacher excellence.
Seems to me it’s the students who need to get better at learning. The teachers are doing their best.
