Apparently Governor Walker is getting heat for these comments.
When asked whether he would encourage a relative with a teaching degree to seek employment in Wisconsin or Minnesota, Walker said Wisconsin.
“They don’t have to wait 20 years to be able to succeed,” Walker said. “If they’re a great teacher and they’ve got great incentive to perform they can get a high-quality teaching job anywhere in the state of Wisconsin and they can get rewarded for that and not have to wait to build years of seniority.”
Walker said school districts can set pay based on performance and hire based on merit.
“It’s about putting the best and the brightest in the classroom,” Walker said. “If someone is an exceptional talent and wants to go into education, they can be rewarded for that.”
When asked whether he thought such incentive-driven salary programs would be a hindrance to allowing school districts to keep quality teachers, Walker compared teaching to being a player in the NFL.
“If the Green Bay Packers pay people to perform and if they perform well on their team, (the Packers) pay them to do that,” Walker said. “They don’t pay them for how many years they’ve been on the football team. They pay them whether or not they help (the Packers) win football games.”
Walker said Wisconsin school districts can pay either a fresh college graduate or a 25-year veteran based solely on performance.
“Most businesses outside of government, that’s how they operate as well,” Walker said.
I understand that measuring merit (or even defining what constitutes “good”) is subjective given the nature of the job, but that is true of many jobs. After all, someone thinks that Jay Cutler is good enough to deserve a massive contract. But is there something inherently wrong with the notion that good teachers should be able to be paid more than crappy teachers?
But football players ARE paid according to seniority (Veteran Cap). There is also minimum salary the NFL uses.
I think that having a bonus system is a better way to phrase the system. There has to be a way to come up with a flexible formula that includes student attendance, beginning and ending test scores, district, peer review, maybe even student review? etc.
My wife is an administrator at a charter school, has been through the public school system (good one too, not MPS). We both lean VERY far into the democratic arena. But even I think that the pension system should go away and should be replaced by some sort of 401K retirement system.
I don’t like Walker personally. I think he is a bit more weasel-y than the average slimy politician. But why don’t we pay our governor based on results and campaign promises made?