| These are exactly the reasons why many teachers' unions and educational organizations are against merit pay. It unfairly values some educational categories (i.e., math and science) over others (music and art). And the teachers who choose to go into one field over the other because of love and skill end up getting shafted.
Besides that, merit pay has racial and socioeconomic backlashes too. Schools in poor neighborhoods are more likely to have failing students on national exams. Merit pay will cause teachers to go flocking from the schools that really need them to suburban schools that will give them extra pay for the high-achieving students there. African American and Latino/a children also score lower on tests than white and Asian students, so the teachers who teach these disadvantaged groups will be at a disadvantage themselves.
I'm not saying that the concept of merit pay isn't a good one, but there needs to be careful consideration into how its handled. |