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1. I didn't say all schools, I said "many schools" and it is a fact that many schools have been and are successful without merit pay. In fact, when you take out schools in poverty, our scores are much more competitive with other countries. This makes it pretty obvious that merit pay isn't the issue. Merit pay and "bad teachers" are a distraction from the actual problems and it's a shame that people with good intentions focus on them.
2. Why is that?
3. What do you mean? I surely hope you aren't blaming teachers for the failure of an entire system. And if you aren't, then I would hope you have some research that isolates Chicago teacher performance and demonstrates its "inadequacy."
You and I have had this circle jerk before.
The teachers are never the only problem, but they are rarely exempt from the problem in its entirety.
When the district as a whole performs at the bottom of the U.S. rankings (out of several tens of thousands of districts) then everybody in that district is in some way accountable for those failings. Rewarding teachers who abandon students in the middle of the school year, systematically removing checks and balances that hold teachers accountable for the performance of their students, and systematically removing incentives for better educator performance will solve exactly zero of the problems that have led Chicago's schools to be such a dismal failure.
So in that sense, I guess both the union and those who conceded are equally to blame for these failings.
When the biggest concern of the union is destroy incentives and promoting baseless raises, it says a lot about what the teachers themselves concern themselves with. So who's advocating for the students here, really? Who's actually trying to advance their education and broaden their horizons? 'Cause near as I can tell, the students were an afterthought in these negotiations.
The teachers wanted more for themselves (when they're already the highest paid in the country). The city wanted more for themselves. Who actually spoke for the students here?