Merit Pay may not be Reasonable

The Republican controlled Michigan House is debating a measure which would tie teacher salaries to their performance in the classroom. This is not a horrible idea yet it is one fraught with pitfalls.

To begin with, no teacher can possibly reach every student. It simply will not happen. There are too many factors beyond an instructor's control, factors which the classroom pedagogue can never reasonably be expected to overcome. Demanding that teachers reach everyone is akin to demanding that doctors cure everyone; yet such does not take into account that the best cancer doctor in the world can't stop a patient from smoking, or force them into a better diet.

Teachers face similar obstacles. At the same time, under a system of performance evaluations we could actually have teachers less deserving of merit pay getting it because of fortunate circumstances beyond their reach. How many instructors in stable, higher performing districts might be granted better pay when they are not responsible for the better home life which makes their jobs easier? Merit pay might reward those who don't in fact earn it if we are not careful about it's application.

This isn't to say that merit pay isn't a good idea. But it would seem that we would need an awful lot of micromanagement to make it effective: those in better performing areas ought to have a more difficult path to earn it than those in traditionally low achievement schools. We're not sure that such a delicate balancing act is possible when government has been thrown into the mix.

We should not be above blaming the educators, in part, for their plight either. How many schools of education have preached that a good teacher can reach any student when common sense would tell anyone that that is impossible on its face? If you preach it, you ought not be shocked when others take you at your word. Teachers may not have dug the hole they find themselves in alone yet they certainly, at least, some of them, wielded shovels.

If a plan to tie salaries into performance can be made which is fair to everyone, then why not implement it? But it strikes us that there may be too many variables involved to make such an idea workable. Sometimes we simply need to accept that no school, no community, no government, can make a decent omelette out of rotten eggs. This does not mean that we should abandon attempts at education. But it does mean that we must stop looking towards schools and teachers as magicians. There is no magic wand, no mysterious incantation, which will solve problems which have existed since the beginning of time. No teacher nor state legislator cam make the world perfect. But they can make it needlessly complicated.