By Bill Mattox, JMI Resident Fellow
Butler University basketball coach Brad Stevens is about to get a fat pay increase – and maybe even a better job – for leading his Bulldogs on an improbable post-season run to the national championship game for the first time in school history.The fact that upstart Butler narrowly lost the title game to perennial powerhouse Duke won’t prevent Stevens from cashing in. Nor should it. What Stevens did this year with his lightly-regarded recruits was nothing short of amazing. All of which begs the question . . . why don’t good teachers get the same opportunities afforded good basketball coaches? When good teachers help their students make significant progress in the classroom, shouldn’t they be compensated for their success?Thankfully, some forward-looking leaders in Florida (and elsewhere) have been developing merit pay plans that reward good teachers for spurring student progress in the classroom. These performance-based pay proposals have a lot of merit. One might even say that linking teacher pay to student progress is a slam dunk.
2010
