A tried but not true idea...

NOTE: This is a post from Jaxson, a guest writer.

Let’s go through a couple of myths about merit pay in our state.

Myth #1: Democrats have been against merit pay for years and have never introduced a plan to pay the best teachers.

This is false. Read the following editorial comments from over a quarter century ago.

Some states, chief among them Florida, have a long way to go just to get to the national average in commitment to teacher pay and educational excellence.

The Florida push has taken the form of a debate over “merit pay.” It is part of the puzzle that has legislators in overtime session trying to decide on the size of the state budget.

The merit pay issue does focus many of these problems. Of course, teachers need more money. But is the answer just paying the best teachers more?

And how should the best be selected? By a battery of tests? By taking extra courses? Or by classroom performance?

And who should rate that classroom performance? Administrators, who can be prejudiced? Or peers, who don’t have the time?

If Florida lawmakers believe passage of the “merit pay” plan proposed by either the House or Gov. Bob Graham will be the panacea for quality education, they are mistaken.

It can only be the first of a series of major injections of money and standards into the public education.

This excerpt is from the now-defunct [St. Petersburg] Evening Independent’s editorial page (July 14, 1983).

The debate over merit pay for educators is nothing new. Do not be mislead by politicians who believe that they are introducing reforms that we have never seen in our state.

Please note that Governor Bob Graham and a Democratic-dominated Florida House of Representatives pushed for a ‘Master Teacher’ performance pay plan.

Unlike salesmen who work on commission, however, the best teachers did not uniformly benefit from merit pay.

According to the May 22, 1985 edition of the St. Petersburg Times, Florida’s teacher of the year failed to earn the merit pay bonus of $3,000. The Fletcher High School chemistry teacher was a finalist for national teacher of the year and was the only teacher with two students in the state science fair, but was not considered ‘good enough’ for the Master Teacher program.

In the same St. Petersburg Times article, State Senator Bill Grant bemoaned the involvement of ‘non-combatants’ in setting ‘ill-advised policies.

In 1986, Governor Graham’s merit pay began to fizzle as it did not produce the desired results, instead demoralizing many teachers who were trying their best in the classroom.

Myth #2: Florida does not have merit pay today.

Also false. Merit pay does exist in Florida, and has in one form or another for over a decade.

Many school districts in Florida, including Duval County, have had some form of performance pay. The state government, however, has been moving the goal posts in spite of their glowing praise for existing merit pay programs. For example, the state considered Duval County’s performance pay plan to be one of the best in the state, they forced Duval to abandon it in favor of a plan the relied heavily on testing. Duval’s administration and union complied with the state and created a Merit Award plan (MAP) that was approved by teachers. Just as MAP was getting started, the state politicians slammed us with Senate Bill 6. This legislation was ostensibly designed to punish counties that were slow to draft their own MAP plans. Instead, they threw out the baby with the bathwater in forcing compliant counties to adopt more draconian plans.

Now that I have cleared up to major misconceptions about merit pay, how about we quit demonizing teachers and find ways to truly pay our best educators without Tallahassee bullying us?