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Published on Friday, March 20, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Teachers for CEO Merit Pay!
Because sabotaging the global economy shouldn’t earn you a bonus.
Pop quiz:
Chief Executive Officers, take out your #2 pencils and mark the letter that corresponds to the single best answer choice (remember, unlike on Wall St. your scores will be invalidated if you are caught cheating).
1) What have CEOs achieved in recent years that would warrant lavish salaries and bonuses?
Today’s executives are increasingly flunking this basic test, falling behind the curve and, because of low standards, getting shuffled through the system believing they have earned the $18 billion in bonuses that were awarded to Wall Street last year (you can now view their report card at www.teachersforceomeritpay.com
One CEO wearing the merit pay dunce cap is American International Group’s Martin Sullivan who, despite leading the insurance giant and our nation into fiscal ruin, received $25.4 million for his “financial planning” services from 2005-2008. To compound this absurdity, on Friday March 13, AIG went ahead with its $165 million “retention pay” program, pledging to award its executives tens of millions of dollars in new bonuses even though it received a taxpayer bailout of more than $170 billion.
As AIG Chairman Edward Liddy said of the decision, “We cannot attract and retain the best and brightest talent to lead and staff the AIG businesses—which are now being operated principally on behalf of the American taxpayers—if employees believe their compensation is subject to continued and arbitrary adjustment by the U.S. Treasury.”
Best and the brightest?
The bulk of the bonuses at AIG cover executives in the Financial Products Unit—the division that sold the credit default swaps that caused an American corporate record-breaking $61.7 billion loss for the fourth quarter of last year and brought the company to the brink of collapse. It seems fair to say these executives could be described, without hyperbole, to be about as bright as the back of a cave during a solar eclipse.
As President Obama stressed in his March 10 speech on education reform, “I reject a system that rewards failure and protects a person from its consequences. The stakes are too high.”
Inspired by this system-rejecting appeal, Teachers for CEO Merit Pay advocates this: when corporate executives repay the trillions of dollars their institutions have received from publicly financed bank bailouts; when they withdraw all mercenary forces and private contractors from the Middle East; when they relinquish control of health care and champion a single-payer plan that provides free coverage for everyone in the United States; when they discontinue exploiting tax loopholes and offshore havens, which have depleted state revenues and caused an education funding crisis, then they will be eligible to receive appropriate pay raises.
The need for a rigid merit pay system with strict accountability for CEOs stems from the nature of their position, which leads them to dedicate their lives to shortsighted goals focused on enriching themselves—regardless of the impact on the broader society.
But many officials—attempting to divert attention from those truly responsible for the decline of our society—are suggesting that it is teachers who need to be held accountable for the erosion of our culture with stringent pay-for-performance requirements.
Performance pay structures in education, however, require teachers to compete for a limited pool of money. Instead of collaborating to provide the best possible education, merit pay creates disincentives for teachers to share information and teaching techniques. Thus, the main way teachers learn their craft—studying from their colleagues—is rendered useless. If you think we have high rates of teacher turnover now, wait until new teachers are seen as the competition by their more experienced co-workers and have no one to turn to.
Bill Gates and Eli Broad are managing to thwart this basic logic by investing obscene amounts of money in the “Strong American Schools” crusade that has called for teacher pay to be tied to the culturally biased/curriculum narrowing high-stakes tests mandated by the misnamed No Child Left Behind Act. With their disciple now in Washington, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, they are attempting to remake our schools in the image of a production line where simple input-values are used to measure the efficiency of any worker.
The only reason these teacher merit pay advocates have been able to gain any hearing at all is because teacher pay is so abysmally low that any chance at an increase can look like an oasis to a nation of people lost in the desert of under-funding. According to a recent study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the teaching profession has an average national starting salary of $30,377. Moreover, the National Education Association recently found,
A February 28, 2008 article from the Dallas Morning News analyzed Texas’ $100 million experiment with the largest merit pay plan in the nation, involving some 52,000 teachers. The paper reported, “An overwhelming majority—85 percent—said they were teaching the same way they were before the $100 million plan was implemented in the 2006-07 school year.” As Richard Kouri of the Texas State Teachers Association pointed out, "What did the $100 million accomplish? These teachers were already doing a good job."
While ineffective at improving student learning, these teacher merit pay ploys are more successful in achieving their real aims: to produce an American myth that unmotivated teachers are to blame for a broken school system in an effort to deflect attention away from systemic inequality. Consider:
Real education reform would start by addressing these systemic inequalities and acknowledging the miraculous work that my teacher colleagues do every day despite the lack of institutional support. It would mean giving teachers a respectable wage—we would of course be open to accepting President Obama’s salary cap of $500,000 with unlimited access to stock options, which he recently set for incompetent CEOs who received public money to keep their failed institutions afloat.
Most importantly, real education reform would redirect society’s wealth away from ruinous investments in credit default swaps and towards a sure bet: our children.
Chief Executive Officers, take out your #2 pencils and mark the letter that corresponds to the single best answer choice (remember, unlike on Wall St. your scores will be invalidated if you are caught cheating).
1) What have CEOs achieved in recent years that would warrant lavish salaries and bonuses?
A) A Global economic collapse that has led to millions losing their jobs, homes, and pensions.If you selected “E,” congratulations! You are a rare official who has made the honor roll of the newly formed institute, Teachers for CEO Merit Pay: “Because sabotaging the global economy shouldn’t earn you a bonus.”
B) Two wars in the Middle East that have seen bountiful contracts awarded to private companies.
C) 47 million Americans now without health insurance.
D) The systematic under-funding of schools and the push toward privatizing education through charter schools.
E) None of the above.
Today’s executives are increasingly flunking this basic test, falling behind the curve and, because of low standards, getting shuffled through the system believing they have earned the $18 billion in bonuses that were awarded to Wall Street last year (you can now view their report card at www.teachersforceomeritpay.com
One CEO wearing the merit pay dunce cap is American International Group’s Martin Sullivan who, despite leading the insurance giant and our nation into fiscal ruin, received $25.4 million for his “financial planning” services from 2005-2008. To compound this absurdity, on Friday March 13, AIG went ahead with its $165 million “retention pay” program, pledging to award its executives tens of millions of dollars in new bonuses even though it received a taxpayer bailout of more than $170 billion.
As AIG Chairman Edward Liddy said of the decision, “We cannot attract and retain the best and brightest talent to lead and staff the AIG businesses—which are now being operated principally on behalf of the American taxpayers—if employees believe their compensation is subject to continued and arbitrary adjustment by the U.S. Treasury.”
Best and the brightest?
The bulk of the bonuses at AIG cover executives in the Financial Products Unit—the division that sold the credit default swaps that caused an American corporate record-breaking $61.7 billion loss for the fourth quarter of last year and brought the company to the brink of collapse. It seems fair to say these executives could be described, without hyperbole, to be about as bright as the back of a cave during a solar eclipse.
As President Obama stressed in his March 10 speech on education reform, “I reject a system that rewards failure and protects a person from its consequences. The stakes are too high.”
Inspired by this system-rejecting appeal, Teachers for CEO Merit Pay advocates this: when corporate executives repay the trillions of dollars their institutions have received from publicly financed bank bailouts; when they withdraw all mercenary forces and private contractors from the Middle East; when they relinquish control of health care and champion a single-payer plan that provides free coverage for everyone in the United States; when they discontinue exploiting tax loopholes and offshore havens, which have depleted state revenues and caused an education funding crisis, then they will be eligible to receive appropriate pay raises.
The need for a rigid merit pay system with strict accountability for CEOs stems from the nature of their position, which leads them to dedicate their lives to shortsighted goals focused on enriching themselves—regardless of the impact on the broader society.
But many officials—attempting to divert attention from those truly responsible for the decline of our society—are suggesting that it is teachers who need to be held accountable for the erosion of our culture with stringent pay-for-performance requirements.
Performance pay structures in education, however, require teachers to compete for a limited pool of money. Instead of collaborating to provide the best possible education, merit pay creates disincentives for teachers to share information and teaching techniques. Thus, the main way teachers learn their craft—studying from their colleagues—is rendered useless. If you think we have high rates of teacher turnover now, wait until new teachers are seen as the competition by their more experienced co-workers and have no one to turn to.
Bill Gates and Eli Broad are managing to thwart this basic logic by investing obscene amounts of money in the “Strong American Schools” crusade that has called for teacher pay to be tied to the culturally biased/curriculum narrowing high-stakes tests mandated by the misnamed No Child Left Behind Act. With their disciple now in Washington, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, they are attempting to remake our schools in the image of a production line where simple input-values are used to measure the efficiency of any worker.
The only reason these teacher merit pay advocates have been able to gain any hearing at all is because teacher pay is so abysmally low that any chance at an increase can look like an oasis to a nation of people lost in the desert of under-funding. According to a recent study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the teaching profession has an average national starting salary of $30,377. Moreover, the National Education Association recently found,
Over the decade from 1997-98 to 2007-08, in constant dollars, average salaries for public schoolteachers declined 1 percent while inflation increased 31.4 percent. Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia saw real declines in average teacher salaries over those years, adjusting for inflation.But don’t be taken in by the merit pay mirage—it won’t quench the nations thirst for improved education.
A February 28, 2008 article from the Dallas Morning News analyzed Texas’ $100 million experiment with the largest merit pay plan in the nation, involving some 52,000 teachers. The paper reported, “An overwhelming majority—85 percent—said they were teaching the same way they were before the $100 million plan was implemented in the 2006-07 school year.” As Richard Kouri of the Texas State Teachers Association pointed out, "What did the $100 million accomplish? These teachers were already doing a good job."
While ineffective at improving student learning, these teacher merit pay ploys are more successful in achieving their real aims: to produce an American myth that unmotivated teachers are to blame for a broken school system in an effort to deflect attention away from systemic inequality. Consider:
All of these social ills have a decisive impact on the learning process and none can be solved by fomenting competition between teachers.
- The American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2009 report card gave school infrastructure a “D” grade and estimates that $322 billion is needed for repairs.
- Our school system today is more segregated that at any time since 1968.
- A tidal wave of homeless students has hit school districts across the country. According to the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, by late fall 330 school systems across the country were serving at least as many homeless students as they had the entire school year before.
- Despite the findings of the Tennessee’s Project STAR that smaller class size is critical to student achievement, there is a steady increase in student-to-teacher ratios—robbing students of the individual attention they deserve and leading to teacher burnout. This is being exacerbated across the country—despite Federal education stimulus dollars—with news that Los Angeles schools are sending pink slips to 8,000 educators, that Charlotte, North Carolina schools have threatened to lay off every teacher with less than five years experience, and that Seattle Public Schools are closing or disrupting 13 schools, with lay-offs to follow.
Real education reform would start by addressing these systemic inequalities and acknowledging the miraculous work that my teacher colleagues do every day despite the lack of institutional support. It would mean giving teachers a respectable wage—we would of course be open to accepting President Obama’s salary cap of $500,000 with unlimited access to stock options, which he recently set for incompetent CEOs who received public money to keep their failed institutions afloat.
Most importantly, real education reform would redirect society’s wealth away from ruinous investments in credit default swaps and towards a sure bet: our children.
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31 Comments so far
Show AllThe kids can't read, spell or do basic math anymore so I guess teacher merit pay would be a good comparison to the bonuses given to executives that run their companies into the ground.
Your point is spurious and misleading.
In the case of public education, it's been demeaned and, more importantly, defunded, for years by so-called "conservatives" who hate the very idea.
But in the case of the Wall St. kleptocracy, the exact opposite is true.
This framing is brilliant in exposing the double-standard-based fraud that is capitalism.
Jethro, You are absolutely correct!!! Well stated.
Real World -
Your assertion that children cannot read, spell, nor do basic math anymore is flat wrong. Every major study on job preparedness, SAT scores, and high school diploma rates has shown that today's youth (across the socio-economic spectrum) have increasingly done better on the so-called "3 R's" than previous generations. Both SAT scores and high school diploma rates have been on the rise for the last 25-years.
An interesting book that calls-into-question your exact assertion is The Job Training Charade by Gordon Lafer.
- Lilleth
Hey real world, I don't know which kids you are working with/teaching/talking about, but the ones I work with/teach (undergrads)do all of the above very well. No Ivory Tower Blues for me. These students are all 'products' of public education and their teachers have done an excellent job.
N.M.
Hey real world, any data to back up your claim.
Real World, I see folks are ready to stand against your very broad (but narrow)statement. The scene is not good for education as there are too many things competing for brain space; computer games, parental apathy, gangs, Hollywood unrealities, and strange backwards walking ideas held in the mainstream of our society. Teaches don't stand a chance and the work they do is very hard. Like building fine furniture with cheap 2x4 stock instead of fine lumber. Education is a team effort and this nation is off track. Money wont make an average teacher into a super techer or unresponsive children into sharp eyed learners. The article is a good one especially if teachers are under attack for the problems of our very strained society.
Well, tnmoderate, I am not a respected member of a profession whose members all belong to Mensa, but I'm not exactly mildly retarded either.
Incidentally, you have obviously never worked in a school but know all about the people who work there. I can't tell you how many like you I have met over the years: All of them thought they were mental wizards like yourself.
They all tried to demonstrate that their knowledge of the subject matter was superior to mine. Some members of the community really did know more than I, but it was people like you, never they who tried to make a point of proving it.
You want to answer me tnmoderate? I get the feeling you have more mouth than brains.
Hope you return and read this.
Can I conclude that you are a teacher?
Well, we can't get anywhere if you want to make it that personal. Who you are and what your individual accomplishments might be do not define anyone else in your profession. It was some years ago - about a decade and a half - that I last saw GRE scores broken down by major. For every one of the components, education majors were battling it out for last place. I don't recall which place they were in for each component, but education majors scored at the bottom on one, at second to the bottom on another, and at third from the bottom on one.
To a great extent, this may exclude future secondary teachers: I've heard/read that many students pursue degrees in the subjects they intend to teach and then enroll in certification programs. If true, this would suggest that a student following such a route who intends to teach, say, history, would thus necessarily be categorized as a history major in the GRE stats.
Have test scores improved greatly since then? What are the education major rankings now? Is what I read about many aspiring secondary school teachers' strategies accurate? Is it still the case that only secondary education majors are required to earn a second degree in addition to education, a degree in the subject they intend to teach?
Do you remember back to Bill Clinton's campaign, when teachers in Arkansas were screaming about how insulted they were about the tests the state administered? It was insulting to them as professionals, they insisted. What percentage of teachers failed that competency test? More than half the states instituted teacher competency testing in the '80s, and the results were appalling. What has happened since? (Serious inquiry.)
Good teachers at every level - and, yes, they certainly do exist - ought to be embarrassed by the large numbers of true incompetents in their ranks. Example: I knew a university professor who headed a graduate program in TESOL (ESL). Despite his Ph.D. and experience, he couldn't formulate a simple operational definition. Worse, the authors of the text-book he used were also unable to do so. Add to that none of my fellow students seemed to know that. (I didn't poll them all, but I did talk to several, and they had no idea what I was talking about. Nor had any of them heard any other classmate mention it.)
The conversation should not be about any individual, but the profession as a whole. To fight calls for reform on purely personal grounds makes no sense. The individual's accomplishments belong to the individual alone. They are neither diminished nor enhanced by his/her group affiliations, and neither do they reflect the competence of other members of groups with which the individual is affiliated.
However knowledgable you are, it improves your colleagues not one bit.
P.S., Mensa is a crock.
Here in NYC it would be good if we had a Union. Here we have something called The United Federation of Teachers, which pays the Union leader around 800,000 a year to passify membership and vitiate emerging vices of dissent. If there were unions like this in the 1930s-- actually there were some-- then we could have been feudal by '50.
Is it more Coincidence theory that the only huge Union leader to join with MLK in opposition to the Vietnam War-- Walter Reuther of the UAW-- died in a plane crash in 1970. I dont think Randi Weingarten need fear Unfriendly Skies!
Please read JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters, or people will remain thinking that the Presidents Chosen by Wolf Blitzer will change everything, and we-- as a species will devlove into quivering lime Jello, and not even cold quiverin
They need merit evaluations for school administrators! Here in Colorado Springs they just closed down more than a few schools and none of the administrators have been held in the least bit accountable by anybody. They are paying $63 million dollars a year out in this district for debt service!
How did this crooked school district get into debt in the first place? Why did they take out loans other than to help out financially the lending institutions, banks, etc. at the expense of the children and their parents?
WRM
For anyone interested in how our public education has come to its current state of disarray and despair, check out John Taylor Gatto's work in "The Underground History of Education". You will discover that teachers are mearly pawns in a game that's rigged to teach children their place in society and to prepare a meek and compliant work force for exploitation by these corporadoes.
I dare to ask, do we need teachers or kid-sitters? We can teach our kids online, interactive, with the best courses and teachers in the country now. Why do we need teachers, schools and classrooms other than for hands on stuff, sports and socializing?
Just who in the hell do you think designs online courses? Learning how to socialize ins't a partb of learning?
You insult every teacher i the world wiyth your blatantly ignorant "ideas," which are no better than BushCo's.
Your idea has merit. Our system of education has somehow become entwined with the concept of better "facilities" and better "funding." Much of teaching and learning requires only the basic materials such as books, access to reference materials, pencils and paper. Yes, experimentation requires additional materials, and thereby incurs costs. However, it is possible to learn much with very little capital.
Maybe we could turn to homeschooling followed by community public schools?
I agree, the kids do use technology and they text like mad. I bet if you used texting in a lesson plan it would slow down texting like crazy. Basic learning requires a teacher - then it's like Kaboom and we are left in the dust. A look at these input sources to kids needs our attention. Teachers might be doing it all wrong (evolution strikes home) but are caught by an system that resembles state mandated education.(no excuse though)
I was a teacher for almost thirty years. Merit pay is a very bad idea. Morale is bad enough without pitting teacher against teacher, and I can tell you right now who will get the merit pay---the cronies of the administration or relatives of the county commissioners.
Moreover, the best teachers have a passion for kids. They are unique individuals who cannot be compared to non creative servants of the system who earn their pay by doing whatever some authority tells them is correct procedure.
I can't tell you how true manchild's comment is. And the teachers who defy this model are despised by their superiors.
Isn't it amazing that people are trying to turn teaching into a business activity? If this is what the society wants, then lets just go back to the apprenticeship model for trades, and let the academics go back to advancing the frontiers of knowledge.
I would expect pushback on AIG bonuses on other on line publication forums, but not on Common Dreams, wow! If people expect merit pay for teachers, is it too damn much to ask the same for these Masters of the Universe in the world of high finance?
You either didn't read my comment, ignored it, or dismissed it out of hand.
So, since the standard test only tests a limited spectrum of subjects, I can assume all you "merit pay" supporters have no problem excluding large numbers of teachers from even being eligible for merit pay. Right?
The football coach who insists his players maintain excellent scholastic marks to play... no merit pay for him! The music teacher who keeps an otherwise disinterested student participating in school... nah! She doesn't deserve a pay increase, either! How about the early elementary school teachers? They don't test kindergartners at all! Screw all you teachers who focus on early education - NO raise for you!
For a humorous perspective, go to:
http://www.notonthetest.com/index.html
Lol!
Bill Gates, the Harvard dropout, should put his money where his mouth is...
For 12 - 15 billion dollars, we could computerize 60,000,000 students - this is a fraction of the bailout money and a fraction of Bill Gates fortunes.
Most teachers have the ability to individualize. They cannot due to class sizes and the lack of tools for individualization.
Computers are designed for individualization. Teachers would be the primary resource for individualized education.
Teachers would be freed from outrages like "No Child Left Behind". They could concentrate on the child as an individual and guide them to a real education.
We need a 21st century approach to education...not the education of McGraw Hill and the Carlisle Group
...They could concentrate on the child as an individual and guide them to a real education.
Just as long they are not required to spend time individually with each child every day. Even with a class size of 20, that would make the time slices too small to be effective ;-).
The teacher who wrote this article should be getting a bonus for her contribution to getting out the facts about this. Come to think about of us on main street should be getting bonuses for having to put up with this garbage from Wall Street criminals.
AD
I believe that this discussion of merit pay for teachers is simply a small reflection of a much larger problem. Americans have come to frame every activity as a means to aquire more material wealth. Whereas competitive extrinsic rewards may work well in the business world, they are toxic in the world of education. Such an emphasis has been placed on learning for extrinsic rewards that natural curiosity and exploration have been completely stomped out in the United States. Our system does not encourage people to be driven by their curiosity, but rather to complete tasks and fill in the squares. This entire process encourages passive behavior unless motivated with extrinsic rewards. And this attitude is getting worse. Merit pay and paying students for their grades are relatively new ideas. The real problem is that people don't care about learning, they care about getting the grade, and our entire system is designed to feed this disease. The meaninglessness of material extrinsic rewards shows up clearly in our dropout rates.
Now would be a good time for Americans to rethink their values when it comes to education. Many people like to blame funding or the government for the condition of our schools, but the schools are this way precisely because they reflect American values.