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Teaching is challenging. When they were compelled to serve as substitute teachers around kitchen tables during COVID, the majority of parents quickly discovered that. Attempting to teach their children mixed fractions has caused some parent substitutes to tear their hair out, leaving them with bald areas. Now consider attempting to instruct thirty children simultaneously.
Politicians come up with terrible, rehashed ideas every few years that make teaching even more difficult. These concepts frequently lack common sense and are heavy on hyperbole.
Usually, an appointed task team comes up with these rehashed, outdated ideas, so when they don’t resonate with the people, politicians aren’t held accountable.
It is occurring once more.
Governor Kim Reynolds launched her version of DOGE in December. Its claimed objective is to increase the effectiveness of government. The committee, which was primarily made up of businesses, came up with forty-five proposals. Public education was immediately impacted by three proposals, and warning alarms began to sound.
DOGE suggested that teacher compensation be merit-based, or performance-based. Second, they suggest that the Iowa Public Employees Retirement System (IPERS) be discontinued and replaced with a 401(k) plan for newly hired public servants. Third, they suggest bringing public employees’ health care into line with private sector standards.
In addition to exacerbating the already dire teacher shortage, all three of these unoriginal ideas will make senior educators look for a way out. Every time business types decide that education should function like a company, these concepts come up.
However, they are mistaken.
Profit is not the driving force behind the public education industry. Maderna Community College’s Lon Watters put it best. The school is a four-walled structure that contains the future. The purpose of teachers is to assist pupils in realizing their future.
I will just focus on one of the terrible concepts in this essay. They call it merit pay. It ought to be referred to as subjective pay. Before public sector collective bargaining was enacted in 1974, the head football coach at many schools was the teacher with the most merit. Because they weren’t seen as the head of the household, women were paid less than males. If there was any consistency in pay, it was because the school board permitted collective begging, which made it subjective and arbitrary.
The greatest staff development programs don’t teach teachers as much as one another. Teachers will compete rather than work together as a result of merit compensation. There will be a cap on the number of teachers who can get merit pay if salary savings are the main objective.
Teachers and administrators have no control over the final result, in contrast to businesses. Everyone who knocks on the door is welcomed at public schools. Schools are similar to Forrest Gump’s chocolate box in that you can never predict what will be inside. That is teaching’s delight and anguish.
What does merit mean, and how is it quantified? Standardized examinations are the metric used in the majority of merit pay programs. The teacher must be performing well if the kids reach a particular score or if they get better on each test. It’s simple and quick. It isn’t.
Standardized tests, at most, gauge a student’s performance on a certain day. It is frequently fuzzy because it is a snapshot. There are some subjects that are never tested. Teachers have little control on the surroundings of their students. Did they sleep well, eat a satisfying meal, and travel to school in peace and quiet? How do they feel, and do they take testing seriously?
Public schools resemble tiny communities. Buildings are teeming with many characters and issues. The local police officer or firefighter is not compensated based on the number of arrests they make or the speed at which they extinguish a fire. We are aware that’s ridiculous.
Let’s make it clear that we do not want our professional teachers to be compensated subjectively. They already have a difficult job.
Before retiring, Bruce Lear served as an Iowa State Education Association Regional Director for 27 years, representing educators during his 11 years of teaching.Gmail: BruceLear2419
