Pay up! Merit pay won't solve school issues

Here's an idea: Let's say workers at Mohawk Golf Course only get raises this year if golfers there score better than golfers at Page Belcher.

Let's keep it competitive. If Page Belcher golfers shoot more sub-par rounds than Mohawk folks, the pro over there gets a bump.

A few too many bogies, and he's out of luck.

To add more incentive, let's put in some bonus options: 10 bucks in the pocket of the course pro for every hole-in-one anyone shoots.

Sound crazy?

So is merit pay for teachers.

Unmerited idea: The run-government-like-a-business folks are once again suggesting phony ''free market'' ideas for public schools.

If my teachers work harder and their students do better, they should get paid better, the merit pay argument goes.

The idea seems to be especially appealing to legislators from suburbs, where students consistently do better on standardized tests.

Funny how suburbs have all the good teachers.

Funny and false.

In fact, there are as many hard-working, qualified and dedicated teachers in Tulsa as Jenks.

Jenks students do better in standardized test scores. But that's not because the district has better teachers.

If you can measure teaching by test results then you can measure the greenskeepers by the number of birdies on his course.

Jenks consistently does better on standardized tests because it has fewer students moving in and out of classes, more involved parents, fewer immigrants with language barriers and, in general, better opportunities.

Merit pay would only exacerbate the inequity of opportunities, because good teachers would be lured out of challenged schools.

The rich get richer, and the poor get children.

The Nutmeg State solution: When he was a graduate student at Yale, my brother-in-law taught part time at the University of Connecticut.

One day he asked another instructor what was up with a certain group of high-achieving students.

Oh, the instructor said, those are the students from the Education College.

In 1986, faced with bad standardized test results and other troubling indicators, Connecticut's legislature passed a revolutionary mandate: a $20,000 minimum teacher salary.

Before that, the state had teachers earning as little as $11,000 a year and the best teachers were being lured away to other states.

The turnaround was quick. Connecticut's education colleges started attracting brighter would-be teachers, and were able to raise the minimum academic standards for education majors. The state raised the standards for people applying for teaching credentials.

More money brought brighter kids and higher standards.

Connecticut's schools still have many of the same problems that Oklahoma's schools do, but does anyone think that having smarter, better-qualified teachers won't improve whatever problems schools face?

In 2005-6, the average teacher's salary in Connecticut was $59,304, second only to California.

As a result, Connecticut lures the best teachers away from Rhode Island and New York.

In Oklahoma, the average teacher earned $38,772. In Texas, it's $41,744.

Where would you go to work if you were a talented young teacher?

If you want better golf courses, you have to pay the pros.

Wayne Greene 581-8308 wayne.greene@tulsaworld.com