I Totally Agree BUT.......

.....don't hold your breath waiting for teachers to be rewarded on merit when they work in a system that accepts/rewards mediocrity and failure from many of the students they dump into a competitive society.

National Post Editorial Board: $93,000 is not too much for (good) teachers

Posted: September 04, 2008, 10:00 AM by Kelly McParland

We see nothing wrong with paying the best school teachers generously. So the $93,000 in pay and benefits being offered by the Ontario government to that province’s elementary school teachers does not seem out of line. The improvements to young lives that the best educators can achieve -- and the resulting social benefits, which accrue to society throughout the adult lives of those children -- are worth many times that.

The problem comes when compensation isn’t connected to performance. And this is the case in Ontario. Good teachers, mediocre teachers, even the bad teachers who bounce from school to school avoiding dismissal while they build up seniority -- they would all qualify under Ontario’s pay-hike scheme. Unless and until teacher pay is made merit-based, $93,000 is far too high a price for taxpayers to bear.