Commenters on the AJC Get Schooled blog were overwhelmingly opposed to merit pay for educators, proposed by Gov. Nathan Deal, and heartened to learn House Speaker David Ralston’s reservations to Gilmer County teachers about the fairness of basing teacher pay on student performance. Here is a sampling of comments:
Sneak: To all those who think merit pay for teachers is the answer, please show research and examples showing a successful implementation of such a system.
Jezel: Speaker Ralston, it is great to see an elected official who is not self-serving. Georgia needs statesmen — not politicians — dealing with issues of education. You understand exactly what is going on with education reform. I am sure you will be attacked and tempted to give in. Stay strong, and put an end to this foolishness.
Amy: Only if politicians get merit pay. They'd starve to death.
Travel: If the Speaker, in effect, doesn't believe in accountability, then he's in the minority in Georgia.
Justin: Show me a valid way to measure teachers, and I'm all for it. Basing it solely on student test scores is not a valid way. No other job bases their pay on how well someone else does their job. Why should teachers be paid based on how well a student takes a test?
Science: To some extent, rating teachers on student test scores is like basing a dentist's ratings on how many cavities his/her patients get. The dentist might do a great job cleaning and caring for a patient's teeth, but if the patient doesn't brush and floss and eats many sugary snacks and drink sodas all day, are the cavities the fault of the dentist?
Diane: It's below zero in the Inferno. I just agreed with David Ralston.
AnotherName: The problem is that children with less chaotic homes learn better and, unfortunately, chaos is not spread evenly throughout classrooms. Until we have detailed-enough demographic data, the difference the teacher is making is swamped by the differences in kids and their lives. On the other hand, why are elementary school parents not surveyed at the end of every year on how much they liked their children's teachers? Every bad teacher I know would have gotten lousy scores on that sort of survey.
Wendy: You think there is a shortage of teachers, keep talking about merit pay.
Eric: If my pay is based on the performance of my students, I'll quit. I work 10-hour days. On top of that, I spend time at home grading papers, making lesson plans and answering questions via text. I record all class lectures and discussions and post them on YouTube. I still have kids who do nothing related to my class after leaving it. They don't do homework or review the day's lesson to prepare for the next day. You cannot blame this on teachers. Every one of my students who invests time in their own education and has a parent guiding them at home succeeds in my class.
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