Texas School Districts Reject Merit Based Pay

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Texas school districts are abandoning the GOP-pushed program of “merit-based pay” for teachers like rats abandoning a sinking ship:

More than 100 school districts have changed their minds and dropped out of Texas’ new merit pay plan for teachers – leaving just a third of the districts in the state to help launch the $148 million program next year.

While the Dallas Morning news says that “financial concerns” are the reason many ISDs are dropping out, I think we all know the real reason: Texas school districts realize that merit-based pay is a bad idea for educators.

The second reason, financially-based, is that most schools are smart enough to realize that any Republican-backed scheme like this will soon become an unfunded mandate. Although the Legislature appropriated funds for the program in this biennium, there is no guarantee that the state funding will be there in the future. Realizing this, schools are saying, “thanks, but no thanks,” because they don’t want to be stuck with hefty bills for a program of debatable merit in the future.

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