Merit Pay Gets on the Ballot

Oregon will be voting on merit pay for the teachers soon. Bill Sizemore, a political activist in Oregon, is working to get this passed. He feels

"The goal is simply to move teacher pay and job security to some kind of performance related basis rather than seniority," "All I want is to ensure is that they keep the best teachers, not necessarily the teachers who have been there the longest."

Shouldn’t the best teachers be rewarded for their hard work? Shouldn’t we strive to get the best teachers in the field and keep them there? Why should a teacher be paid more just because they have been teaching for longer? They should be paid for the results not years worked. Perhaps, it would encourage the average teachers to step up to the plate and become amazing. The teachers not only deserve it, but so do the children. The children suffer when the bad teachers are still teaching only because they have been doing it for years. The children suffer when they are not being taught by the best teachers. Lets do what is right for the kids!