Most School Districts Decline Merit Based Pay

It should come as no surprise to anyone that seasoned education officials across the state have rejected out of hand one of the worst education policy debacles forced upon the people of Texas by the Republican-dominated legislature in the last three sessions–merit-based teacher pay:

More than half of Texas’ school districts have rejected an offer to participate in the state’s new merit pay plan for teachers, leaving more money on the table for the 442 districts – including Dallas – that want a piece of the $148 million program.

Gee, I wonder why. Of course, TEA has a scapegoat at the ready:

“Some districts may have opted not to apply because they have another merit pay plan already in place, or they may have decided they are unable to put up the local matching funds required to participate,” said Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency.

Essentially, TEA’s strategy is, “blame the legislature; they wrote the law.” The reality, however, is that school districts aren’t participating in the programs because their teachers don’t want it, and they realize it is not sound education policy.

And, you can expect the numbers of schools participating to drop even more:

Richard Kouri of the Texas State Teachers Association said the number of participating districts may decline once campus votes are held later this year to determine whether teachers want merit pay at their school. A majority no vote by teachers at a campus would kill the program there.

“I think you’re going to see the number of districts participating drop after they start holding those votes,” he said.

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