Pay people for job performance
Editorial, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Thursday, January 8, 2009
“Every other institution that is successful . . . rewards employees for productivity.” —Roy Brooks
YOU’VE GOT to hand it to the man. Little Rock’s school board kicked Roy Brooks out as superintendent, but that hasn’t kept him from educating Little Rock’s kids. It’s like he’s obsessed or something. Why can’t he take failure for an answer?
Maybe he’s got the same incurable bug that so many other educators have: An irresistible desire to improve the next generation.
So when the narrow majority in charge of the school district bought him out—for a huge sum of the public’s money—Roy Brooks & Co. opened a charter school in downtown Little Rock. It’s called eStem, and anybody who walks around downtown at the right time can hear a new, exciting sound: kids playing during recess. What a welcome addition to the urban scene. And those kids need the break. For eStem is an acronym standing for economics, science, technology, engineering and mathematics. These kids have their plates full. What’s more, Dr. Brooks and his teachers have a reputation for being serious about learning.
One of the reasons Roy Brooks lost his job in the school district: his support for merit pay. He dared suggest teachers be paid according to their worth, instead of just drawing a salary based on how many years they sat at their desks. But the teachers’ unions don’t run his charter school, so merit pay has taken hold there. Teachers at eStem School can earn up to $10,000 a year more than their $32,000-plus salaries, depending on how much improvement their students show. Not only that, but they also get that satisfied feeling anybody gets when rewarded for a job well done.
This from one teacher at the school: “I didn’t accept the job because of the merit pay. I feel teaching is a calling in my life. If I don’t get any money, I would be fine. But for those teachers who have taught for many years and who are frustrated by working so hard and not getting anything out of it, it’s an excellent motivational tool.”
Is that really so difficult to understand? It’s as simple as 1, 2, 3. As in: (1) Teachers don’t take jobs because of merit pay. (2) Because many educators feel teaching is a calling. But . . . (3) Money motivates. Because teachers are, after all, human.
You’d think that school boards all around the country would get it. In almost every other job, money’s a motivating factor. Why not teaching?
Answer: Because those who run teachers’ union don’t like merit pay, or maybe even merit. They’d prefer seniority—so that everybody who pays dues get the same across-the-board raises—no matter how good, bad or indifferent their performance—and their students’. And if students are left behind? Well, kids don’t pay union dues. Better a powerful union and mediocre education than quality education free of union power.
Good for Roy Brooks, his executive director of schools John Bacon, and the folks at the University of Arkansas who devised this merit-pay plan. And good for the teachers at eStem, too. They’re ready to experiment. And they’re not afraid to compete and see how good a job they’re doing. Maybe, just maybe, students will learn more this way. If not, eStem will at least have tried something new and found out how well it works. They’re not going to just mark time while another generation is lost.
And, hey, the extra money could come in handy.
