Here's a provocative pay plan for teachers! Whole life commissions!

[Sancho]

We know that more education means higher salaries: http://education.yahoo.net/degrees/articles/featured_more_education_more_money.html

and some want a "business-driven" merit alternative for a pay scale so you could do a commission system (like insurance).

How about everyone providing one percent of their salary every year to go back to their teachers as a fee for success! This would be payroll collected starting whenever you begin working and go in a check from the state or school that you attended and divided up to all your teachers.

Teachers who stayed in the profession for a long time would build up lots of "commissions", and teachers whose students graduated and attended college would get more money. The commissions would automatically be inflation protected as salaries rise with the economy.

Teachers whose students were more successful would earn more and send more commissions back to their original teachers! The more successful the students, the more likely they would be to get more education or at least be more successful adults, and more teachers would be contributing to the salaries. Some teachers might make hugh salaries! What would David Cook's 2nd grade teacher get as 1% of a recording star's salary after he won American Idol?

There would be no "tests" or property taxes, and teachers would be encouraged to teach more students who achieved more success.

Some of you may be thinking - the teachers would just fight to get the smart kids hoping for future economic gain. No way! GW is classic proof that a dumb bunny may make a killing!

You can play with the numbers if you don't like one per cent; pick the amount you think is fair, but that's a way to fund the teacher salaries, reward the best, and avoid property taxes.

(Don't flame me, I didn't think of this all by myself...it is just something for discussion in response to the merit pay folks.)

[ChazII]

1. Interesting thoughts.

Being a teacher, I'd settle for being in the lowest tax bracket based on the current system.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. I think it is outside the box and has a good deal of merit.

This is called "thinking".

I like that sorta thing.

As to the plan ...... I'd be interested in more discussion.

[dysfunctional press]

3. would it be one large fund for ALL schools, or would it be 1% to each school attended?

almost nobody only attends one school throughout their lives.

and- wouldn't bad teachers at some schools be riding the coattails of others?(do gym teachers get an equal cut? what about the janitors- are they in the kitty too?)

and and- would it stop at retirement/disability...? what if i won the lotto- do they get a cut of that income too? are wages and capital gains treated equally? what if david cook's 2nd grade teacher had absolutely no influence on his winning american idol...why should he/she share in the salary?

and also and- how would private/parochial schools be figured into the mix?

[Sancho]

6. I'm not sure about the business details, but commissions seem to get back...

I would guess that a part would go to a retirement plan - just like there are employer contributions from most school districts now.

I would also guess this would be a public system, and that private schools could do a parallel or whatever they want.

Yes, some teachers might benefit from others in the school who were more productive. Of course, that would encourage the teachers in the school to collaborate or improve the weaker teachers and even get rid of the ones who didn't help. It would be a small proportion of each teacher's contribution, but I'd think there would be a long term gain if you worked in a school where everyone did a good job. More student success at that school, and all the teachers would benefit.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. I'm going to kick this again ...... it deserves some discussion

.... and an R

[Marrah_G]

5. My family would be incredibly wealthy if this were the case

My father, an aunt and an uncle all worked for apx 45 years at a public schools in a wealthy Boston suburb.....Oh yeah.... we would be very well off. Even my mother was a substitute teacher when I was in elementary school.

Instead my mom worked part time, we shopped at discount and thrift stores, they made good investments and worked very,very hard to be able to retire comfortably.

Teaching was never a 5 day a week, 5 hour a day job. It was afternoons, weekends, summers. It was coaching, tutoring, class trips....

I don't have one memory of a holiday as a child that my aunt was not grading papers while whatever sports game was on the tube.

My father put everything he had into the kids he taught and he loved every second of it... up until the end when the standardized testing crap started.

[Sancho]

7. A rough estimate?

The lifetime salaries for a HS dropout to professional range from 1 million to over 4 million dollars:

http://www.earnmydegree.com/online-education/learning-center/education-value.html

The contribution of the HS dropout might be $10,000 of the salary earned for a lifetime.

A college graduate with advanced degree might contribute $50,000 of the lifetime salary.

If you taught hundreds of students over 30 years, the total contribution would aggregate and pay fairly for a career of service to teaching.

Maybe there would have to be a vesting time at the beginning of a career for 5 or 10 years where a teacher was on a fixed salary before the commissions kicked in...

I'm not an accountant, so I'm not sure how the commission details would work.

[lumberjack_jeff]

8. Flawed, at best.

Rich school districts turn out lawyers, doctors and bankers.

Poor school districts turn out their clients.

Figure out a way to break that cycle, not reinforce it.

[noamnety]

10. No kidding.

Kids in poverty can't afford to pay for college in the same percentages as those with generational wealth; nor do they have the same business connections. It reinforces institutional racism and classism (as do many proposals I've seen recently).

On top of that, it defines student success by salary - which I am fundamentally opposed to. This assesses a million times more worth to the AIG execs who are raping our country than to a volunteer who lives in poverty but achieves greatness through helping others with wisdom and compassion.

I don't want an incentive to teach my students to be money grubbing assholes who value the dollar over ethics.

[Stargazer09]

15. I was thinking about stay-at-home parents, in addition

to volunteers and others who work for low salaries or no salary at all.

I think the OP had some interesting points, but I also think you're right about it reinforcing racism and classism. The teachers would be fighting tooth and nail to avoid teaching in the school districts that have high levels of dropouts.

[Sancho]

11. That may be true, but...30 to 40 years is a long time....

My father was an MD from Ludowici, Ga! My mother was a professor from Blackville, SC. Remember the rules. Your living expenses would be much less in the "rural" areas; but the reward would be comparatively high. If you lived and taught in the rich towns, you'd also have to pay more to live there. Would it be possible to find and teach good students from "unlikely" places? The whole idea is to break the cycle of rich creating rich and poor staying poor - through education!

hmmm......

everything is flawed, but I wonder what would happen if there were long term rewards?

[KamaAina]

13. Not to mention that special ed teachers would be screwn

70 percent of their students will go on to live on government benefits.

As for the head of the class? I'm a cubicle rat making nearly 40,000 American dollars per annum.

[lumberjack_jeff]

14. Another very good point.

:hi:

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. Excellent! That'll remove what little incentive there already is to teach the poor and inner-city.

If there's one thing I hate, it's the idealistic liberal pussies who think that the poor and inner-city minorities deserve an education.

[noiretextatique]

12. sounds like an unwieldy beauracracy

would be needed to administer the idea. i like another business idea: fire some of the top and middle managers. there is no reason not the run the administrative functions of schools as businesses.
as for teachers...pay increases for all.

[MadHound]

16. Sounds like an accounting and logistical nightmare n/t