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Obama Stands Ground on Merit Pay
07/07/08
04:17:13 am, Categories: Announcements [A] This YouTube video, courtesy of the EIA, was making the rounds over the weekend among Congressional staff and education policy folks.
Video from the hall of the National Education Association Representative Assembly as Barack Obama delivers his endorsement acceptance speech via satellite to the delegates. |
Even Alexander Russo gave Obama credit for going into the lion’s den and standing his ground on merit pay.
It is interesting that at the beginning of the speech, Obama got cheered when he said he no longer wants to see teachers get blamed for the problems in America’s education system. Then, he got booed when he said:
"Under my plan, districts will be able to design programs to give educators who serve them as mentors to new teachers the salary increases they’ve earned. They’ll be able to reward those who teach underserved areas or take on added responsibility. As teachers learn new skills or serve their students better or if they consistently excel in the classroom, that work can be valued and rewarded as well."
Pretty striking, booing a plan to give teachers who do more work, attain certain skills, or take tough assignments more money. Even though this is the only way we are going to make progress on ensuring that every child - especially those in the poorest schools and those with the greatest needs - has a qualified teacher, the response: 1) is indicative of the tough political slog ahead in getting it done and, 2) signals the imperative for taking it national and doing it in one fell political swoop under a bright public spotlight.
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Update:
He is correct about one thing. The cheers are louder than the boos. And teachers do have a sense of humor, as evidenced by the reaction to Obama’s lighthearted way of making a serious point: the national teachers unions don’t like any kind of merit pay, and he is holding firm anyway in pushing for it because he thinks it is the right thing to do.
I guess I and many of the people who were passing this around are a little more skeptical than Sherman about what is needed to effect the kind of change Obama is talking about.
The teacher quality problem is national. And urgent. It requires a national solution, which is frankly long overdue (I’d say at least 50 years). Dr. Dorn claims "my own faculty union was the first to propose merit pay many years ago…" I am not sure that he’s noticed, but not everyone followed the USF lead.
Sherman, if you have a better idea than what Obama is proposing on getting qualified teachers to high-need schools and students, we’re all ears. Until then we look forward to more posts about you.
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Update #2
The Hoff does a yeoman’s job of pulling together everyone’s comments, including the fact that Russo has flip-flopped over the course of the two days on his position about whether Obama is a flip-flopper.
One more thing: I’m as ADHD as anyone these days, but I do think attention to things that happened more than a few minutes ago (aka history) is sometimes important. Like the fact that the NEA made a deal on merit pay last year, then not only reneged on the deal but denied, in public, through their Pres, making the deal to the Chairman with whom they made the deal despite clear documentation that shows the Pres was, uh, mistaken (see Eduwonk from September with primary sources and everything). You can bet the farm that the boos mean something. Rotherham also had good insights into all the dynamics in said Eduwonk post. It’s recommended reading, even if it is several months old.
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