NEA to Revisit Performance Pay

From the latest Education Intelligence Agency communique (www.eiaonline.com).  It's jaw-dropping how far behind the times the NEA remains...

NEA to Revisit Performance Pay. Seven years have passed since the National Education Association debated a change in direction on the issue of performance pay, and the results were the exact opposite of what the leadership had hoped for. Now, NEA President Reg Weaver has asked the union's Professional Standards and Practices Committee to reexamine the issue, in an effort to allow the national union to aid its state affiliates in helping design and implement such plans.

 

As the union's current policy stands, NEA is forbidden to provide assistance to any state or local affiliate that either wants, or wants to negotiate provisions of, a performance pay plan. NEA Resolution F-9 reads, in part:

 

"The Association opposes providing additional compensation to attract and/or retain education employees in hard-to-recruit positions.

 

"The Association also believes that local affiliates can best promote the economic welfare of all education employees, regardless of source of funding, by following the salary standards developed at the state and national levels.

 

"The Association further believes that performance pay schedules, such as merit pay or any other system of compensation based on an evaluation of an education employee's performance, are inappropriate."

 

When former NEA President Bob Chase attempted to alter the performance pay language at the union's 2000 representative assembly, the delegates delivered a stinging rebuke, and actually strengthened the protections of the single-salary schedule.

 

Weaver's assignment of the task to the Professional Standards and Practices Committee appears to be an attempt to work out a consensus in advance that would not place the national union in favor of performance pay, but would remove NEA from an awkward hands-off position when the issue arises. Unfortunately for Weaver, there is no evidence that the sentiment among those who crafted the current language at the 2000 convention has changed in any way. Weaver, however, is term-limited out in 2008 and may be willing to face that opposition if it comes.