GET MERIT-BASED PAY FOR TEACHERS, GET MILLIONS IN GRANT MONEY

LETTER TO THE EDITOR PUBLISHED MARCH 10, 2010Get innovative, Get Merit-based pay for Teachers, Get the Millions in Grant Money
In response to your Saturday article: “Gov., Denish Square Off” over New Mexico’s failure to qualify as a finalist for millions in federal education grant money, I take issue not only with our state leaders’ finger pointing over the failure to secure the grant in the first round but also with the Albuquerque Teachers Federation President who apparently worked against our application in a letter criticizing it. According to your article, Union President Ellen Bernstein…. “was concerned that the grant, as written, would add additional needless testing and paperwork to the work of classroom teachers.”

Despite Bernstein’s concern about “needless testing,” testing is an excellent measure of a student’s achievement and, therefore, a teacher’s performance in the classroom. I believe in testing students and basing teachers’ salaries on their performance in the classroom. I suggest that the Public Education Department (PED) heed the New Mexico State Senate’s wishes in Senate Memorial 38 that I sponsored and work with educators and teachers’ unions to design an innovative merit-based pay program that rewards successful teachers and more easily allows those who fail our students to be fired.

The second round of applications for the federal Race to the Top money are due June 1. It is critical that PED Secretary Veronica Garcia re-examine what was included in the state’s first application, especially how student and teacher performance related to merit awards in New Mexico. Such an examination could reveal whether the state is on track for an innovative merit-based teacher pay system that would benefit our students and also make us competitive in a second round of applications for the Race to the Top educational grant program where millions are available for schools that demonstrate innovative reforms.

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