The July 3rd Washington Post (Page B1) ran a story entitled Rhee Seeks Tenure_Pay Swap for Teachers; Giving Up Seniority Would Boost Salary If Benchmarks Met. D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee is proposing a new contract whereby teachers now earning $62,000 yearly can earn $100,000, if they voluntarily give up seniority and tenure rights. Under her proposal the school system would establish two pay tiers, red and green. Teachers in the red tier would keep tenure and receive minimal traditional yearly raises. Teachers who go voluntarily into the green tier would receive thousands of dollars in bonuses and raises.
The green teachers would be reviewed yearly and allowed to keep their jobs only if their students’ test scores increased. It’s a no-brainer that green teachers will inevitably lie, cheat and steal to raise those scores by any means possible. If one’s salary and job depend on the scores rising, the grades will increase come hell or high water. I’m sure that going green will be completely voluntary, with absolutely no pressure from principals and administrators to switch over from red.
Rhee proclaims that her contract would “revolutionize education as we know it.” Education experts assert that D.C. teachers would be among the highest paid educators in the nation under Rhee’s plan and that a proposal eliminating tenure and seniority would be groundbreaking.
Rhee is undoubtedly banking on the fact that many rookies, novices and Teach for America missionaries will happily sign on to the scheme without knowing any better. The neophytes think that they will only last a year to two in the system anyway, so why not take the money and run. The youngsters will not mind going without pensions or medical plans, working to six o’clock daily, forgoing summers off or teaching on Saturdays. In May, 2007 July Rhee even mentioned in an interview about gearing and structuring the education system for professionals who will remain in teaching for only a few years, prior to exiting for other more lucrative vocations. Her idea is undoubtedly to model teaching after private industry. In business, management takes young salesmen,; burns them out in a few years; fires them; and hires new salesmen.
What is really disturbing about this article is that it may well be a harbinger of things to come in NYC. Rhee was Klein’s protégé and assistant for several years before moving on to D.C., even helping negotiate the givebacks in our recent contracts. Our beloved Chancellor is undoubtedly well aware of her proposal. Ending tenure and busting the UFT have always been goals dear to his heart.
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Maybe Rhee's plan could be enhanced by offering the top teacher a brand new Cadillac, and the 2nd from top teacher a brand new set of steak knives. The remaining teachers , of course, would then be summarily fired. This way, all teachers would know that they have to either raise their students' test scores, or "hit the bricks".
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