Letter: Teacher merit pay is a complex issue

Thursday, Nov. 16, 2006 | 7:06 a.m.

Jim Gibbons is to be our new governor and supposedly has a plan to improve education. Although he has not outlined very specific details, he has indicated that he wants to implement a merit pay system as a means of raising teacher salaries. If this plan is to be established, I have a few questions for the governor-elect.

How will he implement merit pay so that it does not become a good-ol'-boy reward system for teachers favored by administrators? What are the criteria that he will use to establish merit raises? Will merit pay raises be given for teachers who publish books and articles related to their subjects of expertise?

Will he reward teachers who strive to improve their expertise with active participation in subject matter association conventions and conferences like the National Science Teachers Association, etc.?

Will this reward system apply only to those whose subjects and students are to be tested by the No Child Left Behind federal mandate? Will merit pay raises be a one-time shot or be a specific raise of, say, $2,000 to be added permanently to a teacher's current contract salary? How much merit pay and how often can an outstanding teacher expect to receive?

I will be very interested in learning the answers to these questions. It is easy to propose merit pay but it will take real planning to ensure that it is applied fairly to all teachers and that all have an opportunity to earn these raises.

Virgil A. Sestini, Las Vegas

Editor's note: The writer is a retired high school biology teacher.