During Saturday's "Saddleback civil forum" with candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, pastor Rick Warren asked a single education question. (That he asked an education question at all was probably viewed as a major victory by Ed in '08.)
80 percent of Americans recently polled said they believe in merit pay. Now, for teachers, do you--I'm not asking do you think all teachers should get a raise. Do you think better teachers should be paid better? They should be paid more than poor teachers?
What a lame question. Not because merit pay isn't important, or because there aren't differences between the candidates. (Obama basically said "maybe" and McCain basically said "yes.")
It's lame because it has almost nothing to do with federal education policy. The program that all of this merit pay pandering is about--the Teacher Incentive Fund--provides $100 million per year to a handful of school districts. That's one-quarter of one percent of the federal K-12 budget. To be sure, this program has been an important driver of innovation, but it's tiny, and it impacts just a slender number of American schools.
What's especially disappointing is that Warren asked a number of interesting questions on other topics. ("Who are the three wisest people you know?" "What was the greatest moral failure in your life?" "Does evil exist?")
So moderators, if you want to ask interesting, consequential questions on education, try these:
1. How would you define a "failing school"?
2. How do you think most failing schools got to be that way?
3. What should the federal government do, if anything, about these failing schools?
Honest answers to these questions would provide keen insights into the candidates' positions on accountability, on the question of forces outside of schools' control, and on their thinking regarding the appropriate federal role in education. We'll be listening.
