The Wake County school board is spending time debating whether or not teachers should receive merit pay for teaching in high-poverty schools, and the source of any funds to pay for that.
What strikes me is that this conversation should be unnecessary. The teaching profession should be infused with competition and a merit pay system that rewards high performers and weeds out low performers. Nothing will help kids more — regardless of the family’s economic situation — than teachers who are incented to perform at high levels and who are rewarded for that performance.
For years, however, the state has focused on the wrong argument. Legislators continue to base their one-size-fits-all teacher salary policy on the misguided idea that North Carolina teachers aren’t paid at the national average. Locke Foundation Education Policy Analyst discusses teacher pay in this Carolina Journal Radio interview.
