MAC Week 2 Other-The Veto Pen Saves the Day

As teachers across the state of Florida gritted their teeth and braced for the worst, Charlie Crist stepped in on Thursday afternoon and saved the day with his veto pen in hand. Unfortunately, pundits fired back with insults against teachers suggesting that we don't want to be compensated on our performance like "the private sector" or that we prefer to get paid for "time sitting in our chairs instead of actually improving student performance." The reality is that when you try to tie teacher's pay directly to student test scores, you are tying teacher's pay to someone else's performance, that is affected directly by many factors above and beyond teachers.

How many people would support paying Drs based on the rate of patients who remained healthy? Or dentist on those patients that remained cavity-free? How about we pay firefighters on the number of fires they put out before damage is caused to the structure? Or maybe police officers based on the crime rate? Most politicians would balk at any of the above...including tying their own pay to the success of their legislation, because there are SO many factors outside of their control. Well, are there no factors in education outside a teacher's control? Are there not 18 hours a day where teachers cannot control whether their students get the proper amount of support, nutrition, rest, guidance, and love?


Yes, we need some reform in education. Yes, there are really bad teachers out there and we need to figure out a better way to get rid of them. But for Pete's sake, lets not forget that it takes a village to raise a child, and to pin it all on the teachers, without any implications for the parents, community members and other stakeholders, you will NOT improve student achievement, you will only send teachers another notch down the totem pole and effectively kill any morale that they have left.

So, thank you today to Charlie Crist and his veto pen for understanding that meaningful reform cannot stem from games of "Pin the Blame on the Teachers" but from looking at all the factors that affect a single student's education, and delving out accountability accordingly.