The Issue: Whether merit-based pay would help keep good teachers in the NYC public-school system.
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“Merit Pay Matters” (Editorial, Aug. 2) highlights a fundamental flaw that has persisted in the US public-school system for decades — that being a lack of merit incentives for union teachers.
Solutions exist, but the nagging problem remains — the powerful teachers unions, which produce harmful disincentives that reduce teacher performance.
Reforming the unions from within has been nothing short of an abject failure.
If merit increases work and our children’s education is the No. 1 goal, then the public needs to get behind an increased use of charter schools.
If teachers unions continue to berate the use of merit-based pay increases, talented teachers will continue to leave, no matter how much they love teaching.
Can you blame them?
Brad Strang
Cincinnati, Ohio
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Are we to infer from your editorial that retiring teachers are all bad?
The only reason why people retire or just leave the New York City school system is that they have had it with the complete lack of discipline and with the principals — especially those who never taught a day.
You wouldn’t have to consider merit pay if you instilled discipline in the schools.
If you took the teachers from our top schools and placed them in the most difficult schools, they wouldn’t last an hour.
They could never take the outrageous behavior that teachers in these schools have to put up with.
No matter how much money you pump into New York City’s schools, the results will continue to be the same until you establish a zero-tolerance policy for disciplinary infractions.
Ed Greenspan
Brooklyn