Teachers' Merit Pay

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President Barrak Obama’s administration has come up with a solution to the teacher merit pay problem. The administration has stated that this program will give teachers the incentive they need to perform at the top notch quality the nation wants (Gratz). Teachers all around the United States have had issues with the new proposal but they have also found it very beneficial. Merit pay for teachers will largely be based off test scores, which means the students will have a large impact on the teacher’s career. So the question is will this be good for teachers or will it harm their careers? Although this seems like it could be beneficial to the students and the staff, the long term effects could be disastrous on the entirety of the whole educational system.
Merit Pay “a raise in pay based on a set of criteria set by the employer” (Secretary of Labor Perez) has been on many teachers minds as of late. Many questions were raised when the topic came up for debate at the NEA (National Education Association) meeting two years ago. President Obama created a Race to the Top fund that raised 4.3 billion dollars to create the Merit pay program (Rosales). This program will help states be able to have the funds to provide good teachers with the bonuses they deserve and the salaries they need. It is common knowledge that teachers are severely underpaid. This program will create new opportunities for teachers to get the pay they deserve. Also, this program will make sure the teachers focus on being more productive to receive these bonuses. Teachers must think creatively and entice the students to want to do well on their tests.
The premise for this whole ordeal is to get America back on top of the education race. China is rapidly progressing fast...

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...heir students, the nation should really make sure the leaders of the future have more incentive to work at a good rate. The New York Times wrote an article about how teachers in their major suburban areas are making six figures. The requirements though are they have to be the most experienced at their job and have the most education (Fessenden and Barbanel).
In short, teacher merit pay will have great causes but not enough positive benefits. The Obama Administration needs to set something up to where paying teachers is on a fair and safe system. If President Obama is not willing to proceed with this fundamental program and fix it then it will be the duty of the Congress and the net Presidential Administration to take on this great challenge. It may still be an issue in years to come but hopefully the problem with teacher merit pay will be fixed in a timely manner.

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