Merit Pay and Seniority- A Rant of my Own

Public Education Matters

2.27.10

Merit Pay and Seniority for Teachers – a Rant of my Own

In the news of late is the story of the Rhode Island town who up and fired all of it’s teachers for refusing to capitulate to extra hours and responsibilities at the same rate of pay. And of course the press is presenting the whole thing in terms of what lazy, ungrateful, spoiled, pampered wretches that teachers are and how the teachers union is an organization of devil worshipers, and pitting them against the very poor downtrodden residents of an economically depressed town and the rest of the nation.

Another day, same story. What’s new? We certainly can’t expect anyone in the media or in politics or in business to actually think this through, can we? Of course not. All we can really expect is for them to perpetuate stereotypes, and echo and amplify the pre-conceived notions of the politically powerful.

And well what can I do about it? Pretty much nothing. I can write in this blog. I can re-tweet and facebook alternative thoughts out into the world wide web in hopes that the public will see them and actually listen beyond the surface that the media is painting. I can pay my union dues and hope that they’ll provide defense against attacks and lies and faulty research. I can write my senators and representatives until I’m blue in the face. But it doesn’t seem to do any good at all. I feel like Don Quixote really- tilting away at big powerful windmills.

But Don Quixote I am really, so here goes- a little dialog with the people of the Rhode Island town and the world. First thing I’d like to ask them and any people thinking about the Rhode Island situation is “Who exactly put your town’s economy in the dire shape it’s in, in the first place?” Wouldn’t it have been a combination of your government (state, local, and federal) and your businessmen? And if so, then why exactly is it that you are turning to these people for the answers to issues in your schools? Haven’t these people steered you in the wrong direction enough for one lifetime?

Ok, next. There was much made about how much your teachers currently make. They said the average salary was $70k. Now first, let me just say “Wow, because no teacher around here in my state makes that much even at the end of their career! ” And then let me say “I really resent the media touting this as the norm and as heinous and greedy around and about town and the nation.” And also let me say “Wow, that does seem like a great contrast beside the 22K or so that the media reported the average townfolk makes.” But let me ask you this- “Do you understand that in order to get certified, qualified, trained teachers that you have to pay competitive salaries compared to the rest of the state and nation?” Because if you don’t? Who exactly are you able to hire? Something less than the crème, seems certain to me. But even so, why exactly do you think that teachers pay their money to be in unions? Isn’t it to protect themselves from the whims of management and to assure that their rights are protected? Do you really begrudge them that? Seriously, do you?

But ok, even if you do, and you are sitting there saying to yourself “Well but what the school board/town was asking of them was so very minor and small, that they should have just done it?” – let me ask you this- “If your boss came to you and said “Ok, I want you to show up for work on Saturday and Sunday but I’m not going to pay you for those days, what would you say?” You’d have the option of saying “heck no” and risk losing your job altogether or you’d have the option of saying “Ok, fine, I’ll be there.” But if you choose the second option, what are you choosing really? You are choosing to give them that inch that will later allow them to take that mile. That’s what you’re doing. So yes, maybe to you the hyperbole of two whole days next to the few extra hours seems great, but can you try to understand that it IS a matter of inches and miles here? And if one group of teachers allows it to happen to them, then it’s going to be like dominoes for the rest of the teachers? I can only say that these people were not just standing up for themselves, they were standing up for their colleagues everywhere. I don’t find that selfish at all. I don’t find the teachers union who encourages such unity as in league with the devil.

Now let’s slightly veer off the path here and discuss seniority and merit pay. Because these are two big pressing, looming issues to politicians and the nation’s educational leaders. And they apply to the Rhode Island situation.

I watched a report on TV last night about how seniority is preventing new, great, and wonderful teachers from having jobs. It was touching. They showed fabulous and wonderful teachers engaging the students. The inevitable contrast point was made. “SEE, public, SEE, who you’re keeping out of the schools when you continue to allow seniority and keep in the deadbeats?” And to that report I want to cry “FOUL” because as I watched those shining example teachers, I was sitting there saying to myself, “Wow, that’s what my friend/colleague of 30 plus years, Rick’s classroom looks!” And I’m saying “Hey, my friend/colleague of 10 years, Joanie uses that exact same technique!” So I’m a little miffed with the TV medium right now for perpetuating the generalization that old teachers are bad and new teachers are good. I really am. As I said “I cry “FOUL!”

So let me ask you this about these shining young examples “we” want in every classroom, do you want a system that tosses them out after 5 or so years because you can get newer cheaper people? Really? Ok, fine, but tell me how it is exactly after a while you’re going to get anyone to pay for 4 to 5 years of college to go into a field where you can only work 5 or so years. I’d predict that pretty soon, the really bright ones are going to catch on- that “this is NOT a field I can afford to work in, I’ll go be/do something else.” Those shining examples are going to go shine in other fields, where they can afford to feed/clothe/and house themselves and their families. And pretty soon, who do you have to “man” your classrooms?

So maybe you’ll answer “Well, hey, that can be addressed with merit pay. We will pay extra money to keep the good teachers and we’ll save money by tossing out the deadbeats, so therefore the costs will be covered and people will be motivated to go into and stay in the field.” Really? Ok, let’s break that argument down a bit, for the sake of argument. First, let’s agree that the amount of revenue for a school is finite. You only have so much money that can go for teacher salaries in any given year. We’ll call that x. So set up an equation here. X = teacher A pay, teacher B pay, teacher c pay…….. all the way to teacher Z pay. Now please try to figure out a fair way to provide incentives for people of quality to enter the biz and stay in the biz. Go ahead, do it, because if you do, you’ll win a Nobel prize in economics, I’m fairly certain. It seems to me that whatever solution to the equation you arrive at you’re going to have to deal with the variable of “what is the base pay?” And if you can’t offer a base pay that is decent in the first place, you cannot expect to attract anyone of quality to the teaching field and expect them to stay with it in the hopes that they’ll win a bigger award some day, not if the base pay isn’t attractive enough.

Also, here is another scenario that plays out in my head sometimes. Let’s say we go to a merit pay system. And “Fabulous Fifth Grade Teacher” one day wins himself some merit pay from his catchy achievement gaining award winning teaching program. Then let’s say the next year, on his way to school he gets run over by a school bus and while he recovers and comes back to work and is still a very decent teacher and able to raise test scores, do you take his level of pay away because he’s no longer has the stamina able to present the award winning program?

I wonder this because in an example using my own two children; they both had a woman for their second grade teacher that I still to this day think was possibly the finest teacher that either of them had all the way through college even. But here’s the thing, she wasn’t flashy, she was quiet. She wasn’t energetic exactly, she was steady. She wasn’t the type to attract anyone’s attention really because the things she did were really subtle. She probably would not have been on her administration’s list for “outstanding” and worthy of extra recognition. She would have been one of these people who would only have ever made the base pay and she would have been fine with that. She really wasn’t ambitious in any sense of the job climbing way. She just wanted to do and did her job without fanfare. Do you not think she deserved a base pay that could support her? Was she not worth keeping? In my eyes, she was until the day she retired. But I truly think that if she couldn’t have supported herself, she’d have moved on and done a reliable, steady job elsewhere and it would have been a loss for my own children and for many others.

The problem is that there just is no real fair way of making merit pay judgments and I’m afraid we’d lose some of the very best in our field this way. My children’s second grade teacher would have probably paled in the eyes of administrators next to a younger, less expensive, perky “save the world” “teach with your hair on fire” type of teacher and she’d have been out the revolving door without the doorstop of seniority.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned on this blog that I work for a Special Education Cooperative who provides special services to 6 area school systems. When we sat down to bargain this year with our director and with the Superintendent of one of the six school systems we were offered a cut in salary- A significant cut in salary and benefits. They bemoaned that times were tight economically and that if we did not accept this cut, then WE would be responsible for the cutting of teachers and programs for children.

To which I would answer “No, I will not take responsibility for this. I hand the responsibility back to you and back to our state and back to the federal government for not providing stable ways to fund the schools. I will not take the blame for this and I will not take the responsibility for this. I go out there every day and do the job you pay me to do and then some. I’ve done that for 30 plus years, never wavering in my responsibility of doing that job. It is not my job to provide the revenue for my salary and the salaries of my peers. That is your job to manage things well so that I’m paid enough to be able to support myself. It is the state and federal government’s responsibility to provide the structure and resources to allow for management of programs. It is the taxpayers’ responsibility to pay their taxes and vote wisely. You may not come back on me and my union that is protecting my rights and tell me that I am responsible for any of this.”

“Furthermore, I will not cheapen the quality and integrity of my field by making it possible for you to allow wages to dip below middle class average and into poverty levels. That will not happen until I see every last one of YOU (administrators, business people, legislators) take the same vow of poverty and give up your free healthcare and your bonuses and your own salaries and the ability to feed your families.”

The insinuation at my bargaining session was that “With all your union rules and your seniority and all your clamoring that you and your colleagues deserve a living wage, you are responsible for bad teachers and also for what’s about to happen.” Again, I reject that because there is nothing in my teacher contract or any other that prevents them from dismissing “bad” teachers. All they have to do is follow the rules of due process. I reject the insinuation that I’m responsible for what’s about to happen because I was not cause any of the school funding and economy issues. I also did not cause you to make management decisions that wasted resources in the past few years when you knew that hard financial times were coming. So all due respect, I am not the problem and I will not be your scapegoat and/or your short term solution. All I’m going to do is continue standing up for myself and my colleagues and do my job UNTIL I can’t afford to do it anymore, even though that may be very soon. Then when I can’t, I won’t be blaming myself. My gaze will be in an entirely different and outward direction.”

“And you can consider my “retirement” and the breaking of the teachers unions a win for yourself and a win for the community and a win for the taxpayers and even a win for children if you’d like, but I’ve got maybe a stack of a hundred or so letters and thank you notes from parents and former students that would beg to differ.”