by Peter Stern

Created on: March 21, 2010

Teach Incentive Plans are a Bust

Who needs incentives?

Since when is it necessary to provide teachers with incentives to teach?

Personally, I have had experience in the two worlds of business and education.   In business, I was director of information services in government and the private sector.   As a former teacher, school administrator and university professor, I am insulted by the attempt at the national and state levels to “bribe” professional educators to teach our children “better.”

In fact, all teachers should be insulted and outraged by this latest legislative absurdity.

For example, here in Texas legislators and business leaders determined that teachers should be paid incentives to improve student performance, thereby achieving success in school.  It was doomed for failure and it continues to fail.

Teaching is NOT an industrial assembly line position in which the more pieces you finish, the more you earn.  The whole honorable point of becoming a teacher is that you want to plant a positive educational foundation and a love for learning into each student you teach and then to increase each child’s knowledge in ongoing increments so he or she may move toward a successful future with a positive work ethic.

Furthermore, if the states would provide professional qualified teachers with a professional salary and benfits, there would be no need to complement the salary with incentives for additional teacher income.

Follow that up with a more intelligent and productive methodology for improving learning outcomes than the current “pass-the-state-exam” mentality.

Another priority for successful teaching and improving learning outcome must be smaller teacher to student classroom ratios.  Studies have proven that teachers and students succeed when classroom populations are smaller and more manageable.

The whole idea of incentives for teachers is ludicrous.

Legislators, business leaders and educational administrators, along with parents, had better review their priorities and educational reality before giving teachers an incentive program.  Maybe these folks are NOT the ones who should decide how to improve public education, since for the past several decades they have been unsuccessful in doing so.

An incentive plan for teachers is irresponsible and inappropriate thinking and it sends a negative message about the honorable field of teaching.  Treating teachers poorly ensures that top quality candidates opt to leave education in search for better jobs, less stress and more pay.

If we want to start an incentive program, perhaps we should start one by giving legislators incentives for each intelligent proposal they come up with.

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