Under Measure 95's "merit pay" system, teachers' salaries would be dangled in front of them as a prize for their students' grades. But the measure fails to define precisely how student performance will be gauged.
It is left to be assumed, reasons Tom Husted of the Beaverton Education Association, that performance would be measured by standardized test scores or grades.
"Usually we try to help schools that are doing poorly," says Husted. It is likely, he continues, that under Measure 95, teachers would abandon schools in low-income neighborhoods--as those districts commonly score lower on standardized tests--or even flee the profession altogether.
The measure has left everyone from Governor Kitzhaber to school administrators and the AFL-CIO so concerned that they have built an ad hoc coalition, Oregonians Against Unfair Schemes for Our Schools, to fight the measure head-on. Morgan Allen, a spokesperson for the coalition, believes that "[Measure 95] is an experiment and our kids are the guinea pigs." He is concerned about how teachers of courses beyond standard math and English will be judged. "Are we going to test learning disabled kids?" he asks. "What about art and music classes? Physical education?"
When asked to shed some light on concerns surrounding Measure 95, Becky Miller, Executive Assistant to Oregon Taxpayers, refused several requests for interviews. "Our organization doesn't talk to people like you," she said. "The people on our side probably don't read your paper anyway," she added bluntly.
