Please revisit this issue when your daughter has been teaching for five years. Listen to her tell you how much she enjoys being underpaid, disrespected, and unsupported. How many teachers have you talked to about this? Or do you just listen to what reporters tell you? Hearing and reporting both sides is core value.

As a teacher of 15 years, I'm offended by the thought of merit pay. I try to provide my students with solid instruction daily, but have to deal with disrespectful, disruptive, uninterested, entitled children that don't see they must participate in their education to make it successful. There are a lot of good teachers out there that don't have high test scores because students come to school day after day without classwork, homework, books, pencils, etc. (even though they are provided at no cost if needed); students that disrupt and disrespect on a regular basis; students that see no value in their education because none is placed on it at home....when did schools become social services instead of places of education?? Why are teachers now responsible to teach manners, discipline and respect before (and constantly during) being able to teach content?? When did the parents become so uninvolved in their own children?? I relate merit pay of teacher to the idea of merit pay for doctors. If you are told by your doctor to take medicine and exercise, and you don't - should the doctor be blamed and paid less when you die of a sudden heartattack? Children and parents pulling their weight in their own education should be a 'core value.' You will be hard-pressed to find a child that is pulling their weight in their own education that is not succeeding....