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Mack Zuckerberg founder of Facebook gave a grant of $100 million to Newark Schools. He donated the money based on the understanding that a reform agenda including innovative teacher assessment methods and charter schools will be set in place soon by the city.

Recently President Obama announced a grant of $442 million as merit pay for teachers across district schools which will be disbursed in the form of teacher incentive programs. His administration’s goals were dovetailed by the announcement of the merit pay plan by Gov. Chris Christie during his visit to the Old Bridge.

Surprisingly, a common set of reforms have been initiated by a political coalescence between the Liberals formed by our President, Oprah Winfrey and Corey Booker, Mayor of Newark and the Conservatives including Gov. Chris Christie and school voucher and choice movements. These reforms include merit pay for teachers, charter school reforms and closure of schools that are failing miserably.

The bottom line here is our children are at the receiving end of a system that is fast failing. Our higher education scenario is certainly not what it was just a few years ago. Proposals put forth by our so called reformers do nothing but shift around resources and lead our public education to failure by stripping it of essential support.
  
There have been increasing dropouts and a drastic reduction in America student’s performance in the math and science tests.  This is predominantly due to bad schools and bad teachers. There is an effort to change education for the better by shutting down badly performing schools, making changes to the tenure and paying and forcing schools to compete with each other.

There is certainly no evidence that supports claims by reformers that merit pay will enhance teaching quality and thereby student performance. According to experts, teacher bonuses did not have any significant impact on student performance.

A research in fact was conducted by the Vanderbilt University’s National Center on Performance Incentives. At least 300 middle school students and teachers were used for this study that spanned three years. According to researchers, merit pay incentive programs failed this test.

The study conclusively established that student outcomes were not improved by bonus pay alone. According to Ms. Downey the National Center on Performance Incentive’s executive director, it is time to debate and find solutions that are more nuanced.

Based on this study, it is obvious that ideologues and politician’s simplistic approach will not be effective enough in making a significant different to teaching quality. The impact of charter schools on public school systems has been categorically ignored with assumptions that charter schools are more effective.

Money taken away from public schools has made its way into these entities with a clear approach that is market driven. Students are left behind with little or no money left for the public schools.

It has become a norm for reformers to shout out their disapprovals as this is the only way by which they can put their points across. Real reform is all about spending money to buy new textbooks, fixing buildings and hiring teachers.