Do you support merit pay for teachers?

HB: This is difficult because of the politics involved in the school system. If you end up a favorite of the principal you automatically get favored treatment. You can have merit pay, but you have to find an objective standard.

MB: We must have school-based merit pay determined by performance to reward those who do the best job as evidenced by increased student achievement. We don’t pay the good teachers enough and it’s too difficult to get rid of the bad ones. An across-the-board salary increase for teachers is also warranted, with any and all savings from efficiencies in the contracts with the teachers, staff and facilities being used to increase their compensation, but the public has a right to get good schools in return. And we should pay teachers more for working in shortage areas.

FF: To me, merit pay is a side issue. It answers the question of how to incent the best teachers but does not address how we remove poor performers, provide quality professional development to all of the force or recruit and retain the best teachers. I believe that we must reform the school system to give principals the latitude to make sure that excellent teachers are brought on board and incompetent teachers shown the door—quickly and fairly. It should not take years to rid our classrooms of poor teachers. I have proposed a 30 percent salary increase for teachers to ensure they stay with us after we have trained them. It will be funded by offsets in spending at 110 Livingston Street.

MG: I think there are too many variables to determine which individuals are to receive merit increases. Instead, NYC must shrink the salary gap with the suburbs and offer ‘incentive pay’ to teachers who a) serve as mentors to junior colleagues, b) get extra credentials and training, c) choose to work in tougher schools and d) are rewarded for school-wide improvement. But in exchange, teachers need to spend more hours at the school with a workday that includes time for school team meetings and real professional development that doesn’t cut into regular instructional hours.

AH: I don’t support merit pay competition. It is too hard to quantify teachers performance, especially with the variability among students. These is a proposal for merit pay by buildings which the union has indicated a willingness to consider. I think the union would go for bonuses for master teachers, or for teachers who volunteer to go into the tougher schools. You get better teachers by paying them more and treating them as professionals. Every secretary has a phone, teachers don’t get phones. Why can’t we provide apartments, or subsidize mortgages?

PV: We need to have a qualified teacher in every classroom. But in order to attract and retain qualified teachers, we must fix our current teacher pay system. I took an important first step in that direction by implementing the NYC Teach Program, which provides tuition fee breaks or loans for graduate school students who commit to teaching in city schools for three years. As Mayor, I would negotiate in good faith to ensure that we do all we can to pay teachers what they are worth.

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