(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is all in for education reform, and his charter school/voucher bill cleared the first legislative hurdle last night.
Jay P. Greene's Blog
With Help From Some Friends
(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is all in for education reform, and his charter school/voucher bill cleared the first legislative hurdle last night.
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
Tying teacher pay to student performance is only fair if wefare payments are tied to child performance. Behavior problems must = lower payments. Failing grades must = lower payments. Or BETTER STILL – Allow teachers to give out behavior tickets. If the parents don’t pay their kid’s tickets, they don’t get their driver’s license renewed. Do these two things and I’LL ACCEPT pay for performance, but UNITL YOU GIVE public school teachers SOME STRENGTH in enforcing classroom behavior, you are basing my pay on too many things over which I have no control!
WHat do you think of that Matt & Jay?
I’m not a fan of merit pay as a reform strategy: http://educationnext.org/blocked-diluted-and-co-opted/
On teachers not currently being free enough to control their classrooms see:
https://jaypgreene.com/2009/05/20/free-to-teach-what-americas-teachers-say-about-teaching-in-public-and-private-schools/
I am a fan of merit pay, and would be happy to give schools the mechanisms to better enforce discipline. If the unions had any sincere desire for such policies, however, they would already be in place.