It's Too Bad....

That I only get to write to the Editor of the News-Graphic here in Wisconsin only once every 30 days.  But first:

The Beer:  I am sipping on a "Scottish Wee Heavy" that is both beautiful and delicious.

The Bicycle:  I am cleaning up and making space for the trainer so I can get back up and start training on the bike again for Spring (it's not THAT far away).

The VRWC:  Tim Schilke has a column (which is currently only in the dead-tree edition) in the News-Graphic in which he decries the idea of merit pay.  He seems to think that crony-ism will reign and we will be left with not the best teachers, but those who maintain the best relationship with their evaluator.  Notwithstanding that it will be the exception rather than the rule, I guess he thinks that would be worse than the current system of colluding to rape the taxpayer.

As examples of why merit pay won't work, he brings out the well-worn Leftist saga of the financial industry and morgage-backed securities, while failing to point out that it is collusion with government that brought about those failures, not "merit pay"  There is no logical linkage.  None.

How does he think automatic pay increases incentivize teachers?  He doesn't say.  But experience shows that automatic pay increases (along with bigger and prettier schools, more computers and technology and fewer students in the classroom) have done nothing to improve education.  What's the old saw about insanity?

Try something different.  If merit pay doesn't work, try something else.  Public schools are a failure and Tim Schilke's education in it is evidence thereof.