[Deb8]

I've been a public school teacher for 30 years. I've heard it all. The problem is simple. The American K-12 model is a socialist one. Think of it this way. The best teacher you ever had in your life and the worst teacher you ever had in your life made the same salary. That's right out of the USSR.

The college model in America is much more free market. A physics prof at Yale makes 5 times the salary of a PE teacher at Florida A&M. That's why foreign students want to study in America at the college level.

A merit program to reward good K-12 teachers and punish the bad ones would require the abolition of tenure and the NEA. Then, allow supply and demand to dictate salary.

[durasell]

We have that model now -- a history teacher in a "good neighborhood" with a high tax base makes significantly more than a teacher in a "bad neighborhood" with a low tax base. Not surprisingly, the teachers in the "good neighborhoods" tend to be better qualified.

So, all teachers do not make the same.

[Clara Lou]

A merit program to reward good K-12 teachers
You're a teacher? Please tell me how you would assess rewards for a high school foreign language teacher or an art teacher at any grade level. Would you tie the reward to assessment? If so, what assessment? A Texas art teacher has no academic effect on any student's TAKS test scores. Would elective teachers even be eligible for rewards in your plan?

[Principled]

A merit program to reward good K-12 teachers and punish the bad ones would require the abolition of tenure and the NEA. Then, allow supply and demand to dictate salary.

How about allowing the market to reward and punish good or bad teachers? It works in University as you noted.

Simply make education competitive. In lieu of property tax, charge tuition. This is obviously problematic WRT poverty kids, but we've already got some really bad problems. The poverty thing can be worked with just like lunches or similarly.

jmho