In his State of the State address this week, King Andy Cuomo proposed that New York should develop a merit pay system that would allow the state’s “highly effective” teachers to earn bonuses of “up to $20,000”.  He didn’t specify where the money would come from, nor did he mention that merit pay has been tried many places across the country over the last century and has always failed to have any impact on student learning.  But why should King Andy worry about pesky things like research and facts when deciding what to force onto the peasants of his kingdom?  You can be sure by “highly effective” he means teachers who score the best on the infamously flawed, junk science APPR that he helped force into place.  Also note that “up to $20,000” can be as little as $1.00.  Something tells me that this isn’t the sort of deal that would be good for the large numbers of great educators across our state.

One teacher has already started this petition, asking legislators to reject Cuomo’s proposal.  Head on over and sign it.  Thanks to Rob Pearl for the link.

Diane Ravitch wrote today about teachers in Massachusetts who rejected merit pay that they were being given from the Gates Foundation.